our project will include raising the roof on parts of our second story so that we have usable sq. footage to the walls of the second story. (now, the walls and roof slope so that there is a lot of space usable only as storage.) obviously, we will need to replace the walls and roof and reframe all that. but i am puzzled that one of the contractors who looked at our house expansion project indicated that he would also tear out all of the floor joists and reframe the floor up there too.

i really don't want to go there since the cost of wood is so high and this would then impact the first floor, which i am trying to minimize work on. in fact, i am hoping to put a drop ceiling and recessed lighting below this area over the winter. this will allow me to put hole in old ceiling to see what the floor joists are -- he did not look to see what's there.

but wondering why he would assume replacement of floor joists? since there is already second story living space (and this is an old house with very good construction) it seems to me that the floors up there would be framed uniformly and adequate to support live load. i'm guessing that he may be thinking that the floor would meet code but have too much bounce. the other possibility is that it may not be level and that other things will be easier if we start from scratch.

It seems that both of these issues could be addressed without tearing things out. What do you guys think?

Jim_Lincoln