Gable Roof Truss Design

A gable truss sits on the end wall of a structure and has vertical studs every 2 feet or 16 inches.

Gable roof truss design.

Lay the first piece of siding on the truss assembly and allow 2 inches of overhang below the bottom of the simulated top plate. The truss sides will be equal in length and width to fit equally on the shed walls. Trusses can be constructed with smaller sized lumber than rafters and often their cost is not significantly higher than normal rafters. After they re up you can snap a line to mark and trim the tails in a nice straight line to make up for any ridge warp or marking cutting and fixing errors.

Finally there is a barn type or gambrel shed roof. The gable shed has a roof like a house so the roof trusses will have a peak in the middle. The top chord smoothly extends out past the wall to create the overhang. A pitch truss with two sets of different sloping sides.

This is used for gable roofs. For a good straight fascia add an extra inch or 2 to the tails of all your rafters total length. Wood roof trusses bring the bottom chord of the truss all the way to the outside of the wall include a small vertical cut butt cut and angles back against the top chord of the truss. A gable truss isn t structural and needs a continuous bearing support underneath such as a beam or wall.

They re often placed at the front and back of each other with the front pitch usually steeper. For larger structures like floors roofs or decks try a fink truss design which has internal joists arranged in a w shape for extra support. Gable trusses are more expensive than common structural trusses because more lumber is required. Sheet gable end trusses remove the screws holding the truss rafters to the floor flip it over and put it back in place aligned with the simulated to plate.

If you re trying to reinforce a shed or gable roof use a simple king post truss design which has a single vertical joist running through the center of the triangular frame.