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.
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??
ReplyDeleteYes, 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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