House Timber Frame Roof Video

Hi, I'm Tim Carter and I'm at a new construction site in New Hampshire. I want to show you something really exciting. Timber frame roof assembly and its components of the system. Look at this beautiful ceiling.

So here's what the timber frame is. In your house, you may have a regular truss system. Here we have a giant Douglas for rafter beam on both sides. The trouble from a structural standpoint is when you have a roof like this and you get a snow load on top, the roof wants to kick out at the bottom, spreading wider. Actually wanting to collapse and flatten the roof.

To hold those two beams together, there is a major structural component called a collar tie. This is connected to the rafter beams on both ends so it can't pull apart.

The other important component of the timber frame is is a member called a purlin. Typically in some construction, roofing is attached directly to the purlin. But on this job to make a more interesting look, the architect decided to use pieces of Douglas fir 2x4's and connect the roofing to that.

So that is a simple timber frame roofing system in a residential home. These are the components that make up a beautiful finished ceiling.