Design Your Own Roof Trusses

Tight neighborhood on a ridge

They came for their acre of Oregon, and love it.

But who would have thought?

This acre, awkward. Nobody else even wanted it, really. Way too steep: At a grade of up to 33 percent, too precipitous even for deer to climb straight up.

On top of that, it had to be shared. Not just one home site, as originally thought, but 10 times that many.

One steep acre, 10 homes, all clustered along a curved, friendly little lane off South Shasta Loop in the south Eugene hills.

To say the least, land conservation at its peak.

“That’s really where we were headed,” says Chris Stebbins, who, along with business partner Steve Ives and Eugene architect David Edrington, began building the Crescent Ridge planned unit development about 10 years ago. “The fact we can put 10 families on a leftover piece of land that was originally conceived for one home, that’s what got the ball rolling.”

The homes, however, had to be literally pinned into place.

Soil engineers ordered piers of up to 40 feet long for anchoring houses on the development’s lower side into the steep, slippery clay hillside.

“I think we did a good job of salvaging the site,” says architect Edrington, who resorted to a few tricks from his earlier high-density neighborhood projects for squeezing Crescent Ridge into place.

Each home has only a small, single-car garage with little companion carport, for example. Edrington could not hide garages behind the homes, due to hillside constraints, so he nuzzled them right up to Crescent Ridge Lane. “We let the scale of those buildings help make the street into a more pedestrian place,” he says.

Mighty neighborly

The Frazier family desired just such a cozy neighborhood when moving from the Bay Area to Crescent Ridge in 2005.

“We were thinking, ‘Well, it would be nice to live in a community where we could have immediate friends in Eugene,’” says Doug Frazier, a work-at-home computer programmer and owner of Eugene Local Foods. “For the most part I think it’s worked out pretty well.

Roof Trusses Vs. Traditional Rafters and Roof Framing ...

This article will consider the pros and cons of roof trusses vs traditional rafters and roof framing. After defining and explaining each category carefully, you’ll be equipped to weigh the pros and cons of each. You’ll have a solid foundation to make an informed and educated decision about which you would like to use in your own building projects.

Roof Trusses – roof trusses are used to frame and support the roof structure of a building or home. Traditional roof framing was built on-site, through the use of steel or lumber, most of the new homes that are being built today are done so with pre-manufactured truss systems. As you consider the advantages of roof trusses vs. Traditional rafters and roof framing, you should be aware that there are different kinds of roof trusses that are available on today’s market that are able to accommodate the various home designs and roof loads.

The various types of roof trusses can be broken down into two main categories. Gliders or Parallel-chord are known as flat trusses. They are widely used in the construction of flat roofs. Common or pitched trusses are used in the building and construction of sloped-roof structures. Browstring designs, gambrel, or hip designs are very popular examples of these common trusses. Regardless of the type of trusses, all of them have the same basic components and structural design. Even the name itself, “truss” is a description of a triangular design that ranges from a simple individual triangle to a large number of units that are interconnected. From these points the advantages of roof trusses vs roof framing are obvious.

Traditional Rafters – traditional roof rafters are being replaced with trusses. Trusses are a form of roof rafters. They trusses that are used to replaced them and come pre-fabricated from the factory. The trusses have rafters, but come with more internal bracing, as well as with strong metal gussets that anchor the joints. Traditional rafters do still have a place in construction, as they provide more interior open space than trusses. Traditional rafters can also be built by anyone with the right kinds of tools and a bit of carpentry experience. As you consider the pros and cons of roof trusses vs. Traditional rafters and roof framing, you’ll now discover that building costs can be much lower when uses trusses.

Roof Framing- the first step, when it comes to conventional roof framing is the cut a common rafter pattern or designs a layout. The eight of the ridge board will be determined by the rise and run of the common rafter. It will also determine the length of any valley rafters and hip rafters that may be involved in traditional framing. Traditional framing falls under the heading of rough framing carpentry. Therefore, it requires a very seasoned and fine-tuned professional to perform this kind of roofing. Because of the skill and experience necessary in traditional framing, the costs associated will be higher than with trusses or other methods. With this key point in mind, one of the cons of roof trusses vs. Traditional rafters and roof framing is that traditional roof framing costs will be much higher due to the required expertise.

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