Gazebo Roofs

Rafter Splay (Cont.)

One method for bracing hip roof rafters against splaying outward at their bases focuses on locking the hip rafters in place. If you notice, all the other rafters are attached to the hip rafters. In other words, if we can somehow prevent the bottoms of the hip rafters from moving outward, we will also be keeping the bases of all the other rafters from splaying outward too.

For this method, metal tension rods are drilled through the center of the rafters just above walls and are attached to the bases of the hip rafters with 90° metal angle. The four tension rods form a square ring that keeps the hip, common, and jack rafters from splaying out by constraining any movement at the base of the hip rafters. By the way, the easiest type of rod to locate for this type of purpose is threaded rod.

In general, an average sized load can pull on the tension rods with over 500 pounds of force. The rods are metal and since the strength of a low grade threaded 1/4" metal rod is roughly 1010 pounds, in most cases 3/8" threaded rod will work fine.

Check Point - The roof of any gazebo catches the wind like a big sail. Under high wind conditions, it's the posts and their foundation that keeps the gazebo standing upright. When you get a password, you'll learn how to size your posts and build a foundation that will keep your gazebo standing upright under the worst of conditions.

It's best to set the metal angle into shallow 1/4" deep grooves cut into the sides of the hip rafters with a chisel. The grooves give the angle a good "bite" into the sides of the hip rafters. The angle is 1/4" thick, 2"x2" steel. You can buy the threaded rod and angle from a local metal supplier or try calling metal fabricators, welders, and machine shops.

When it comes time to tightening up the nuts at the ends of the threaded rods, don't overdo it. Simply tighten the nut by hand and then give it an extra 1/4 turn. If you tighten the nut further, you run the risk of throwing off the framing.

Gable                Rectangular Hip         Square Hip

The content under the "How-To" menu is a small sampling of all the material covered on BestDeckSite. For immediate access to in-depth information on the layout, cutting, and framing or the three "regular" roofs shown above, as well as, comprehensive coverage of all aspects of gazebo and deck building, get a password and log-in now. Note: Currently, BestDeckSite does not cover the intersection of two or more roofs ("valley" framing), roofs with unequally pitched sides ("bastard" roofs), and octagonal roofs.

     Gazebo Roofs

Previous 1 2 3 Next