A lot of folks have done that in their '70's homes and it tends to look great if you take care of the details of finishing. If your trusses are in good shape you can leave them exposed and paint or stain them.

Some people box the trusses with drywall to create a more finished look, but this is very much more labor intensive.

You'll need some sort of drywall on the ceiling, along with insulation. If you're that open, you'll probably have to allow enough space for solid core insulation, which costs much more than blown in or battens. Most city codes require at least R-30 or 39 in ceilings, which you can do efficiently and thinly with solid.

You'll also have to relocate all wiring and electrical, and you'll have to decide how you want to light the area, as recessed cans will be impossible.

Not to mention any HVAC venting if your air/heat is from the ceiling.

Removing blown in insulation is not bad...it usually runs around 500-700 plus tax for an area the size of a living room/dining room/kitchen combined. They'll come with a huge truck mounted vacuum and a 4" hose.

Another option, if you have A frame trusses, is to open up to the lower end of the truss. That will create a 10-20 degree sloping ceiling (we have that in our 1978 home). We opened up between trusses to add skylights, and drywalled the opening up to the skylight. Ours were 4 x 4, which meant we opened 2 spaces at a time, and had a truss to drywall around in the middle of each light opening. It's a pretty dramatic look, especially if your dry wall installer can do clean hard sharp edges.

I was thinking about doing this to our house. I thought I could find some bracket that could replace the flat medal ties that are hammered to the trusses at the joints to make them looked nice. I may have to sand the wood trusses before painting. I thought of adding 2x4 on the trusses below the roof to create a new ceiling. May want to use pine instead of drywall. Drywall may need more support that every 24 inches which is the spacing between the truss. I could leave enough room to insulate between the ceiling and the roof. Adding a couple of sky lights would be nice.

Love these ideas, since we have a rancher that could benefit from this type of remodel. Does anyone have any pics of homes where this was done?

Factory built trusses are able to use the smallest lumber sizes by using configurations that put the members in tension and relying on the factory connections to distribute those forces in the plane of the truss. But they are not very strong laterally and need to have lateral braces or "strongbacks" running parallel to the ridge in the lower parts of the trusses.

The existing ceiling described above provides lateral bracing so if you want to remove it you must hire an engineer to review the structural change and tell you how to brace the modified trusses. The existing roof sheathing provides stability but the bottom chord can be susceptible to buckling in a high wind or heavy snow load. Adding skylights wider than 21 inches to bring in more light is usually not possible. The price you pay for the savings from trusses is a more fragile framing system that is difficult to modify.

As for appearance, the truss connections may be made with square galvanized nailing plates which would not give a finished appearance to the trusses.

For the cost and time needed to make the trusses and new insulated ceiling between them look right, you might be able to remove the trusses and add a ridge beam, traditional rafters deep enough to meet the energy code, and a cathedral ceiling.

Of course, to actually bring in more light you would need to add dormers or skylights which would be difficult with the old trusses.

I'd spray the roof cavities with icynene and install the strongbacks.

Spray-on plastic foam insulation in a living space must be covered with a thermal barrier like gypsum wall board or a spray-on intumescent coating. The former requires framing for attachment and must have no gaps and the latter would look like the inside of a cave and the over-spray would be difficult if not impossible to remove from of the exposed members.

What kind of fire rating would exposed 2x4 wood trusses give you? Is it suitable for residential construction? Somewhere in my mind I think a bare wood truss has a 15 minute fire rating, but I can't find the cite.
Casey

Thanks for the comments, fire may be the major setback. The strongback would have to checked and if their are off to the side, they may not be interfered with.

My wife wants higher ceiling in the living room. Does not have to be much. One suggestion was to 'lift' the roof trusses up 3 feet by adding to the outside walls.

Another idea is to add skylights between the truss (24 inches wide) and flare the box at the ceiling out to may be 2 ft by 6 ft. Do about 6 of those and you would have a lot of open area in the ceiling.

I don't know of any code that requires a fire rating for any element of a single-family house. The separation at an attached garage is at best an unrated smoke partition and many new codes require 1/2" GWB under first floor I-Joists but I believe other ceilings are still optional. Of course, if you are concerned about fire safety you would avoid exposing light wood trusses whether the code required protection or not.

Lifting trusses is obviously difficult and costly. Remember that wall studs must be continuous from floor to the bottom of the trusses; you can't add a 3 ft section of wall on top of an existing wall. No structural wall stud can be spliced. You would have to remove all interior finishes, insulation and wiring, remove the top plates, double up the existing studs and replace the insulation and finishes..

Skylights, as I mentioned earlier, would have a rough opening of about 21" wide at the roof and at the ceiling but the ceiling opening could flare in the other direction. Exposing the trusses or lifting them would not add more light to the room unless skylights or transom windows are added.

If I used the skylight idea, I would not expose the truss. Just drywall up the sides of the truss. All you would see is sheetrock.

What about just creating boxed or tray ceilings? Not as dramatic, but still add height and maybe simpler/cheaper? You could use sheetrock, but highlight with reclaimed wood or other materials.

Over a year ago so probably either done or scraped by now

What is a tray ceiling?

First off, DO NOT CUT YOUR TRUSSES for any reason, unless you have an engineer on hand to run repair calculations. Trusses transfer the forces they support though their web configuration and the top and bottom chords. If you cut a member, you interrupt the load path and may end up in more trouble than it is worth.

