Carpentry & Home Improvement Skills : How to Build Rafters

Building rafters requires knowing the length and pitch of the roof and cutting the rafters to just the right length, from the outside of the wall to the roof ridge. Layout rafters of the right length and cut with instruction from an experienced builder in this free video on carpentry.

Expert: Robert Markey
Bio: Robert Markey is an artist who works in several media including painting, sculpture, installation, video and mosaics.
Filmmaker: EquilibrioFilms Erik

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• carpentry
• building
• home improvement
• home repair
• DIY
• do it yourself

[HammerFist1970]

Thank you!

[kmendiola59]

Man that was a great illustration simple and precise.

[EfrenChavez205]

Here's an easy way to find the length of your rafter. Overhang + run x factor(hypotenuse) - half the ridge board and that will = the distance of your rafter. Ps make sure you square root your factor before you multiply it. Thumps up if this was helpfull to you!

[homeostasis4me]

Oh. Instructional. Thanks.....meh....

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[FueledByTyeler]

@bryans710 if your building is 12' wide and the ridge is in the middle then your 'run' is half that, it's 6'. if your pitch is 8/12 like this guy says, then for every 12 inches of run you have 8 inches of rise. since 6 feet is 6 sets of 12 inches you'll have six sets of 8 inches meaning your 'rise' will be 48 inches. since this forms a right triangle (rafter being the hypotenuse) you can do rise squared times run squared equals rafter squared. in this case (48^2)(72^2)=(x^2) x=the rafter length

[FueledByTyeler]

@brotherjesus in standar notation your pitch is 2.513, 12



[brotherjesus]

I am building a ramp for my shed, sounds simple. My run is 48 inches my rise will be 10.5 inches, what is my pitch? This is where it gets difficult instead of the rafter (which is actually my ramp stringer) resting on the top of a wall it will be resting on top of a concrete footing, so the bottom must be cut so it will lay flat, while the stringer rests square against the side of the shed (which could be considered the ridge), then I need to cut a birds mouth to rest on angle iron shed side.

[kevinflynn1980]

use pythagoras theorm. your run is 6 foot, whats your rise? 6squared + your rise squared= you true lenght squared. sample 6x6 +4x4=T.Lsquared so root 60=T.L

so 7.7 is your true lenght of your common.

[wildwill1970]

@DRNEFDR Also on most framing squares it has the multiplier right next to the inches. You just times the lenght of the run by that number and don't forget to subtract half the diameter of the ridge. Bingo, rafter length.