I am a regular reader of Fine Homebuilding, but am not a builder. Am presently having a vacation property built and have a question regarding support of an approx. 5 foot by approx. 15 foot section of roof over a porch. A second porch is located at the opposite end of the building and has approx roof dimensions of 3 feet by 13 feet. The building is 32 feet in depth at it’s maximum, and has an irregular front elevation. That is the max depth occurs in the middle of the long axis of the building, with the aforementioned porch areas on each side of the “jut out”. The roof is to be “stick framed”, has an 8:12 pitch, and is of a gable style, with the ridge running along the long axis of the building. An intersecting gable roof will cover the middle portion of the building. The load bearing walls for the main part of the roof are immediately behind the porch areas, and are of different heights based on their respective distances to the roof eve. The original idea/still preferred method was to have a post at each side of the building along with the walls of the “jut out” carrying the load of those parts of the roof over the porches. The builder we are using was intending on installing up to four posts to support the roof loads over the porch areas. What are our options?
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Replies
Barry,
I don't know the answer to your question. Just out of curiosity, does this drawing correctly reflect what your saying?
Rich Beckman
The wall layout is correct. However the main roof eve spans the entire long axis of the building, creating the overhangs for the porches. The gable end that runs 90 degrees to the main ridge does not extend beyond the ridge line. Thanks for your reply.
Rich did a good job of sketching this. But we still don't have a lot of detail to go on.
Two thoughts come to mind - First would be to use large enough rafters to support themselves by cantilevering over the walls. Then you could add or not add posts wherever you wanted. But they would be ornamental, not functional.
Second would be to use roof trusses. They can easily cantilever that far. This would accomplish the same thing as #1.
Third would be to put a post at each end of the porch, then use a beam to span between them that would support the weight of the roof. The design of the beam would depend on the local load requirements and codes.
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