When building a country house or cottage, many are wondering how to make a gable roof on their own, and how complicated the procedure for its construction is. This article will provide answers to these and other questions related to the construction of gable roofs.
In modern suburban construction, the roof is used not only as a protection against external influences, such as precipitation in the form of rain, hail and snow, as well as wind, but also as an original design solution, such as a gable asymmetric roof, which allows the owner of a country house to demonstrate their architectural preferences, and at the same time their financial condition.
A few decades ago, all suburban villages looked the same, the same buildings were built everywhere in them, looking like a gray mass due to the use of the same standard slate roofs.
At the same time, developers are offered a wide variety of forms and designs of roofs, which make it possible to make projects of houses with a gable roof truly inimitable and unique.
The drawing of the roof - gable or almost any other - can provide for the equipment under the roof of various attic living quarters, called attics, in which case the appearance of the roof changes, which is quite easy to determine visually.
Recently, the arrangement of such premises has become quite popular, since it allows more efficient use of the available space.
The roof itself is a load-bearing structure resting on the walls of the building, to which all the loads acting on it are transferred.
There are three main types of roofs:
- Do-it-yourself shed roof types, which are most often used in the construction of various non-residential economic and household buildings;
- Gable, usually used in the construction of low-rise country houses. This type of roof is the most common in suburban construction, how to build a gable roof with your own hands and will be discussed in this article;
- Four-slope, or hip roofs are one of the most complex types of roofs used in terms of design and construction procedure.
It is not worth listing the types of gable roofs, it is enough to tell in more detail about their design. The gable roof consists of two planes (slopes), which, as mentioned above, rest on load-bearing walls.
The triangular space between the slopes is called gables or tongs.
A drawing of a gable roof can be represented as two inclined planes intersecting at the top point, forming a ridge. On the sides, this roof is limited by a pediment, which, in fact, is a continuation of the wall of the building.
Do-it-yourself slate mansard roof is one of the varieties of gable roofs, its distinguishing feature is the broken configuration of the slopes.
This type of roof allows you to increase the available attic space and use this space as a living space, without thinking about how to calculate the area of \u200b\u200ba gable roof, providing maximum available space.
In the construction of low-rise buildings, gable roofs are the most popular, since almost any roofing material can be used in their construction without restrictions.
Gable roof device
So, we are building a gable roof, the most common in the final stage of suburban construction.
This will require the following materials:
- Edged board, the thickness of which is 150 millimeters, the width is 150 millimeters;
- A bar with a cross section of 150x150 millimeters.
You can start the independent construction of a gable roof immediately after the completion of the construction of the walls of a country house.
In order to understand how to properly make a gable roof, you should first decide whether an attic will be equipped in the attic.
This is a very important factor on which the final result directly depends, in particular, the shape of the future roof, which must be planned and calculated in advance.
So, the construction of the roof begins with the installation of floor beams along the upper tier of the walls. The choice of material for beams directly depends on the presence of an attic.
When equipping an ordinary attic space, ordinary boards can be used, and when building an attic, beams should be laid on the load-bearing walls.
Important: when installing floor beams, make sure that they protrude 40-50 centimeters beyond the perimeter of the walls, which allows you to protect the walls from the effects of precipitation and water resulting from melting snow.
Boards are laid on top of the floor beams, most often they are laid along the walls. The boards have a dual purpose: they are used as a regular attic or attic floor, and they are also the basis for installing racks on which the roof rafters will be fixed.
After the racks are installed, you can proceed to the construction of the truss system. The first step is to install the gable, which will be the supporting truss, and its upper part will be the ridge of the finished roof as a result.
Rafters can be prepared on the ground, they must be in the form of a square, and they can also be installed directly on the roof, depending on the experience and qualifications of the worker involved in the construction of the roof.
For the manufacture of the pediment and rafters, pre-prepared boards are used, the size of which is 150x50 millimeters.The rafters are installed on the edge, while in their upper part they must rest against the gable ridge, and in the lower part they must rest against the floor beams.
Useful: to ensure a tighter fit of the rafters to the beams, the following method is used: the rafter, the lower end of the rafter is applied to the side surface of the beam (the upper end of the rafter must be properly fixed on the ridge) and, in the place where they intersect, draw a line along which the cut is made allowing the rafter to lie tightly on the beam. The place where the cut is made is called the “thrust”.
To connect the upper parts of the rafters to each other, a special lock is used, resulting from cuts “in half a tree” in those places where the connected rafters come into contact.
After the saw cut, the rafters are connected with a small board (“headstock”), and to improve the overall rigidity of the resulting structure, a crossbar is additionally installed.
To fasten the rafters at their junctions, you can use fasteners such as wire, nails, screws, overhead squares.
The highest fastening efficiency is achieved by the simultaneous use of several fastening materials, for example, installed squares are additionally fastened with wire.
Useful: before mounting, you should check the verticality of the installed truss using a standard plumb line.
The installation of the rafter system begins with the installation of two extreme rafters along the edges of the house, between which a rope is stretched. Using this rope, you can clarify the location of the remaining rafter legs; using this landmark, the remaining rafters are installed.
To strengthen the rigidity of the truss structure, as well as to avoid sagging of the rafters, an element called a "strut" should be used. It is installed in the center of the rafter so that the other end rests on the rack, after which it is fixed with ordinary nails.
After completing the installation of the rafter system, you can begin to lay the crate. For these purposes, you can use ordinary slats or boards, the dimensions of which are 25x25 millimeters.
Regardless of the percentage of humidity used in the manufacture of the crate of the material, over time it will gradually dry out, causing displacement and warping of the structural elements. Therefore, it is recommended to lay the crate "in a run", avoiding strict adherence to straight lines.
At the end of the story about how to build a gable roof, we should remember about the cornice, which gives a completely completed look to the finished roof. For its equipment, it is necessary to release the crate outward from the pediment at a distance of 30-40 centimeters.
With little experience and skill, a small team of three or four people is able to complete the construction of a gable roof for a country house or cottage in a fairly short time - no more than three days.
The main thing at the same time is to comply with all requirements and perform all work carefully, especially monitoring the reliability and safety of the roof.
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