Segmented ridge board

[Joseph D. Skrypka]

A fellow inspector and I looked at a 50+ year old bungalow this morning with a significantly sagging roof (at the ridge and also along the plane of the roof). On inspection of the attic, we found that the ridge board was not continuous. It was made of twinned 1x4 cut to approximately 4 foot lengths. At either end of each four foot length, the rafters (2x4's) were twinned and bolted together.

Has anyone seen this before? It was obviously done intentionally as the construction was very uniform.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

In a home that age you sometimes see no ridge at all. As long as the rafters oppose each other at the peak, a sagging ridge is usually the result of spreading of the walls due to poorly installed or missing rafter ties (tying the bottoms of opposing rafters together).

[Richard A. Hetzel]

Ridges are not structural members. They are simply nailers. There is no structural reason why they need to be continuous.