Hi,

I have a 1929 center hall colonial, brick. It is approx a 30x40 rectangle stairs up the middle. Full basement, third floor walk up with a stair stringer that is right above the first floor stairs.

At one time the attic was finished and heated, had a couple "dog house" dormers and a slate roof. In 1988 there was an attic fire and the whole roof of the house was removed/rebuilt. The new attic was left unfinished with no dormers - bastards.

I was contemplating finishing the attic again so I had a couple of contractors over for estimates. They both noted that the attic floor joists (or second floor ceiling joists I guess) run in the direction of the 40 ft length. In other words, they do not run the short distance of the house, connecting the bottom of the rafters. There is about three 12 foot sections that instersect over walls below on the second floor.

They thought that was odd, and one contractor thought essentailly there was nothing but a couple of collar ties holding the whole roof from spreading apart. Either way the house is 80yrs old, and the whole roof/attic was rebuilt in 88 and its still standing and looks great. Just curious.

So was this the norm back then?

PS On one half of the house all of the attic floor joists are original, the other half were replaced after the fire.