Roof Rafter Layout

The crown will be the top edge of your rafter.

Roof rafter layout.

A rafter or speed square will have marks for both of these angles. Using this handy online tool you will have an easy way to determine and figure out the specific rafters needed for the unique slope and dimensions of your roof. Half building width minus 1 2 ridge thickness. For instance 2 grade 2x4s at 16 on center will span just over 9.

Visit the roof framing page for more information on cutting roof rafters and visit the roof pitch calculator for determining rafter lengths based on rise and run. The article is in taunton s book framing roofs. There is no standard spacing it depends on what size of rafters you want to use and the span of your shed. To lay out a common rafter you need the pitch of the roof expressed in units of rise per foot of run in the gable roof example shown here a rafter with 6 in 12 pitch rises 6 in.

Check the rafter material and take note of the crown. For every foot. Before you cut your boards you ll need to measure the width of your building and calculate the exact length of each rafter. Calculating roof geometry was made much more simple for me after reading a different approach to rafter layout by john carroll.

See rafter run to outer wall calculator below. Let s consider a basic gable wood roof framing design. Print full scale rafter cut templates and birdsmouth templates fold template over rafter to mark or cut through. This illustration shows an exaggerated crown to get my point across.

For standard shed roof rafter spacing see rafter span chart. Continuing on from part 3. Here we have a wood framed gable roof. The roof rafters provide integral structural support to the roof.

Floor beam span tables of residential structural design we will now look at roof rafter and beam design. The ridge end of the rafter and often the eve end will need to be cut to the angle of the roof slope. Rather than outside the wall to ridge the author made calculations from inside the wall for effective run of rafter at ridge. The roof on this shed is a 4 in 12 slope which makes it a 18 and one half degree angle on the board ends.

Rafter span tables use these tables to determine lengths sizes and spacing of rafters based on a variety of factors such as species load grade spacing and pitch. Laying out hip valley and jack rafters takes experience and skill but if you re building a simple gable or shed roof all you need is the common rafter the basic building block of roof framing. We will mark the top of the rafter first. The image below shows a cross section of our simple 12 x 13 house from the joist span tables section of this tutorial.

The layout of your home or building will have a significant impact on the final design and slope of your roof. If your lumber is this bad then i would suggest taking it back and finding a new supplier of materials for your roof layout.