Champia Inspector Atlanta Finds Home’s Rafters Get Little Support
Champia Inspector Atlanta Talks About Support!
You just never know what you will find in houses. This house has undersized purlins supporting the rafters in the attic, according to Andrew Binosa of Champia Real Estate Inspections.
purlin: (noun) a longitudinal member in a roof frame, usually for supporting common rafters or the like between the plate and the ridge.
Not only they are undersized, to further exacerbate the situation, someone added 2×6 to it to make it appear as if they were sized properly, the ASHI associate inspector said. They thought that by adding the 2×6 to make it look like it’s not undersized would fool someone to thinking that the purlins are OK. The 2×6 they added is only nailed to the 2×4 and not to the bracing. In essence, it’s just adding more load to the 2×4 purlins. Not only that, some on the purlins do not even have any bracing support.
- Purlins shall be sized no less than the required size of the rafters that they support.
- Purlins shall be continuous and shall be supported by 2×4 braces installed to bearing walls at a slope not less than 45 degrees from the horizontal.
- The braces shall be spaced not more than 4 feet on center and the unbraced length of braces shall not exceed 8 feet.
