Hip roof support

[Dynocon]

Looking at a brick ranch built in the 70's, the roof is hip with a ridge board, house is L shape configuration.So 2 ridge boards and each board has a 2x4 a couple feet from the end, nailed to the side of the ridge board and toe nailed into the top of the wall or ceiling joist. These 2x4's have pushed the sheeting up an inch or so, not sure how many years it has been like this, but should these have been removed when the sheeting was installed? How much movement is normally realized during loading?

 

[HouseBoy]

Yes they help to confirm my (and other's) suspicions.

It's probably not as simple as taking out the 2x4's (that have pushed up the sheathing).

Realistically, stick framed roofs often "settle" a little (maybe an inch or so) but when they don't have a good or robust structural strategy in place and the "settlement" becomes too pronounced, you need to install something that will provide support.

Looks like somebody started out with some sort of internal truss (not a real truss though). Maybe that's in there to create a wide opening and it looks like it is intended to support ceiling weight /loads only. Not likely to be adequate for any roof support so....laying out the existing geometry and alignment of things will be the first step.

The "L" shape of the plan and the use of hips makes it very difficult to get the framing to work well without some designated ridge support. MAYBE the ceiling and rafters are decent size so maybe there is a way to install bearing elements (walls and beams) inside the attic space.

The devil is in the details though. You really will need to find out where walls are located that are suitable for bearing. Start out with a plan drawing to see how things align (ridge lines and hip ridges at the roof and first floor walls that might be suitable for bearing, along with the size and direction of the ceiling pieces.

 

[Dynocon]

The bottom horizontal board is a 2x6, the initial thought was to install a support from it to the ridge board at each rafter.

 

[Dynocon]

Or would additional cross ties?

 

[HouseBoy]

Putting attic walls on ceiling joists can be tricky. It really depends on how well and how closely the bearing walls on the first floor align with the new attic walls. I usually find that there are many places that require some strategy of placing walls and attic beams in order to carry the roof loading over to suitable bearing locations. I would guess that this is especially true for the L shape you describe and based on the photos.
Start with plan layout drawings for each level. Load path is the key. Bracing of attic beams is also important (remember most joists have continuous bracing but new beams in a ceiling would not necessarily have that).