Loft conversion – floor joists hung from purlin?

So, as a precursor to an extension and loft conversion to our house 60s bungalow), I have just paid for men in spacesuits to remove the asbestos ceiling* in the integral garage.

There is an existing room of sorts upstairs from the garage, which I believe started out as a floored loft and then the previous owners added a staircase to use it as spare bedroom. Right now, it’s a classic spare room dumping ground.

So, once the garage was certified as being safe to re-enter, I wandered in to have a look and discovered that actually there are what look like floor joists as well as ceiling joists up there.

But on closer looking, the floor joists are hung from the lower purlin at the front of the house.

Is this normal? I can’t believe the purlin is up to the weight of the roof, a ceiling (when re-boarded) AND a room with contents above it? Seems a lot to ask of it….

Can’t see ever so well on my phone but aren’t the joists tied into or supported by the walls, and the purlins just adding a bit of extra stability?

Nice light, nice pipework. If worried get a structural engineer round to report. It’s difficult to see what’s happening from pics.

Thanks both.

It’s a fairly plain small double garage – approx 6.5×4.5 metres. Currently all the contents are in storage and will come back once I’ve sorted it out – meaning electrics (lighting and power – there’s only one socket in there!), re boarding the ceiling (incl insulation) and building cabinets to store everything.

On a closer look the purlin the joists are hanging from doesn’t seem to support the roof. As you say, getting an engineer’s view will be sensible – need to invite good friends to visit as he’ll give me an instant answer….

I need a project to stop me going bonkers over winter, so this is the one. But having lost all the fibreglass insulation in the asbestos removal, the room upstairs is going to become even colder soon…!

Cheers