I have a client who wants a portion of their new home to have a curved roof and ceiling. The areas (living-dining, maybe master bedroom) to be covered are to be approximately 16′ x 20′ and 24 x 40’…dimensions yet to be exactly determined, but each a simple rectangle, no intersecting vaults; the other roof surfaces will be flat and lower in elevation, out of the way of the curved sections. A fairly gentle arc would do; say maybe 3′ or 4′ difference between top plate of wall to bottom of ceiling in the center of a 16 to 20′ span.
The client showed me a picture they’d found of one done with curved glulams with purlins over. I’ve since found an local example that was built using deep I-joists running full length the other way, like purlins, resting on end walls framed with a curve on top.
A builder told me about a project where he had the truss outfit make special wood trusses, sort of a shallow gambrel with 2×10 bottom and top chords. He then cut parallel arcs in both chords, leaving a minimum of 4” of wood width in each, to form a curved truss.
Another builder was convinced he’d seen steel trusses with curved top and bottom chords.
Keeping economy and simplicity in mind, how would you advise building a curved ceiling/roof system?
Replies
keeping simplicty in mind - I would adivse to simply get it engineered.
Having said that. I worked on a fairly large curved roof about 8 years ago. curved steel beams were used with 2x10's running into them as ceiling joists.
regardless, anthything that you have seen, heard about, or heard about beeing seen, has been engineered. not the sort of roof you want to guess at.
This thread might give you some ideas. http://forums.jlconline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=244685#poststop