I would think if it is simply a matter of letting in light and creating the feeling of a larger space, tunnel lighting might prove to be an efficient alternative. I am including a link as an example of what I am referring to.

http://www.westsidewholesale.com/velux-ztl-114.html?keyword=Google_Shopping&gclid=CJ625PGR58wCFcQkhgodMHYPkQ

I am not familiar with this particular source (I just googled the term and choose Vellux because they put out such a quality skylight ... another possible option to nudge between your existing framing) but you should get the idea. I think the tunnel lighting will prove to be a cheaper option and will serve your purpose with the same effect. While you will need to make some modifications in your existing structure either way, I suspect you will save a boat load of money in the long run, both in construction costs now, and future heating costs later, due to added exposed volume in the ceiling.

You can use mirrors to make your rooms feel more spacious and reflect the light let in by the tunnel lights.

Hope you don't mind my thinking outside of the box a bit here. Good luck with your project, Marcy

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@ feraldfrank ... a tray ceiling is a multilevel ceiling that can be two or more heights, recessing upwards in the center.

If you've ever eaten in a Friendly's Restaurant, look up and you will see what I mean. Some people call them 'coffer ceilings'.

You can google the terms and lots of examples will pop up.

Can someone post a picture please? Have a 1960 slab ranch and it is so dark!! Need ideas. Thank you!

The exposed trusses usually featured in this "open" style are typically much larger and more impressive than those I've dealt with on new homes, which are composed of a lot of low grade 2x2s connected with pressed-in metal plates. (And no, you can't just change out the plates for something more aesthetically pleasing!)

I have the sense that a lot of these open truss rooms were designed from the get-go with trusses meant to be exposed.

A restaurant i went to had the usual low grade 2 x 2 with the pressed metal plates exposed and they had painted the trusses and plates a beautiful rust color. This won't work for everyone, but it had a casual industrial charm.

Sorry, but no lumber used in trusses is "low grade". There are strict standards; these are structural. You ever see a big ugly knot in a truss? Me neither.

Same with gluelams.

Thank you Sherry, great answer with wonderful common sense. I'm a professional musician and after 30 years in the biz have come to the same 4 realizations you wrote. It's the same in any creative and technical field and the way to continually grow. A little bit of humility goes a long way.

I am also wanting to open my ceiling to expose trusses.. I got a quote to have someone do this and it was $33,000. That is also with me opening existing ceiling, clearing that away and getting rid of blown insulation before they’d come in to insulate and do drywall. I think this is crazy amount? I’m thinking of doing whole thing myself…. Any good resources you can recommend for DIY..? I figure after demo part I’d just need to do the insulation between rafters.. then cover with drywall, plaster, paint.. ?

I figure after demo part I’d just need to do the insulation between rafters.. then cover with drywall, plaster, paint.. ?

Have you been to the attic?

Got any wiring up there? Any ductwork? Any plumbing vents? What is your plan to vent the roof? How are you going to insulate? What R value will you have? How do you plan to brace the trusses? What about climate control--HVAC? You will be adding a lot of cubic feet of new space that, in all likelihood, your HVAC system isn't designed to handle. Not only additional cubic feet but also the problem of stratification.

How & to what do you plan to fasten the new drywall? You can't fasten drywall into the side of the truss; you will have to install some nailers/ ledgers to fasten drywall to.

Trusses are typically constructed of 2 x 4's. Of particular note, the top chord is a 2x4, meaning there will be 3.5" between the roof deck and the bottom of that chord. Which will be buried in insulation. So, you need to realize that you will not see that top chord from the room below.

What is you plan to deal with/ cover the gaps in the drywall caused by the trusses themselves?
IOW's, what you want to do is a good deal more complicated and labor intensive than what I *think* you are thinking it will be.

Ci_lantro..#1, old question so I bet knows by now or already knew extent of cleanup and extras involved- that’s why asking questions. #2. Spray insulation + vapor barrier +pine 2x = beautiful ceiling above the truss- existing vents ect need not be altered. Added long shaft fan will help circulate climate. Wood plates to cover metal nailers on truss can be made from plywood inexpensively and painted or stained. Trusses are self bracing. I/e. Don’t be silly. It’s worth the effort to add value and beauty to a home.

If you want a dirty, dusty, cobwebbed, busy mess, go for it. While you're at it, rip the drywall off enjoy the beautiful pine studs & headers, too.

ETA: If you ever have even just a small fire, expect a total loss.

Here is how I would handle the exposed roof trusses in my house:

1. Remove old drywall and screws/nails in rooms where ceiling is being raised.

2. Remove old blow-in insulation and vacuum up debris like cobweb throughout entire attic.

3. Assess if existing roof framing can reach R-value code requirements with spray foam. If not, sister trusses/rafters with 1x or 2x boards to create bays for required insulation.

4. Frame walls in attic above existing walls for new drywall.

5. Install spray foam insulation under roofline over entire house and in gable walls.

6. Replace old electrical wiring with conduit in rooms with exposed attic.

7. Replace HVAC ducts, running flex duct in concealed areas, rigid ductwork in exposed areas.

8. Install, tape and mud drywall in attic making sure it blocks fire from other attic areas.

9. Install finish ceiling (drywall, shiplap, metal, etc) under rafters.

10. Install lighting in between trusses (electrical already done) and mount on 2x4 if necessary.

11. Spray fire retardant and paint exposed ceiling desired colour.

12. Paint walls, install trim, finish your room however you like.

If you really want to expose the trusses you will probalby need to add insulation to the top of the roof deck. If in a cold climate, that will be costly,

You will be removing some amount of lateral bracing by removing the ceiling so you should have an engineer bless that structural change and any other removal of lateral bracing like strong backs, etc.

Yes, I have exposed the trusses and I did consult with an engineer on the strong backs.

It worked out great, but need a lot of work to clean up the rafters. We added skylights and plenty of insulation. We love it.

Can you add picture!

Yes, i too would love to see and hear about costs and any challenges. @geraldfrank