Removing barn loft reinforcing

[PILOON]

I personally would not hesitate to remove those 2 braces or whatever they are. IMO they do nothing,
If you are really concerned (maybe there is some rot there or splitting??) then cut strips of 3/4 plywood and add to both sides of the trusses in the suspect areas. Nail strips generously every 3-4 ins in a staggered pattern.

I'd be more concerned with where the trusses meet the floor. Is there rot there? could loads cause the bases to kick out or collapse under load?
On the other hand with that roof pitch I doubt that any snow loads could accumulate.
My bigger concern would be the integrity of the bases of the trusses where they meet the foundation, but that is sight unseen as perhaps they could be just fine. (like high and dry or on raised concrete foundation.)

 

[mtaves]

Jim Timber: you mean from underneath on the ground floor? Sure thing - will have to wait for tomorrow though. My camera takes real crappy pictures inside unless bolstered by natural light. Are you looking for anything in particular? My guess from looking at the grain through the pigeon dust is that it is douglas fir, tongue and groove, 4" wide. Not a wood expert though.

 

[mtaves]

Piloon: Thanks - I am glad to be getting a consensus opinion on that. There is no rot that I have found, the inside looks to always have been dry. The soffit boards are rotten in many places from having pigeon nests/carcasses on them for years but the trusses look to have escaped that damage. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt to those who came before me and probably put those in to address a specific issue, even if it does not make sense to me at first glance.

 

[fried1765]

mtaves:

What an absolutely magnificent structure you have there!
It would appear that the 2x4 braces shown are basically useless.
What does the ridge line look like (from the exterior)? Is it showing an obvious sag?
What does the soffit edge look like (from the exterior)? Straight, or bowed out?
If your soffit is bowed out, and/or the ridge line is sagging, you need to pull the building together at base of the arches.
The Romans used arch construction, and is inherently strong. Your beautiful roof will not fail if you prevent it from spreading at it's base (unless the arches are already cracked).
In Europe, steel rods with turnbuckles are used in situations similar to yours.
Without actually seeing your building, I would suggest 3/4" diameter threaded end steel rods, with turnbuckles in the center, under the floor - side to side.
You will need to make certain that the ends of the rods are solidly attached to some blocking across the the base of the arches.
I believe that one cross tie rod for every 6' of building length would do the job.
The rods will sag a bit from their own weight, so you will need to support them under the floor, but only enough to prevent sagging (concrete tie wire will work).
I have a 27' x 44' roof that I purposely built using this method, at my summer home in Nova Scotia, to eliminate a gaggle of framing that would have partially obstructed my ocean view.
I painted my cross tie rods, and the wires holding them up, a flat black, because they are intended to be seen. My building is completely open for the full height, so is quite different than yours.
You would certainly want to keep your cross tie rods below your floor. Installing cross tie rods above head height in your loft would not be at all effective!
I have a civil engineering degree, and am retired, but have never been a practicing civil or structural engineer.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Wow... awesome loft... makes our old barn loft look alot less awesome.

Unless you are stuck on keeping the vaulted ceiling look, I would concider the idea mentioned in earlier posts, of adding horizontal joist at a reasonable ceiling hight of 8 to 10 feet up, and that may suffice. Diagonal bracing to mimic a truss could be put in from them to the mid point of the rafters above in a "W" formation as well, if deemed needed.

 

[mtaves]

fried1765: more good advice - excellent and thank you very much! I haven`t looked for bows specifically but have spent a lot of time staring at the barn looking for potential problems. I have not noticed any sagging in the ridge line or bowing in the soffits, but will look specifically for that tomorrow. I have not seen any separation in the corners at the floor of the loft, or at ceiling height in the ground floor - all good there. There is some separation of the foundation under one side wall from the main slab - about 1", and from looking at movement of the wood siding one end of the barn has settled more than the other. Probably caused by frost heave. However, structurally everything in the loft looks good at this point in time. Want to make sure it stays that way. Starting to wonder if I am being overly cautious.

dieselcrawler: thank you as well. I really do want to leave the vaulted ceiling if at all possible. However, putting in a ceiling would give many other possible fringe benefits (extra storage level, easier to light and keep warm in winter). So many possibilities...

 

[Billrog]

That beautiful building is going any where any time soon looks solid as a rock. Like mentioned those 2 - 2x4's are only a token. A few suggestions are worth noting if you have concerns do to obvious structural discrepancy's you can see other wise it looks like a very sound structure.

 

[Jim Timber]

Mtaves,

I'm wondering about the support structure itself. The decking being T&G of some appreciable thickness would be my guess. The framing is what I'm curious about. It's also a beautiful arched building, so more pics of the rest of it will let us appreciate it more.

I love architecture. Balloon houses don't do anything for me anymore. I've been ruined looking at all the cool stuff they built back when being a carpenter meant something.

 

[fried1765]

dieselcrawler: thank you as well. I really do want to leave the vaulted ceiling if at all possible. However, putting in a ceiling would give many other possible fringe benefits (extra storage level, easier to light and keep warm in winter). So many possibilities...[/QUOTE]

mtaves:
Putting in a ceiling would certainly be very beneficial if you intend to use any sort of heating.
An "extra storage level" would be a BAD idea! You do not want to load those arches in the middle. Loading those arches with more weight would aggrivate the sagging/bowing that you want to avoid.
If you do put in a ceiling, make it a lightly constructed one, and store NOTHING on top of the ceiling.
In my opinion, you should be locked up for committing a crime against humanity, if you hide those magnificent bowed rafters.
Just kidding of course!

 

[PILOON]

Looking back via the follow up posts, the more I think about it, the more I suspect those 2 x 4 'braces' do nothing and probably were simply some sort of bracket for shelves or to hang something from.
That building is a dome, and domes are basically self supporting structures.