Spacing Between Roof Trusses

Follow this guide to ensure the spacing and stability of your diy roof trusses.

Spacing between roof trusses.

The trusses should be a little longer than the exact width to allow for overhang and you will need sufficient trusses to mount across the length. A 10 8 6 and 4 spacing between trusses has been the standard for most types of construction for years. Engineers have since determined however that the physical design of a post frame building will allow for standard spacing as great as 12 feet from the center when using high quality metal connector plates and lumber. Typical rafter spacing codes will specify a minimum spacing of 16 inches 19 2 inches or 24 inches.

The boards creating the slope of the roof are wider than lumber used to build trusses 2x8s 2x10s and 2x12s are most common in rafters vs. In finished space insulation is placed between the rafter boards and drywall or other material is fastened to the face. Spacing is usually used to describe the space between each truss or usually called the bay. Joints between purlins next to one another should be staggered.

Determining the correct roof truss spacing as well as the correct materials and how to build your roof trusses will be largely if not completely dependent on the weather that you can expect to receive in your part of the world. The steeper the roof the more expensive the trusses get because the longer the boards get and the more roof area increases. You will also incur additional costs because it is much harder to deck and shingle a roof that is 12 12 pitch versus a 4 12 roof. Other relevant factors include the type of wood being used for the rafters the size of the rafters and the load that the rafters need to support.

But the tables that follow are a lot more specific. Rafters must be strong enough to hold the roof sheathing and the shingles. To determine how many trusses to create you will first need to measure both the width and the length of the structure you are building. The spacing between rafters in a given building is part of the engineering calculations that determine the required structure of the roof.

This is the distance between trusses. Basically it is like longitudinal beams that support the whole roof preventing the roof from collapsing. Roof pitch between 15 and 22 5 degrees with rafter spacing strength class c16 size of rafters in mm 400mm 450mm 600mm. If your local building authority has a rafter spacing code you may not space rafters wider than required by code.

Roof truss is the structural frame bridging one side of the roof to the other side.