Mike Honcho
Well-known member
Can i drill a 1 1/4 hole through 4 x 6 roof rafters of my breezeway? i need to drill all 4 of them. the wall is about 9 feet long with just a roof, no second story. Thanks.
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Drilling rafters
- Thread starter Mike Honcho
- Start date
fitz11
Well-known member
Are they really 4x6"?
Chris705
Well-known member
You say "all of them"....does the 9' length of roof have just four rafters? Seeing you live in Michigan and suppose you get a pretty good amount of snow meaning typical snow load design is in the 40psf or more.....I would think that the 1-1/4" hole is kind of on the large side when drilling thru the 6" dimension. If you go ahead anyway you need to drill the hole on the centerline of the rafters (3" from each edge of rafter). That will have the least effect on the joist (top half is in compression and bottom edge is in tension. Would feel better if we knew how wide the breezeway was and therefore the span of the rafters? I am thinking its not really a good thought.
OP
Mike Honcho
Well-known member
Are they really 4x6"?
yes, they are
OP
Mike Honcho
Well-known member
You say "all of them"....does the 9' length of roof have just four rafters? Seeing you live in Michigan and suppose you get a pretty good amount of snow meaning typical snow load design is in the 40psf or more.....I would think that the 1-1/4" hole is kind of on the large side when drilling thru the 6" dimension. If you go ahead anyway you need to drill the hole on the centerline of the rafters (3" from each edge of rafter). That will have the least effect on the joist (top half is in compression and bottom edge is in tension. Would feel better if we knew how wide the breezeway was and therefore the span of the rafters? I am thinking its not really a good thought.
the front wall i am wanting to go through is 9 feet wide, it has 5 rafters. (mistake on my part on number). the rear wall of the breezeway is 26 feet, not sure of rafter number off top of my head. and yes we do get some decent amounts of snow. thanks.
Chris705
Well-known member
Distance from Front wall to rear wall? The way you describe it I would say your garage and house are at different angles to each other?
OP
Mike Honcho
Well-known member
Distance from Front wall to rear wall? The way you describe it I would say your garage and house are at different angles to each other?
not different angles, different setbacks. the front wall attaches the two, the rear wall comes off the house then over to the garage, if that makes sense. front wall to rear wall is approx 15 ft.,also the front and rear rooflines have different pitches.
Justanoldguy
Well-known member
Need the actual span and pitch of the joists you want to drill and also the spacing between each joist. Definitely drill on centre line of joist as mentioned above. eg 3" up from bottom edge.
Chris705
Well-known member
I would recommend not drilling that large of a hole in the rafters. If you can sister deeper joists alongside and create a faux beam with trim and drop the hole below. The existing rafter I would do that. It sounds like you have an exposed ceiling and want to maintain that look.