Greengate Ranch Remodel
Remodeling a Daylight Ranch in Oregon

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Garden Shed #9 - Ridge Board and Rafters

I spent last evening putting the ridge board together, getting it place and making sure it was plumb & level.

I need a 17' long 2x4, which I could not find at Home Depot. I am sure if I went to a lumber yard - wait one day and "what are you doing here?" service - I could have bought a 20' one. Instead, I decided to glue an screw 10' 1x4's together. HD sells these for under $3 apiece, which is a very good price.


I simply overlapped them by 5', used wood glue and put in screws about every 6".


After trimming the thing to 17', I put the hardware on while it was still on the ground. To make mounting easy, I put the connector plates shown on first. After that, I attaced the hardware for the rafters. I am just using fence rail hardware here, which will be fine - the rafter push up against the ridge board. Once in place, I will nail through the ridge board into each one with two 16d nails.


I put the connectors every two feet on both sides of the board.


Once assembled, putting the ridge board in place was fairly easy. I just lifted it up and set it on the support studs.


Here is a close-up picture of the connection. I could have toe-nailed it, but I think it would have split out. Once fixed, I put the end rafters on. I plumbed the support stud and screwed the rafters in place.


Here is a picture of the end rafters in place. You can finally get the feel for the size and shape of the shed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love this shed...One question...Your walls are 7' and you used a 4/12 pitch so I assume your ridge cap height was 9'. Also are you rafters 8' or did you trim them down??

Troy Farwell said...

Yes, my rafters are 8' long. I did cut the ends to the 4/12 pitch (18.5 degrees), but I used the full 8 feet.

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