Hello all,
Framing quandry: I saw some framing the other day which seemed a little strange to me:
A small addition was being built on the back of a 1 story house. The new room has a ridge that is perpendicular to the ridge of the original house. To frame the new roof the framer set trusses back to where the new roof intersected the old. Then he set a ridge board and cut rafters for the remainder of the roof. I could not see how the two parts of the roof are tied together.
This method seems strange to me, but I do not frame. Is this a common practice, and if so what are the merits of a system like this.
THanks
Matt
Replies
What he did was run the trusses up too the existing house like you said and then just stick framed the continued ridge perpendicular to the existing ridge and layed down a sleeper for the valley rafters.
You can buy the trusses to do what he did also.
Hope I'm close.
Joe Carola
Edited 10/23/2003 7:02:26 PM ET by Framer
The only problem with using valley set trusses over an existing roof is that these trusses are formed as an equilateral triangle.
The bottom chord would have a tendency to rock up and down where it is laid over an existing roof. (very rarely is that surface perfectly flat after a period of years)
Field cutting these valley rafters float over any of these variences and will seamlessly blend the new roof to the old.
From what I've read there is no "quandry" the carpenter did a proper job on a remodel.
Oops almost forgot ...They plywood sheathing will do the job of tying the two roofs together. Just like they do in any other truss roof.
So it looks like this section is done pretty much like the "California" framed dormer, right?
-- J.S.
I believe so. What exactly does that mean, 'California framing?' I am in California and have seen that referenced on plans without really knowing what exactly that means.
There was another thread here recently called "California Framing" -- It was about putting a decorative dormer onto an existing roof in pretty much the same way if I'm understanding both threads correctly.
-- J.S.
Jiohn,
If your going by my drawing above where you frame the valley on top of a sleeper on the existing roof some people call it a California Valley but I don't, we call it a Blind valley or False valley but whatever anyone calls it, it's still a valley being framed on top of another roof nailing on top of sleepers, then again some people might not call them sleepers.
That thread "California Framing" I thought was about Face Nailing as opposed to Toe Nailing. Maybe I'm wrong.
Joe Carola
About california framing, I saw it referenced in "A roof cutters secrets" by will holiday. I thought that it was when the valley and hips are assembled on a roof, on sleepers, instead of having major and minor valleys. What struck me as odd is that I have seen this same technique on 1800's houses here in Vermont. I guess its just a good technique, cause it evolved all the way across the country.
Yup, that's the way I do it. Works great.
I had to do something similar to my house. The reason I went with trusses was I had a low pitch on the roof. A header to take the roof load would have to have been a 4 x 14, and the ends would have been above the roofline. Essentially used trusses to span the new opening.