I was just reading ” The Very Effecient Carpenter” by Larry Haun and he said to make the hip rafter one size larger than the
common rafters. How can a person do this and maintain the same roof line or make a real deep seat cut. So what do you guys do with your hip rafters? Seems to me like the hip rafter would need to be the same as commons. Thanks for any help with this.
Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX
Replies
Hip rafter.
Common rafters meet the ridge at an angle so the plumb cut is is larger than the dimension of common rafters. Likewise hip jacks meet the hip at an angle that is larger than the rafter size. Hips and ridges need to be at least one size larger. Often the load on a hip necessitates an even larger member. The pitch of the hip is different and it meets the walls at the corner so the seat cut will always be different.
HI there, What Mike said and also the tops of the hips, commons and jacks need to plane in to each other so the roof sheathing lays flat. The underside of the hip is generally a bit lower than the jacks. If you are trying to achieve a cathedral ceilling under the hip section than the bottoms of the jacks can be strapped so the ceiling finish "jumps" the bottom of the hip.
Read Roof Framing by Marshall Gross for anwers to all your questions Larry didn't address.