Hip Roof Support Walls

In hip roof designs all four exterior walls support the ends of roof rafters so all exterior walls bear a weight load from the roof above them.

Hip roof support walls.

There are no gable ends on a building with a hip roof. Any wall on all floors directly above or parallel to a basement beam. The wall you are wanting to remove is not a bearing wall by looking at the framing in the attic and the roof lines of the house. Side walls are primary load bearing walls in simple gable end framing but hip roofs and complex roof lines depend on more than just the side.

In the above example the supplier specified a humongous beam that did not appear justified. Structural walls on two story homes with gable roofs are commonly the center wall running parallel with the length of the house and the front and rear walls on the exterior. The hip roof is the most commonly used roof style in north america after the gabled roof. Some claim true rectangular or square hip roof structures are self supporting.

Looking at a brick ranch built in the 70 s the roof is hip with a ridge board house is l shape configuration so 2 ridge boards and each board has a 2x4 a couple feet from the end nailed to the side of the ridge board and toe nailed into the top of the wall or ceiling joist. A hip roof is a roof in which the roof slopes upward from all four exterior walls to meet at a central ridge. The exception would be in the case of a hip roof were ceiling joists often change direction at each end of the house and a wall is run crossways to support the inside ends of the joist the ceiling joists appear to change direction directly above one of the walls. To what extent do the opposing forces of a symmetrical hip roof system relieve the point load resulting from a roof brace.

Just to be on the side of caution i would install an 8ft 4x4 directly centered under the splice with lag bolts and remove the vertical. These walls directly support roof trusses or rafters. I am putting up a 20 x40 one level building that will have a conventional hip roof w 6 12 pitch there will be ceiling joists 2x8x12 secured in the center and hung from the ridge beam by 2x4 s. 2 3 the front and back roofs from the end of the ridge first common rafters to the outside wall corners where the hips are seated each make up a triangle with the front and back wall plates making the bases for right triangles with each hip being the hypoteneus and the first common rafter being the remaining leg.

Does this seem adequate to hold this roof up without having a load bearing support wall in the interior. If hips are self supporting why are braces required.