Oak Park Structural Work, Starting With What the Roof Is Made Of
Oak Park homes opening a room or adding a floor start with identifying the roof framing, then beams, footings and shear walls under county review.
A roof framed partly with trusses and partly with stick rafters changes where a beam can bear in an Oak Park house. Trusses are engineered as a system and cannot be cut like a rafter, while rafters can be picked up by a new beam. We find out which is which from the attic before drawing anything. Part of Oak Park lies within mapped fire hazard areas, which can bring ember-resistance rules into the picture.
Reading the roof from the attic
Trusses show up as triangulated frames with metal plates at the joints. Rafters are plain sloping boards meeting a ridge. The engineer needs to know which one covers each room, because a wall removed under a truss may need a beam sized to catch that truss's bearing, and a rafter section may be satisfied with a smaller change. Mixed framing is possible, so every room gets checked. What we learn up there sets the beam size and the post locations below. Where a truss section and a rafter section meet, the transition gets its own detail on the sheet.
County review and the inspector
Plans for an Oak Park house go to the county building department, since the community is unincorporated, and the same office inspects the work. Reviewers look for calculations that match each sheet and a clear path from roof to footing. Beams, hold-downs and straps are inspected while exposed, and where a mapped fire hazard area applies, vents and eaves are checked too. We photograph the stages and hold the finish trades until the sign-off is in. Our photographs back up each inspection.
Structural Work in Oak Park: what families ask
Possibly, if the existing foundation and walls can take the added weight. An engineer inspects both and lists any reinforcement. We price that with the new floor framing in one quote, and the roof is checked at the same time.
Expect an engineer to size the beam and posts around the roof framing overhead. We prop the ceiling, remove the wall and set the beam on new footings, after the county has reviewed the drawings.
County reviewers examine the drawings, and an inspector comes out at stages to see footings, beams and hold-downs open. Photographs from our crew complete the file, and drywall goes up only after the approval. Each visit is logged by date.
Structural Work in other cities
Other projects we take on in Oak Park
Your Oak Park project, start to finish
Tell us about the house and the space you need. We reply by phone or email to plan a visit.