I am looking to build a simple gable porch on my bungalow home. It is a basic pitch roof. I have a picture of what I want it to look like. The thing is, I can't seem to find any plans on how to build it. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance
XSleeper
07-29-05, 02:54 PM
Aesthetically, your gable end will look the best if it is built at the same pitch as the rest of the roof. So the first thing you should do is determine the pitch of your existing roof. To do this, take a level and set one end on the roof, while the other end points down toward the gutter. Raise the level up until it is level, and then measure from the bottom of the level down to the roof. (probably a job for 2 people!) What this will give you is the ratio of the roof's rise to run. If you use a 48" level, and it's 12" down to the roof, then the ratio is 3:12. (rise:run) This will be the pitch of your gable end roof.
The next thing you need to determine is how wide the roof will be. Let's say for example, that your porch walls will be 20' wide, and you have 2' of soffit under your existing roof, and you'd like to maintain that same look. Your roof width would be 20+2+2=24'.
To determine the roof height, multiply the 1/2 the width (12') by the roof pitch ratio as a fraction (.25).
12 x .25 = 3. The bottom of your ridge board would be 3' above your top plate, minus the height of the birdsmouth cut in the rafters. (where the rafter sits on the wall.)
To start out with, the room and walls usually get built first. Then once you have a known point on your top plate, your roof framing can begin. A temporary support gets stood up where the ridge board goes. The ridge board gets cut to the roof pitch on the end where it meets the existing roof, and left long on the other end, to be cut to length later. Since you know how high the ridge needs to be, you can put a nail on that end of the temp. support and set the ridge on it so that it can slide back and forth, then level the ridge by moving it up or down the roof until it's level. The rafters should all be the same length if you have the ridge centered, and everything is level, but the tails get left long so that they can be cut to exact length later. The valley rafters aren't much more complicated, aside from needing to be cut at a compound angle. Snap a chalk line to represent the valley, from ridge to fascia, and measure from the ridge to the chalk line to get your lengths.
Is that enough to get you started? If not, they have some nice books on framing in most of the big box stores.
Thanks a lot for the info. I have actually looked around for a Do It Yourself project book with this kind of project but have had no luck.
ANyone know of a good project book that has this type of plan?
Thanks