How To Find A Roof Joist

Rafters are evenly spaced so knowing how far apart they are gives you the ability to find the rafters while on the roof.

How to find a roof joist.

You can do it without a bunch of fancy tools. Extend the tape measure out 16 inches. Be careful up there. Detect by measuring when you ve located the edge of one joist measure back inch to find the joist s center and then measure over 16 inches to find the center of the next joist.

If you come up empty try measuring 24 inches from the center of the first joist. Head into the attic to get a good look at the underside of the roof. How to find a ceiling joist. You do not need a stud finder.

1 enter joist details 1 1 span and joist spacing. In this video i go over how to find studs and joists in walls or ceilings. Use a pencil to jot the width down somewhere. The full version allows any size.

Start at the same end of the building and measure from the inside wall over to the first measurement. Measure as precisely as possible down to the 1 4 inch 0 64 cm 1 8 inch 0 32 cm or 1 16 inch 0 16 cm. If there s no proper flooring step carefully from. Place the end of a tape measure against the corner created where the wall meets the ceiling.

Usually 400 450 or 600mm but any value can be used up to 610mm max. Tap the ceiling lightly with your knuckles. Floor joist span use this table to determine the maximum lengths of floor joists based on species of lumber joist spacing and joist size. This marks the center of the first rafter.

While many ceiling joists are on 16 inch centers some are on 24 inch centers. Transfer the measurements to the roof. For example the width of the building may be 72 75 inches 184 8 cm. Arm yourself with a flashlight and head up to the attic.

Flat roof joist calculator. This demo version is fixed at 1m clear span. You are trying to differentiate the hollow sound that indicates a bay or space between two.