Hello!

First question for me here. Completely inexperienced with houses, construction, and building, but now we've bought a 70s house and it's time to start learning a bit. The house is a 160m2 group house from 1974.

My question concerns the ceiling beams. The previous owners have exposed the beams, but they are hollow. Sounds like a screwed-together wooden box when you knock on them.

What do you think, are they just for show or was this the way things were built in the 70s? Can they be removed?

In the picture, you can see some of the beams, and the joint to the lower piece is clearly visible.
 
  • Exposed black ceiling beams with hanging lights in a child's room; white bed with gray bedding and stuffed panda. Visible window, floor fan, and animal wall art.
Isn't a box built around the "real" beam because it wasn't so pretty?
 
Hello!

It's a bit unclear. The current owner did not produce them themselves and can't answer. Naturally, I didn't ask the inspector either.

There has been an attic floor on the beams before, not just a ceiling. I am attaching the house plans if they can help someone.
 
Is there a hatch so you can stick your head up and see if there is a similar beam on top of the ceiling, if there is then these are probably just for appearance.
 
A
Probably they have clad the hanbjälken in the truss to make it look thicker, more decorative :)
 
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Mike the Spike
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No, it is opened up at the ridge. No hatches or anything similar left at all.
 
Handyman 1 said:
They have probably clad the ridge beam in the truss to make it look more substantial, more decorative:)
Ah!

is there any way to find out if they are needed? Can they be removed anyway?
 
A
That needs to be assessed by someone more knowledgeable in construction, there are people on the forum like @justusandersson :)
it’s probably not "just" removing them.
 
A possible cladding can be removed but not the beam itself, it is needed for the roof construction.
If it is to be removed, a redesign and reconstruction are required.
 
Thank you all!

I will return in the future!
 
It looks like the wall and doorway are situated between two roof trusses. If the wall goes all the way up to the ridge, it was likely built after the inner ceiling was removed. It should then be possible to remove it, including the "beam," without risk.
You can't have too many pictures; several from different angles make assessment easier. The link to the drawing leads to Expressen?
 
hscn hscn said:
Looks like the wall and door opening are between two rafters.
...
The link to the drawing leads to Expressen?
The link leads to a downloadable file. If you open it on your phone, for example, it doesn't open a separate page, but often ends up in a download menu. The page that is displayed is instead the most recent one you visited. Please check if you can find the drawing in one of the menus in the browser.

As for the door, it is located directly under a rafter. I am attaching another picture to make it easier to see.

We want to keep the wall, so it's just the beams we want to get rid of, but that seems difficult.
 
  • Room with black exposed beams, string lights, a desk with a fan, a dresser with toy cars and an Eiffel Tower model, and a person exiting through a door.
If you don't remove the original truss, it is almost certainly fine. Found the drawing.
 
hscn hscn said:
If you don't remove the original roof truss, it's almost certainly fine. Found the drawing.
Edit: I read a bit carelessly, I thought it was just about the one by the door opening. The collar ties cannot be removed, they are an important part of the roof truss; instead, paint them in a light color to make them more discrete.
 
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The only reasonable explanation is that it is the hanbjälkar that are clad. As already pointed out, you cannot remove the hanbjälkar but you can remove the cladding.
 
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