Traditional Roof Construction Timbers

The sand creek standard.

Traditional roof construction timbers.

The rafters are the main load bearing elements of the roof. American historic carpentry is the historic methods with which wooden buildings were built in what is now the united states since european settlement. The traditional option is steeply pitched rarely less than 35. Originally hand split from local woods oak and pine in the northeast to cypress in the south wood shingles were typically shaved smooth for high style and garden variety houses.

There are two basic methods of pitched roof construction. Whether you are building a home barn or commercial space our 8x timbers create a structure that is built to last the test of time. Roof building is one of the more complex aspects of site carpentry and is a highly skilled job as the timbers are cut on site and erected one at a time it is both relatively slow and relatively expensive. 50mm wide by 75mm 100mm or 125mm deep are all common.

Traditional or cut roof. A truss roof using factory made trusses which are delivered to site complete and just erected. The overall construction of a traditional cut roof is to ensure that the load of the roof is evenly transmitted to the walls below. They span from the wallplate to the ridge board providing a platform for the underlay battens and tiles.

When a reference is made within this rule to a federal statutory provision an industry consensus standard or any other technical publication the specific date and title of the publication as well as the name and address of the promulgating agency are listed in rule 4101 8 44 01 of the administrative code. Timbers of the frame and is known as wattle and daub. A number of methods were used to form the wooden walls and the types of structural carpentry are often defined by the wall floor and roof construction such as log timber framed balloon framed or stacked plank. Every member of a traditional cut roof is individually cut and assembled on site.

Sand creek post beam uses massive 8x full dimensional timber in our frames. As you can see in the photos below the difference is substantial when compared to common 6x timbers. A cut roof this is the traditional method of cutting the timber on site and building up the roof using rafters ridge boards joists and purlins etc the exact details being determined by the size of roof size of timbers etc. Supported the daub which was a rough lime based plaster containing animal hair.

For builders in timber rich north america wood shingles were the obvious choice for the earliest roofs and ultimately the most common roofing material for houses well into the 20th century. This is more of a traditional manner in regards to cutting the timber while onsite and building up the roof by the use of rafters ridge boards joists and purlins among others. Traditional or cut roofs usually comprise a series of sloping timbers rafters fixed to a wall plate at their feet and a ridge board or possibly a wall plate at their head. It consisted of vertical timbers or staves fixed between two horizontal members of the timber frame this element is the wattle.

There are a couple of different methods for constructing pitched style roofs. The timbers are often 400mm or so centres and vary in size according to span.