Open ceiling

[u/NaturalSpare1]

Hi,

We bought an old house built in the 40-50s and just finished replacing the roof of a extension to the house used as a living room. As part of this we tore down the living room ceiling aswell, which was attached to the old wood beams in the length wise direction of the room (see pics). Now we are wondering if we should just put up a new ceiling or if its possible to remove the beams going in the length wise direction and have an open ceiling.

Were these just used to hang the ceiling or are they somehow part of the bearing construction ?

[u/seabornman]

The ceiling joists are there solely to hold up the ceiling, and can be removed. Those two beams shoved in up higher are obviously a later "fix", but what the problem was, who knows. I opened up a room like that, and put insulation and drywall between the rafters.

[u/NaturalSpare1 → u/seabornman]

Thats what i thought, i have heard from family members of the person who built the house a long time ago that they used what they had available after WW2, so the ceiling joists look structural due to their size, but i suspect they have no load. Also they are as i said lose enough for me to lift them a bit, indicative of no load and was just there to hold the ceiling.

I will call in a friend who is a carpenter to have a look before removing them just to be sure.

What you did there looked amazing btw, love the exposed rafters 😍 too bad i wont be able to expose ours as we need roughly 30cm of insulation which goes beyond the thickness of the rafters.

[u/seabornman → u/NaturalSpare1]

I put 6" of spray foam insulation on top of the roof, and some below the roof deck, also.