Week 5: Additional Research

By being able to strip the building down to its timber framing it became apparent that there were some problems with the structure of the house. My biggest concern was the extremely long roof joists that spanned the entire length of the house (20m) and how they were actually able to withstand not only their own weight, but also the weight of the roof on top.

I met up with a friend who is a carpenter and quite experienced in this field and used a lot of his resources. Together we came to the conclusion that we could either use beams with an unrealistically large (for the building) cross section, or to place a column halfway through the gap to take some of the load of the roof. 

Other issues were the large window façade that formed the front corner of the house and the side window. These issues were resolved by placing a steel column at the corner of the house to take the entire load of the roof away from the windows. To combat the side window, it was decided that it would be best to double up the timber studs on either side of the window and place a large lintel on top of the window.

http://www.chhwoodproducts.com.au/hyspan-span-tables/#/8/zoomed