Traditional Rafter Roof Construction

Roofs are framed in five basic designs.

Traditional rafter roof construction.

This means that each rafter is built on the job site using dimensional lumber. I have a hip roof with a 12 12 pitch on the main side of the roof while the end is an 18 12 pitch. Possibly the most satisfiying part of the roof yet. The most commonly used types of pitched roof construction are the gable the hip the intersecting and the shed or lean to.

Before you cut your boards you ll need to measure the width of your building and calculate the exact length of each rafter. A truss roof using factory made trusses which are delivered to site complete and just erected. Shed gable hip gambrel and mansard. A common rafter runs from the roof ridge to the top of the front or rear wall plate and extend beyond the wall to provide an overhang or eaves or soffit.

If you re framing a gable roof on a new house or building a shed or even a doghouse with a gable roof you ll need to cut a number of roof rafters. Definition of common rafter. The ridge beam runs along horizontally along the top of the roof and is supported by the other rafters. The roof rafters provide integral structural support to the roof.

Piece by piece rafter roof construction however is still the more common construction method for many buildings. Each beam is notched at the bottom called a birdsmouth so that it rests flat on top of each wall. Building with them is known as stick framing. A cut roof this is the traditional method of cutting the timber on site and building up the roof using rafters ridge boards joists and purlins etc the exact details being determined by the size of roof size of timbers etc.

The 4 hip rafters begin at the 4 corners of the roof and connect to the ridge beam. At the top where the rafters meet they are either angled to meet at a point or attached to a horizontal ridge beam. Every piece is measured cut and fastened together to form the rafter. A common rafter comprises two beams that extend upwards from the top plate of either side of a shed wall.

There are two basic methods of pitched roof construction. Due to the width. Ben march 1 2015. How do you figure the length and angles of the cuts on an uneven roof for the hip rafter.

An example of each is shown in figure 2 1. Simple roofs such as a shed or the common gable are fairly easy to construct even without plans if you understand the basics and a little geometry. The types of rafters used in a hip roof include common jack hip and ridge beam rafters.