Over the course of this week we have been working on hip and valley roofs. A hip and valley roof is the standard roof type at the current time and is a rather logical and simple looking roof, although its simple look belies its involved construction. For the usual house, there is the main roof and minor roofs. The main roof is the largest and heighest part of the roof. Minor roofs can be formed by garages, alfrescos and rooms that stick out from the main rectangle shape of the house, these are not as high as the main roof.
On Monday we got straight into building a small roof ontop of a stud wall frame that was already built by some other class. I found it very interesting and as we all knew what to do, we could all get stuck in. We each had separate jobs to complete, which meant we all had something to do and there wasn't any errors due to lack of communication. I cut and shot in the two rows of hangers that went across the main room, whilst Rhys built another section of stud wall, Dan, Renno and Michael cut rafters. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction in having a job thats specifically my responsibility and finishing it with good results.
After this Dan and I began measuring and cutting the under rafter, a special rafter that helps frame and strengthen a box end gable. We made the gable with a 450mm overhang from the wall. To make the gable we had the last pair of rafters at about 360mm from the edge of the wall, two under rafters that met up at the ridge at the edge of the wall plate and then two rafters that hung in mid air, attached by trimmers.
