• tetris11@feddit.uk
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    5 days ago

    Juggling a bunch of random house/DIY tasks and work tasks, and not entirely losing my marbles in the process.

    This week I’m staring at a collar beam in the loft that sweeps across from one pair of runners to the other, and lies directly over the loft hatch, meaning I bang my head on it constantly

        / \
      /_____\     <-- the horizontal is the "collar beam"
    /         \         the diagonals are "rafters"
    

    I wanna get a loft-ladder in there, but there’s simply not enough vertical room with this thing hanging over the hatch. I’m debating on whether to unscrew it and relocate it to an adjacent set of runners, but am nervous that the whole roof might come down.

    Logic dictates I should just buy another 6m 2x4" plank, affix that to the correct location, and then remove the annoying one, but a single plank costs 70 quid and I have no car at the moment and timber merchants don’t typically deliver wood to your door.

    There’s no tension in the beam (it literally wobbles when I touch it), so I figure it’s safe, but still am nervous to start something I might not be able to finish

    • Saltarello@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      …a single plank costs 70 quid and I have no car at the moment and timber merchants don’t typically deliver wood to your door

      I recently purchased a single OSB board & the local. Wickes branch delivered it for about a fiver. Delivery service was new to me. Whether they will have the length/type of wood you’re after is another matter but worth knowing.

      • tetris11@feddit.uk
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        5 days ago

        I checked Wickes but the longest plank they do on their website is 2.4m.

        I do think I was wrong about the 70 quid thing though, since I was looking at C24 grade wood (thinking that meant “two by four”, but no it’s a treatment standard…) and C16 wood is much cheaper and still structurally sound. Still, nothing at 6m.