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I have been recruted by a neighbor to help him to pitch a currently flat roof on part of his house, it is a mud room and fortunately isnt very big.
I am a finish carpenter and dont have the first clue how to make trusses, However I can follow a drawing or written instructions, If any one out there could please help me I would sure apreciate it. By the way I said I would help this man before I realised the scope of what I had just agreed to. He is a medical office worker and he thinks that a carpenter is a carpenter Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael
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mike...you have to be able to describe the situation before anyone can help..
have you thought about going to the building inspector and asking for his help.. some of 'em can sketch out your problem solution in about five minutes
if you can post a description .. or better.. a sketch..
someone here can tell you the next step..
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Mike Smith:
Thanks for responding to my question,
I guess your right I didn't give you much detail, so here goes, My neighbor has a home with a pitched roof however in the back of the home is a small mud room with a flat roof, the snow ( which is considerable here in Utah ) just sits there and melts and eventually leaks into his house He dosent like that so he has asked me to help him pitch the roof over the existing roof. you know leave the flat roof intact and put a pitched roof on top.
the roof area is 15 feet long by 15 feet wide. Purchacing ready built trusses is expensive and I dot think necessary in this case so I thought I would build my own. What I was asking for was some Ideas of how to build trusses and if any one knew of any problems I would need to overcome. I have been a cabinet maker for sometime and I think I can follow instructions pretty well. thanks for your help
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Why not just stick build with common rafters? Is this off the gable end of the house? Are ya trying to match the main roof pitch? Will you run a gable off the gable end wall, or a shed roof off the gable wall? Or will the new roof intersect the current roof at any point. Try to keep with the flow of the existing house. Same pitch gable, or shed off the non-gable(what do ya call that side?) wall. Get a speed square and read the little book. Pretty much all ya need to know! And chech the local codes on ridge/ledger attachment requirements. Usually same as a deck. If the current flat roof is rubber, it'll trap heat. Find out ahead of time about vent requirements. Give us the outside dimensions, pitch, and /or wanted ridge height. Jeff
*I am probably a bit out of my league here, but the recommendation I have seen is to not even try to build your own trusses. Trusses are engineered structures and the forces need to be calculated for them to work correctly. I took a couple of semesters of courses calculating the forces in structures and I wouldn't even begin to try to design a truss. Traditionally, the members of wooden trusses are joined with metal plates using large hydraulic presses. This type of pressure joining cannot be done effectively on site, although I would assume that there are alternative ways of constructing the joints. I would think you would be better off framing a traditional rafter style roof with a ridgeboard and collar ties. You might have to attach an additional set of top plates for the "birds mouths". Again, the standard disclaimer...
*Michael,If the current flat roof is solid and has been carrying the snow load then you should be able to stick frame a shed or peaked roof on top without any problem. Trusses are not necessary. Use the existing flat rafters as joists if they are properly aligned. Otherwise, place a couple of 2x4 plates along the edges of the existing roof to receive the bird's mouth cuts on the rafters. Nail through the sheathing and into the existing flat roof joists. For a small roof like this, I would consider framing up a simple knee wall down the center of the roof. You can rest the peak end of your rafters on this ridge. Tie the complementing rafters together with a metal fraiming strap run over the top. Do it this way and you can skip the collar ties. Your ridge will also come out straight and sag free.Steve
*b Why don't you tell us the orientation of this flat roof in relation to the rest of the house?
*Michael, Before you buy the wood to make your own rafters, I would price out trusses. I'm not sure where in Utah you are, but BMC Truss Company sells them pretty cheaply, and they aren't bad quality. We just used them for our addition, and were quite satisfied. Our custom scissor trusses ran us about $70 each, and it is much cheaper if you are going with a stock size and a regular truss. I've been told by some friends in commercial construction to stay away from Andersen trusses, they may be cheap but they are pretty poorly made (personally, I think it's because their lumber is what everybody else in the area has already rejected). Anyway, with the cost of lumber, and your time, your friend may find it cheaper to just buy the engineered trusses. Good luck.
*mike... two guys with a plan and no experience , but your carpentry skills, could frame and sheath that in two days...two guys with experience could do it in one day....then you trim it, and roof it..but you gotta have a plan...unless you're a framer, then you could frame this in your sleep..trusses would be a big waste of time for this one..b but hey, whadda i no ?
*Mike,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*Joe, that's close to what I had pictured, but the colors are all wrong! Jeff
*no joe... that's not what i had in mind....oh.. you meant the other mike ?well, anyhow, i figgered a gable intersecting the main gable, same pitch as the main gable....with two valleys....don't you have access to a digital camera ?
*Mike,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*joe... the house with the flat roof exists...
*and this is what i think it looks like....
*Mike,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*sorry joe... but for only the second time since i met ya.. yur WRONG, WRONG, WRONG........ THIS is it with a new pitched gable roof replacing the flat roof....Kermithah, hah, hah
*Mike,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*Kermit,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*Mike,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*hey, michael,... where do you want me and joe to send our bills ?
*
you and joe are a real hootYou should have your own comedy show somewhere and call it "The key stone cops do construction"
But any way thank you all for the Ideas. I now know How I am going to go about this. By the way how did you draw those graphics?, they were good.
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geesh, joe... i wonder what he meant by that ?
so, mike.....HOW are you going to do this.?..
it's the feed-back that everyone looks for in these posts but never seem to get....
b but hey, whadda i no ?
*Mike,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
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I have been recruted by a neighbor to help him to pitch a currently flat roof on part of his house, it is a mud room and fortunately isnt very big.
I am a finish carpenter and dont have the first clue how to make trusses, However I can follow a drawing or written instructions, If any one out there could please help me I would sure apreciate it. By the way I said I would help this man before I realised the scope of what I had just agreed to. He is a medical office worker and he thinks that a carpenter is a carpenter Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michael