Roof Return Framing

A common roof structure is made of trusses or rafters.

Roof return framing.

Before the roof sheathing goes on the open framing provides easy access for attaching the return blocking and the nailers for the rake soffit. The rise or height of the roof at its peak is the altitude of the triangle. Make sure you drag over the wall and not over the roof edge. The run or half the building span is the base of the triangle.

Rafters start at the top of the roof and go down to the eaves but not exceeding the exterior walls of the house. This structure supports all roof sheathing materials such as plywood sheathing underlayment and of course shingles. The miter angle for the sheathing on the right side is the major purlin miter angle. And the line length measurement from the roof peak to the building wall is the hypotenuse.

Click and drag a new roof plane baseline along the outside edge of the framing layer of the wall that you would like to add returns to. Select build roof roof plane from the menu. Remember the eave return roof is the roof you re really working on so that s the major pitch. Both designs start with structural support and then the process varies slightly for a shed capped cornice return vs.

The framing of a basic gable roof is based on a right angle triangle and the various roof framing components fit the triangle. The required bevel angle is a little more difficult to visualize since the return roof doesn t miter into the main roof on this side it tucks. This excerpt from john carroll s the complete visual guide to building a house the taunton press 2014 uses a series of illustrations to detail the process of framing a cornice return with two different styles of roof.