Missing Ridge Board

This is a 2006 home. There are trusses on one side of the ridge and rafters on the other. The framer simply butted the rafters to the ends of the trusses. I haven’t seen this before.

Neither have I.

Where is the other half of the truss? ha. ha.

Is it possible that someone has developed a Mutant Truss.? ha.

Time to upgrade the glossary books and add sticktruss. :wink: or should I say sick truss. ha. ha.

Call out the engineers on this one.

Great find.

Marcel :slight_smile:

…and at least one he scabbed alongside the truss with only two nails.
Baaaa-aaad framer. No beer.

A ridge board is simply a convenience, a nailer and no more, and performs no structural function. It is not unusual to find an older house framed exactly as shown, with no ridge board, Of course, there would be rafters on both sides, and no trusses. It may look strange, but it isn’t inherently incorrect.

Looks like they cut the sheathing back at the peak for a ridge vent, and like they so often do, the roofers ran their paper over it. If they hadn’t papered over the opening, deleting the ridge would have allowed for better air flow through the vent.

This is very poor construction, are the trusses setting on a bearing wall? The ends of the rafters and trusses where they butt together should be approximately the same nominal size lumber, if you get heavy snow loads or wind shear in your area the rafter/rafters could split causing a section of the roof to sag or collapse, also no collar ties installed.

Gary

http://www.hsspropertyinspection.com/

This being a 2006 home and the fact there is no ridge board longer than the rafter I would recommend further evaluation.

In addition, the requirement for collar ties does not appear to be meet. I would Imagine you would want to have some kind system to tie this roof together. Even in older construction with no ridge beam I usaully see collar ties.

If there is a truss on one side, it needs no collar ties, and then the rafters on the opposite side are effectively a shed roof, which also needs no collar ties. I don’t see collar ties to be an issue. The main issue would seem to be the load on the inboard end of the rafters, and the ability of however many nails there are to carry that load to the truss. That, if anything, is what I think should be evaluated.

From my understanding, collar ties are used to help resist the tendency of the roof to push the exterior walls outward. This set up has no such provision from what I can see in the pictures.
Truss need no collar ties but they need appropiate lateral bracing to make them work as a whole. I wonder were the engineered truss drawings are? As for shed roofs, I believe your dealing with different loads being applied to the structure.

This is what the ICC BB has to say about this subject.
Wow, who do you believe?
http://www.iccsafe.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=001392

I guess, the key words here would be collar ties, rafter ties, ridge beam, ridge board, truss, and proper application for the right purpose, as should be engineered.

Marcel :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Obviously MODIFIED trusses… SE callout… all the other is prattle…:smiley:

Framing dictionary with Pictures, I love that. ha. ha.

http://ah.bfn.org/a/DCTNRY/r/roofframing.html#crest

Marcel :slight_smile: :wink:

Prattle…Mike is giving us his Bill O’Riley impression! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Loved the use!

Curt

Curt, glad you know what it meant, I don’t have a clue. ha. ha.
Is that French for (parler de rien)? ha. ha.

Marcel :slight_smile:

My wife says I’m guilty of it all the time…

No need to give out too much info, just the biggies and the recommendations… :shock:

People don’t read much of the fine print anyway…

p.s. Almost a double needed… a Structural Engineer and a Licensed Contractor whose specialty is House Framing :mrgreen:

“rafter ties” prevent walls from spreading and are usually installed at or close to the top plate, tying the bottoms of opposing rafters together. “Collar ties” are installed in the upper third of the roof and prevent uplift.

As Richard pointed out, the conventional side is really a shed roof, with the truss side performing the duty of a structural ridge in supporting the peaks of the conventional rafters. The force of the roof load is down, rather than out, as it would be if the whole roof were built conventionally, so a rafter tie isn’t needed.

Info:…Oh, good Kenton, you supplied the info. I was on the phone a little long…but I scheduled the inspection.:smiley:

Richard, I have built many a shed roof and always include collar ties.

Are you suggesting that if I built a 8 foot farmers porch on the front of a house and it had a shed roof that it would not require collar ties to stabilize the load bearing wall?

Just curious as to your interpretation of this scenario.

Thanks for the document larry. Interesting read. I sure wish all those framing books felt the same way.