Hip Roof Ridge Beam

As you can see the ridge board or ridge beam is holding up the jack rafters at the top of the incline.

Hip roof ridge beam.

A ridge board or beam runs through the tops of rafters or trusses from end to end along a gable roof tying those framing members together. The ridge board holds them in place. A ridge board is a non structural member that serves as a prop for opposing rafters to rest against and connect to. Attach 4 6 centering rafters and lift the ridge beam into place.

Ridge beam sizing is based on the span of the beam between supports and the amount of roof load supported by the beam. Hip ridge the header 4 0 load h hip jacks load b load i approximate load conditions based on a truss use of partial uniform loads. The first step in the process of erecting the hip roof is to get the ridge beam into place at the top of the roof. The loads on the ridge beam are carried by vertical posts at the beam ends down through the building structural walls to the building foundation.

A structural ridge beam is a horizontal beam placed at the peak or ridge of a roof and is designed to carry much of the live and dead loads or weight of the roof structure by itself. Determining the ridge beam height. Ridge beams are required by code if the roof slope is less than 3 in 12 irc section r802 3. Because a ridge beam often carries a significant area of roof load they can exhibit structural distress due to a defect in wood impact on the roof or use of an undersize beam.

More accuracy could be achieved by taking each truss as an individual pt load. The ridge beam shown below at the living room of a 1950s modern style ranch house in gainesville has cracked at mid span and is slowly heading towards failure after. If you know the slope x in 12 you want to use for your roof framing design you can use it along with the run r to determine the height of the ridge beam for example if the slope is 4 in 12 and the run is 12 feet the ridge beam height m will be 4 feet. The finished ridge beam height z above the top of the wall will be m plus the y height.

Supporting hip truss roof load and under hip master concentrated load. This is the typical structure of a hip roof. The hrc may be sloped downward a maximum of 45.