Roof Without Ridge Board

The ridge board forms the peak and ties the rafters together side to side and end to end.

Roof without ridge board.

The rafters support the sides or slope of the roof. The engineer has designed this exposed roof to have the rafters meet up at the top and have cats or brace boards installed in place of ridge board in between rafters. A proper beam would have a supporting post at each end. For 2 x 6 rafters use a 2 x 8 ridge board and so on.

Also measure the length of half of the roof from one side of the ridge beam to the edge of the building. Some of these can support the roof and prevent ridge sagging and wall spreading. Ridge beam sizing is based on the span of the beam between supports and the amount of roof load supported by the beam. You don t need a ridge beam but you do need a way to keep the walls from spreading.

A ridge board isn t a beam per se. Roof framing without a ridge board hey i was wondering if any of you have ever actually framed a roof before without a ridge beam. A ridge board was not always required and the photo above of the attic in a 1920s era house shows a roof framed without one. Other elements like gable studs and cross ties supply additional bracing.

For 2 x 4 rafters use a 2 x 6 ridge board. Ridge beams are required by code if the roof slope is less than 3 in 12 irc section r802 3. To learn more about roof structures go to our home inspection blog at. You may splice two boards together to achieve this length if necessary using a 14 and 1 2 inch block of the same material.

If the roof rises 7 inches 18 cm for every 1 foot 0 30 m its pitch would be written as 7 12. The ridge board s length will be the outside measurement of the building plus the length of the overhang at both ends. A ridge board is a non structural member that serves as a prop for opposing rafters to rest against and connect to. It s often just a nice way to bring the rafters together.

If you re using a roofing calculator press the pitch button to input the pitch ratio in the calculator s memory. This article describes and illustrates the different types of support that prevents roof sagging and wall bulging at buildings including definitions of collar ties rafter ties and structural ridge beams.