Need help figuring out roof pitch...

[ericaperry]

Hello everyone.
We are framing our chicken coop and run (using The Palace plans) tomorrow and are scratching our heads over here on how to pitch the roof. We adjusted the plans and our coop will be 11'x5'. I built the door for the coop already, making it 78"x24"...I would like to make the tallest part of the coop no taller than 7 feet. The roof will be the same as the palace plans..about a foot of overhang on each side. I'm terrible at math and we 've never done framing before so I don't want to mess this up!

We don't have any extreme or crazy weather in our location. Hot dry summers, and winters are usually just rainy. We are going to go with a basic sloped roof.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I would want a 3/12 pitch Minimum, 4/12 might be better. If you do not know what that means---a 4/12 would drop 4 inches every 12 inches. So if your building was 5ft wide---that would be 5x4=20 inches drop plus the over hang.

 

[mtngirl35]

I used the basic palace plan for my coop but I didn't really do any math for the roof. I just decided how tall I wanted the front to be and how tall I wanted the back to be and let the slope of the roof be what it was. Still keeping rain out after all these years! But if I remember the math right to achieve a 3 pitch roof the tallest part of the coop at 7ft would make the lowest part 5 3/4 ft. That's a 3 inch drop for each ft of the length of the roof not counting the overhangs. A 2 pitch roof would be a 2 inch drop for every ft length of the roof. That would give you a tall end of 7 ft and the low end of 6 ft 2 inches not counting the overhangs. Somebody call me on the math if I'm wrong. I did it in my head and I'm no math wiz.

 

[blackdog043]

Here's a link that might help you, make it real easy. Minimum 3/12 for shingles, a metal roof you can usually go less, according to the mfg suggestions.
https://myrooff.com/roof-pitch-calculator/

 

[flyin-lowe]

I had a friend help me build my coop and he builds houses etc. for a living. It even took him some time to get the rafters built right. Depending on how you plan to make them trying to get the angles cut right where the rafter meets the top of your wall was the problem. It took a couple practice tries and some calls to a framer but it wasn't as simple for any of us as some made it out to be. Coops are built to strange specs compared to what most builders ever use.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I had a friend help me build my coop and he builds houses etc. for a living. It even took him some time to get the rafters built right. Depending on how you plan to make them trying to get the angles cut right where the rafter meets the top of your wall was the problem. It took a couple practice tries and some calls to a framer but it wasn't as simple for any of us as some made it out to be. Coops are built to strange specs compared to what most builders ever use.

Most of the time----Now--- Home Builders Do not Have to Cut Rafters----they install prebuilt trusses and have Very little experience if any in stick building rafters.

 

[Hokum Coco]

4/12 might be better

That would have my vote and yet be a gentle slop and do the job.

 

[blackdog043]

Birds mouth cut, the easy way.
I had no experience cutting these prior to making my lean to coop shed. Here is a very good and easy way to cut them, for roof rafters. It worked great and no math involved!

 

[Howard E]

I like the video. Basically, that is a scribe and cut. A good way to cut to things that are irregular. The long screw to hold the rafters in place may also work. I like using the hurricane clips to make sure these won't move later on. Belt and suspenders?

If you really want to learn the math of these, get yourself a Swanson Speed Square, which is a good tool, but more importantly, comes with the Little Blue Book.

http://www.swansontoolco.com/product/speed-square/

Don't look at knockoff's or competing options. Get the Swanson and the blue book. The blue book is the brains to the whole operation. That explains the math and how to make the cuts, plus gives you the tables to know how long the rafters will need to be, depending on the pitch. The math isn't hard, but math is involved. Generally, a fun project once you get into it.

Guy in the video bypassed the math, but before he could do that, he had to build a jig, which was a replica of the walls he was fitting to. Change from a 3/12 to a 4/12 and you would need a new jig.

 

[ericaperry]

Thanks everyone for the input. We are going with a 4/12 pitch. I can't watch that video right now (youtube doesn't work at work...and apparently I don't either! ) but I'll take a look when I get home.