Building my tiny house: framing the roof

Framing the walls was one thing. Framing the roof? Well, that’s a whole other story. Instead of dealing with mostly 2x4s, I had to deal with a lot of 2x6s, which are heavier. And a lot of angles, which are harder to cut.

The first thing I did was cut the rafter pieces for the roof. The roof has two pitches: a steeper pitch that is above the kitchen and living room and a much less steep pitch that covers the rest of the house.

The steeper pitch is at an angle of 33.69 degrees, according to the blueprints. The other pitch is at an angle of 4.76 degrees. This looks great on paper, but how do you actually measure that kind of angle for a cut?! Doug taught me a cool trick with a protractor (yeah, the fun ruler from elementary school). We were able to draw the line and then validate our measurement using a tool from Phil. This tool is a digital angle measurer. It’s pretty cool, and surprisingly, our old-timey protractor led us to a pretty accurate angle.

I matched the angle of the cut on the miter saw and got to work. I needed 24 rafters at this angle, cut on both sides, so I became a machine. After these were cut, I then measured out the new angle for 4.76 (ish) degrees and cut the other 26 rafters.

I then needed to cut the other end of the rafter, the end that rests on the wall frame. Doug taught me how to look for the crown of the 2×6. You want the crown (or the side of the wood that rises up like the curve of a hill) on the top of the roof. This way the weight can push down on the bump versus adding sag the other way. This determined how I chose the bottom side for the next cuts.

I also cut the framing for the two skylights. Cutting took a whole day. While I was working on this, Doug worked on a doll house for a friend who just had a baby. I wish I had pictures. This doll house is amazing. But all I have pictures of is my own pile of success.

On another day, Phil was back in the game, and we started putting together the ridge beam that runs along the entire house (32 feet!). We also put together the ridge support beams. The blueprints called for 4×4 posts for these, but we could only find pressure treated 4×4 posts at Home Depot. At the nearest lumber retailer, they were pretty expensive. Instead, we decided to put together two 2x4s with a 1/2 inch piece of plywood in between, similar to the header for a window.

My tiny house has 5 ridge support beams and therefore also needs 5 king posts.

We nailed these together with framing nails and then Doug screwed them in to the wall. We then attached the king posts in the middle of each ridge support beam. Once those were on, we had something to rest our super long ridge beam on. The ridge beam is two 2x6s nailed together. We built this in two parts, making sure that the 2x6s overlapped at least 4 feet for the strongest support.

It was a lot of ladder work, but we got the main base for the roof up! It was time for the rafters. On another day, Doug and I put up the rafters with the steeper pitch. Because this was the highest point of the house, there was zero chance I could do this. Even Doug had to stand on the “this is not a step” part of the ladder to reach certain angles to nail in the rafters. He only nailed in the bottom half of the rafters so we could maneuver the ridge beam to be as straight as possible. We also framed one of the skylights, which was really cool to see.

While Doug was busy working on another project, Phil and I added the rest of the roof rafters with the less steep pitch. Being on the gooseneck made this a little easier, but the lower angle made it tough to keep straight. Phil had a good idea to use a piece of spare wood and a clamp to help line up the rafter so he could nail it in the right place.

This was no easy task. Using the framing nail for something that’s above you is tough. The new framing nail gun is awesome, but it’s still heavy. I definitely appreciate Phil and Doug for their ability to reach these heights (pun intended) to help with this part of the project.

After one extra day to finish framing the other skylight, the framing of the roof is complete!

Next, I’ll be adding sheathing on the walls and the roof. This tiny house is almost weather proof.

You can watch the roof rising in action: