What are these struts for on this cattle shed? Can they go?

[cowboy25]

I'm looking to turn this part of an old cattle shed into a workshop extension for building shepherds huts and the like, but what are these metal struts for? And can I remove them? Two of them come down quite low and would totally get in the way of what I would be making. Can I remove them? I've never seen them in this type of construction before. 

 

 

[Roundtuit]

Has the doorway been moved?  Looks like there is no significant lintel/support over the opening, so perhaps those struts are to stop any movement of the vertical steels around the opening.

[cowboy25]

1 hour ago, Roundtuit said:

Has the doorway been moved?  Looks like there is no significant lintel/support over the opening, so perhaps those struts are to stop any movement of the vertical steels around the opening.

It was just a big agricultural metal door there which I removed a few years ago, the struts predate that and were probably there on construction of the building. Only thing I can think is that this building used to house a rotary milking parlour making it a special building in that regard but I still can't understand what the struts are for or why a building built to house a rotary milking parlour would need these struts in the roof. 

Edited yesterday at 21:02 by cowboy25

[G and J]

I would guess those struts stop the wall falling in or out.   
 

It looks like a single block wall with no visible pillars, and I think of such as being very weak.

 

The sort of gable truss that forms the top half of that wall is just sat on top.   There is no strength in the wall to stop it bulging in or out and that would result in the gable wall failing.  I think.   No doubt a grown up will be along soon to clarify.  

[cowboy25]

13 hours ago, G and J said:

I would guess those struts stop the wall falling in or out.   
 

It looks like a single block wall with no visible pillars, and I think of such as being very weak.

 

The sort of gable truss that forms the top half of that wall is just sat on top.   There is no strength in the wall to stop it bulging in or out and that would result in the gable wall failing.  I think.   No doubt a grown up will be along soon to clarify.  

Its a solid steel frame construction built in the early 80s everything is sound as far as I'm aware. The wall on the right is just a 'temporary' sheet metal partition add on. The wall on the left is a solid block wall its strong as an ox. But those struts I'm referring to obviously connect to the steel super structure, I only need/ want to remove the two that protrude down low as seen in the first pic. 

Edited 10 hours ago by cowboy25

[cowboy25]

I've had a closer look and those two perpendicular girders on the left don't actually join onto the brick wall there so I suppose the two struts I want to remove can be explained as stopping the end gable wall above the brick work from flapping about. But I don't see why those two struts can't be removed and maybe I can attach the end gable wall to the brick work to stop any flapping about. Also the four other roof struts as seen in the pics don't appear to me to have much purpose although I don't need to remove them so will leave them in place. 

[Alan Ambrose]

The building looks home brew to me with those blocks on the left added to the cast wall. If you have any kids with Lego, then suggest you make some walls in the approximate scale of your building, the roof in cardboard and then see how you feel about the structure. The struts make some strongish triangles which will tend to keep their shape, but without the hypotenuse, the other two sides of the triangle become properly ‘flappy’ as you said. Flappy isn’t a great state for a building - it only takes a big bad wolf with a strong huff & puff…

 

An SE maybe?

[cowboy25]

4 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

The building looks home brew to me with those blocks on the left added to the cast wall. If you have any kids with Lego, then suggest you make some walls in the approximate scale of your building, the roof in cardboard and then see how you feel about the structure. The struts make some strongish triangles which will tend to keep their shape, but without the hypotenuse, the other two sides of the triangle become properly ‘flappy’ as you said. Flappy isn’t a great state for a building - it only takes a big bad wolf with a strong huff & puff…

 

An SE maybe?

Doesn't really explaining the four other struts though does it? The building was built by a professional agricultural building company, it isn't something we have knocked up. That it was where the cows entered the building on the left for milking. Don't know why they didn't extend the perpendicular i beams down to the ground but if I remove the two lower struts and then bolt the gable wall to the block work I don't think it would be very 'flappy'. Plus I would extend the block wall to finish the wall which would keep any wind out and bolt onto there as well.