Are these supports necessary?

Well shoot, it will not let me post a link. It is telling me I need at least one post , which I obviously have now

Success!

Can you give us a picture of how the knee wall attaches to the rafters? By looking at this you I think you can remove them but we need to make sure that the knee wall is attached correctly to the rafters.

They are acting as rafter ties for that short wall so assuming it is bearing you cannot take them out with out some alternative to keeping the wall from being pushed out by the rafters.

Mingledtrash said:

They are acting as rafter ties for that short wall so assuming it is bearing you cannot take them out with out some alternative to keeping the wall from being pushed out by the rafters.

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Thanks

From the photo 1, it is yes. That short wall is a bearing wall because the rafters sit on them. Think of it as a regular wall which is reinforced by usual ceiling joists or collar ties. Maybe a nitpicking but I wouldve put the braces on the 2x4 plates than on the rafter ends. As they are, the reinforcement depends on the nail connection between the rafters and the plates.
Im not sure and you may want to see an engineer but you could replace the braces with metal angle or i beam for the space though not worth the cost for the storage.
After the fact, but the rafter bays in photo 2 should have vent space.

I'm sure by looking at that second picture if you can take them out or not. It's going to depend on how the rafters are attached to the top of both of the walls, the taller one in the short knee wall.

Following up on what carpdad said, there is no ventilation space going to the peak of your roof. It also looks like there are some areas that don't have any insulation. Also what's that structural member going horizontally? Is it a header over the entrance to this area?

They are holding the short wall (rafter bearing on) in check from spreading outward, as said. They cannot be removed, replaced by SE, as said.

Gary
PS; you can see the foam air chute baffle above the attic access header where insulation removed.

Msradell said:

I'm sure by looking at that second picture if you can take them out or not. It's going to depend on how the rafters are attached to the top of both of the walls, the taller one in the short knee wall.

Following up on what carpdad said, there is no ventilation space going to the peak of your roof. It also looks like there are some areas that don't have any insulation. Also what's that structural member going horizontally? Is it a header over the entrance to this area?

Click to expand...

Sorry, I totally missed your post. I thought I had notifications turned on.

As Gary said, there are foam baffles installed as you can see in the second picture. The missing insulation and header are because I had just installed an access door. The was no access to this area previously. Thanks