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Looking to strengthen some rafters in a nearly century-old house & have a situation where the only spots available for sistering only allow for about 1” toehold due to lapped rafters from the adjacent room in the house. Would tying the sister into the lapping rafter give me the support I need? If not I’m considering doubling the sister, if that makes sense. Not sure if there are other options here.

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

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Rohit Gupta
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wmsts
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    _Why_ are you looking to strengthen them? Is there a specific problem you're trying to solve or are you just worried because the house is 100 years old? We may be looking at an [XY Problem](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem) here... – FreeMan Sep 14 '23 at 16:41
  • Those joists/rafters look like they're in good shape to me. I agree w/ FreeMan; why do you feel you need to sister them? – TylerH Sep 14 '23 at 20:15
  • There’s a flat roof above that I’d like to strengthen, partially for access from a sleeping porch, and also because there is a rafter beyond the two I’d like to sister that is undersized (3.5” on a 12 foot span, albeit at 9 inches from the support wall (others are spaced at 16)) that cannot be sistered but has sagged just a bit, so even though I just had the roof replaced there is a small depression where water pools near the very edge where this rafter lies. I don’t think I can fix the sag (water pools shallowly in a roughly 1x2 ft section), but I definitely don’t want it to get any worse. – wmsts Sep 15 '23 at 17:34
  • The roof above this area was leaking for years, I now have all the leaks addressed and have ripped out the drop ceiling and all the nasty insulation and have an opportunity to make this thing as sold as possible before I seal it back up again. – wmsts Sep 15 '23 at 17:46

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Sister the rafter, then attach a piece that overlaps both rafters. Tie everything together with carriage bolts.

Cheery
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  • Oh, I like this idea. Is this standard for this kind of situation? I can’t seem to find any information online addressing this particular situation, hence my post. Thank you for your assistance. – wmsts Sep 15 '23 at 17:36