I did some reading on Hurricane preps – article said that gable ends may be a weak point.
i went in the attic and looked at mine (which face North – bad direction) and there is really not much holding the gable end up. some 2x lumber with the thin end facing out covered by foam sheathing and wood siding on the outside. wood 2x is toe nailed to the plate at the bottom and toe nailed poorly to the end roof rafter.
Think i will put in a cross beam or two and run some supports back onto the ceilingjoists to keep the end gable from blowing in.
are they all like this?
Edited 9/7/2004 3:27 pm ET by wain
Replies
Gables do not support much weight, so the structure is often minimal there. I would expect that the hurricane danger is more in terms of wind lift on the roof at that point, as opposed to the gable end itself 'blowing in'. Also depends upon how much overhang you have to trap wind. Metal ties might be a good idea.
Thanks - the impression I got was that the gable end would blow in then lift the roof off.
Hugo hit about 10 miles from here and we had 120+ MPH winds with no roof problem (cept for the 5 trees thru the roof) but some of these storms are even stronger than 120
No more trees within 100 ft of my house ever
Seems to me that no one used to pay attention to gables. They were typically considerdd "non structural" and were not even designed for gravity loads.
Now that computers are getting faster and faster, we have to think of more and more things to question and design for. So now gables are being designed for more and more.
Here's a few gable bracing details that might interest you:
http://www.alpeng.com/lib/util/get_wood_truss_connections_doc.php?id=15_pdf
http://www.alpeng.com/lib/util/get_wood_truss_connections_doc.php?id=16_pdf
http://www.alpeng.com/lib/util/get_wood_truss_connections_doc.php?id=17_pdf
http://www.alpeng.com/lib/util/get_wood_truss_connections_doc.php?id=20_pdf
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I look for more and more attention to be paid to this over the next few years. And it probably won't just be gables - It will be wind design in general.
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