The two end nails/screws into the short c.j. The weakest spot would be the short ceiling joists where the larger drywall is fastened to the main room ceiling-8’ or 12’ long. Then drywall applied in it’s spread condition with the latest movement because of the loading with the layers of old roofing added, and no ties to hold it stable. Without proper rafter ties at construction, the other wall could have moved outward when the roofing material was stocked. I would sight for straight the other side of the house's fascia board (opposite of the crack on main roof). The rest of the drawing would help.īecause of it's proximity to the wall, is there a smaller piece (1' rip) nailed to the shorter ceiling joists, and a larger piece, 8' or 12' nailed to the common house ceiling joists? Is that a building ell where the roof framing has a valley? If so, the wall is not moving outward against 20' of right-angle wall with shear sheathing, abutting. But I'm wondering who would be experienced in something like this? A roofer? A general contractor? Would a pro typically have some type of insurance that would protect me if something went wrong like the rafters being damaged? Maybe a mending plate could be placed on either side of the rafter to help prevent the possibility of a split ? Īt some point I might just want to bail out and have a pro take over for this task. And maybe I'm paranoid but it seems like it could be possible for the rafter to split if the force is too great. I'm just wondering what affect drilling a hole into the bottom of a rafter will have on the strength of the rafter. Is there some software that can do the math for me? If I were a mathematician I might attempt to figure this out. However a gable beam is intersecting the problem area so that seems like it would make it tricky to calculate the forces. I can understand how the force could be calculated. The engineer's idea was to apply the force to just the rafter that is above ceiling location where the crack first appeared. What would you do? My diagram is not complete but it hopefully is to explain the situation. ![]() But I can't help think that it would be better to first pull in the rafter some and then install the bracing beam while it's under tension. Maybe I should just leave well enough alone and simply put the 2X4 bracing in and hope the problem will stop. There would also be the danger of the cable snapping and causing serious bodily harm. Perhaps great enough to rip the connection point out of the rafter and cause serious damage the rafter. The force needed to close the crack could be great. The connection point would need to be at the bottom of each rafter. I'm interested in closing the crack but am at a loss as to how to go about connecting a cable to the opposing rafters. The crack is about 1/16th of an inch wide. The engineer also suggested the option of attaching a cable to two opposing rafters and using a cable puller to attempt to pull the rafter together just enough to close or partially close the ceiling crack. He also suggested installing rafter ties which I am planning on doing. That should hopefully prevent any further spreading out. The structural engineer suggested laying another 2X4 over the joists in the affected area. I'd like to repair the crack in the ceiling. ![]() I had the old roof torn off last year and now there is just one layer of shingles so the excess weight should not a problem any more. The area above the crack does not have a 2X4 brace immediately over the attic joists. My roof had three layers of shingles bearing down and we believe this excess weight has over time caused the wall to be pushed out a fraction of an inch which has caused cracks in the ceiling. ![]() 2X4s are laid flat and nailed across the attic rafters to provide bracing against the outward force of the roof pressing down. Most roofs use attic joist that run parallel to the rafters but in my roof the attic joists are perpendicular to the rafters. After three visits from two different structural engineers I think the cause of the cracks has been identified. It's about five feet long, surrounded by hairline cracks and is about a foot from the the wall is lined up with the wall. Over the past few years a long crack has developed in my living room ceiling.
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