The Roof Ridge Beam

Framing in a ridge beam in shed roof construction is not hard.

The roof ridge beam.

I always always build trusses. A simple rafter roof consists of rafters that the rafter foot rest on horizontal wall plates on top of each wall. The ridge board holds them in place. A timber frame roof has rafters and a ridge beam as with stick framing but the ridge is a large structural beam that the rafters sit on top of or sometimes fit into notches cut into the beam.

A ridge board or beam runs through the tops of rafters or trusses from end to end along a gable roof tying those framing members together. B a ridge beam supported by not less than 89 mm length of bearing. The rafters bear most of the weight of the roof. The loads on the ridge beam are carried by vertical posts at the beam ends down through the building structural walls to the building foundation.

A ridge board is a non structural member that serves as a prop for opposing rafters to rest against and connect to. Ridge beam sizing is based on the span of the beam between supports and the amount of roof load supported by the beam. 2 except as provided in sentence 3 the ridge beam referred to in sentence 1 shall conform to the sizes and spans shown in table a 12 provided a the supported rafter or joist length does not exceed 4 9 m and b the roof does not support any concentrated loads. With this design the ridge beam bears much more load weight than the ridge board on a standard stick framed roof.

Here s a picture of a gable style shed using a ridge beam. The difference between them is that a ridge beam is a structural member that bears half of the live and dead loads of the rafters on either side of it but a ridge board is not structural. Ridge beams are required by code if the roof slope is less than 3 in 12 irc section r802 3. Timber steel framing manual single span ridge beam.

The top ends of the rafters often meet at a ridge beam but may butt directly to another rafter to form a pair of rafters called a couple. Now if you have done any looking around this site you ll quickly see that i am not a fan of using a ridge beam in shed construction. Glulam ridge beam span table elcho beams tables golagoon.