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Hi I'm Tim Carter from AskTheBuilder.com and I'm here at a new construction site in New Hampshire
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and I want to show you something that you rarely get to see from this vantage point. I'm up on top
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of a wall, a second story wall, balancing myself so that I can show you a valley rafter as it's
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being constructed. Check this out. This is common roof framing that's being done, not trusses. Look
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Look at this. So what you see here, this is actually the main ridge beam of this house
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It goes a long, long way, all the way down, and it goes across, and it continues down
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that direction for another 20-25 feet. Well, look at this. Here's another ridge beam, you know, and it comes across this direction and ends
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And the point is, where these two intersect, you have to have a valley rafter
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And there are actually two of these doubled up. And here's the valley rafter coming down
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It's actually dropping in elevation, dropping, dropping, dropping. You can see my hand
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And the valley rafters come down and they rest right here on this wall
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And the reason there are two of these rafters is because it actually a giant beam Here what valley rafters do See that little rafter right there And then of course this one this one and now this one and of course this one There are five of
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them. These all connect to the valley rafter and you can see it's a very
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unusual cut. It's a compound cut of that rafter. Not only do they have to cut the
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angle this way, but they have to cut a 45 degree angle this way as well. So I'll
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show that to you again right here. This is called a cheek cut on this particular rafter
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where it intersects the valley, and you can see it's a gorgeous cut. I mean, you can't
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even put a piece of paper between that. So, it's cut at an angle here, and it's cut at
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an angle here. So, that's a compound cut. And, of course, it takes all of that weight
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from this side of the roof right here and as well as right here where they have not
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yet put in the rafters. So, valley rafters, very, very important. They're a little tough
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to put in, it's probably not something you as a doer yourself are going to get right the first time
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I'm Tim Carter, AskTheBuilder.com. If you want to discover more home improvement tips
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go to AskTheBuilder.com
