Hi All,
I am finishing my garage. It was built in 68' and is an oversized two-car about 26' wide. The ceiling joists are a 2x4 trussed design with the two joist spans meeting in the middle of the garage. It's 24" on center construction with plywood and nails for the "plating" on the truss connections. I'm drywalling the whole thing including the ceiling and I am debating sistering the middle portion of the joists (where the two spans meet) before I do this.
Pros:
-Would be stronger (I think).
Cons:
-Harder to insulate the attic with the reduced spans in the middle (it's 24" on center right now).
-Drilling more holes in existing joists probably not a good thing.
-It's been standing for 45 years so why bother.
My friend is a structural engineer and he recommended not touching it, primary because by putting more holes in the existing joists you could actually weaken the structure. But I'll be putting screws into it when I install my lighting junction boxes and drywall anyways, and I was going to add some brace supports as well .. so why not sister it with plywood (to match the width of the existing truss plates and put a 8 foot 2x4 on either side, PL premium'ed and screwed together. So the middle 8 feet would be like a laminated beam .. kinda.
Is this overkill, a good idea, or actually potentially dangerous?
Thanks in advance for the advise!
I am finishing my garage. It was built in 68' and is an oversized two-car about 26' wide. The ceiling joists are a 2x4 trussed design with the two joist spans meeting in the middle of the garage. It's 24" on center construction with plywood and nails for the "plating" on the truss connections. I'm drywalling the whole thing including the ceiling and I am debating sistering the middle portion of the joists (where the two spans meet) before I do this.
Pros:
-Would be stronger (I think).
Cons:
-Harder to insulate the attic with the reduced spans in the middle (it's 24" on center right now).
-Drilling more holes in existing joists probably not a good thing.
-It's been standing for 45 years so why bother.
My friend is a structural engineer and he recommended not touching it, primary because by putting more holes in the existing joists you could actually weaken the structure. But I'll be putting screws into it when I install my lighting junction boxes and drywall anyways, and I was going to add some brace supports as well .. so why not sister it with plywood (to match the width of the existing truss plates and put a 8 foot 2x4 on either side, PL premium'ed and screwed together. So the middle 8 feet would be like a laminated beam .. kinda.
Is this overkill, a good idea, or actually potentially dangerous?
Thanks in advance for the advise!