Shed Roof Ridge Beam

Look at it this way say 40 inch load at the ridge look at your 3 4 sheathed roof as a big 8 ft high 3 8 thick beam laid flat down to a 4 12 slope an eyeball number you better check shows that a less than 1000psi plywood would be sufficient with staggered middle edges and 2x6 rafters to keep em flat however you then have about 6000 pounds of lateral thrust at each end wall to deal with.

Shed roof ridge beam.

Determine your desired roof pitch. For example if the slope is 4 in 12 and the run is 12 feet the ridge beam height m will be 4 feet. A ridge beam runs the length of the shed roof connecting every pair of rafters. A proper beam would have a supporting post at each end.

I always always build trusses. Here s a picture of a gable style shed using a ridge beam. Versa lam lvl size chart laminated beam span tables charts. However our instructions include making shed rafters with a ridge beam.

The difference between them is that a ridge beam is a structural member that bears half of the live and dead loads of the rafters on either side of it but a ridge board is not structural. This can be accomplished with collar ties boards spanning the shed at ceiling height or with large gussets further up the rafter slope. The rafters are angle cut at the ridge end and notched with a birdsmouth where it meets the top plate of the supporting wall. Building trusses on site is easily done for a shed.

You don t need a ridge beam but you do need a way to keep the walls from spreading. Determining the ridge beam height. Framing in a ridge beam in shed roof construction is not hard. Some shed rafters do not incorporate ridge beams either due to small size or lack of technical know how.

One collar tie would be enough in your case. Shedme shed roof rafter span. A simple gable shed roof is often built using 2 4 or 2 6 lumber for the rafters and 2 4 for the collar ties. Yes either a ridge board or a ridge beam is necessary and required by the building code where roof rafters meet at the the center of their span.

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. In order to adhere to standardized building codes and ensure adequate runoff your shed s roof must have a pitch of at least 3 12 read as three in twelve. The term pitch refers to the slope of the roof.