How To Frame A Saltbox Roof

Building a building with a saltbox roof is a little more complicated than your traditional truss roof.

How to frame a saltbox roof. Shed gable hip gambrel and mansard. The ridge is off center and closer to the taller wall. Saltbox roof a saltbox roof is similar to a gable roof but has different slopes and or spans for the front and rear sides of the roof. Before you start building your roof you will need to lay out the roof correctly.

Since rafters of a saltbox roof lie over the walls and extend over the edges it is important to place them precisely. Now take the pieces of wood that you intend to use for your roofing and lay them out flat on the floor. Roofs are basically five types. Rafters are angle cut to meet at a ridge board and birdsmouth notched where they intersect with the support walls.

Roof framing is one of those carpenter skills that appears quite complicated and indeed some roof designs are difficult. Lay out the walls and then screw them into position on the frame. After this has been done raise the ridge further until the point where the birdsmouth is in alignment with the highest plates of the wall. You must make sure that the pitch of the roof coincides with the walls that are used to frame the rear of the building.

This will result in one wall being higher than the other. If you aren t sure about the shape of the roof you should take a look at the rest of the shed projects as you might find a gable or a barn shape more appealing or easy to build. Once this is done use nails to secure them in place. To calculate a saltbox roof select saltbox from the roof type dropdown list or select the corresponding button on the toolbar.

If you have already built the frame of the saltbox shed we recommend you to continue the job by building the roof.