Sheathing and Birds Mouth on Rafter

[ROUSTABOUT]

I've never seen a house built with the roof on before the walls are sheathed.

For that matter, I've never seen roof rafters or trusses put on a house before the walls are sheathed.

Pole barn maybe. Garage stick framed, never.

We'd frame them up. Plumb the framing. Brace it to the inside. Plywood every corner. Put 1/2" foam on every corner, and 1" foam on rest of wall. String the The walls and straighten them. we would truss, deck and felt that baby. That was for a brick house. On a siding house I would plywood the whole enchilada and foam over the plywood. I liked to plywood my gable trusses before I set them. Plywooded them on the ground. Used a spreader bar to set them, with a crane.

Now, on a 600' chicken house, I run down the inside and set those trusses. If they are steel, two piece trusses, once again, no braces on outside. If they call for wood trusses, we ditch two ditches 40' apart. Drill holes in 4x6 posts and run rebar through the posts. Then nail plywood along inside and outside of posts. So I end up with about 5' of concrete, from top of form to bottom of ditch. Once again, no braces on outside. Posts are in the reinforced concrete, no need. We use a big forklift, get ten trusses at a time, drive down the house and set them one at a time while backing up.

When I build metal buildings, no wooden braces at all.

 

[2manyrocks]

I took a course in building with metal studs and synthetic stucco several years ago. My recollection is that there was a thin but wide band of metal applied to the studs to act as a brace to keep the studs from racking.

My barn was built with let in bracing years before plywood came along.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've never seen a house built with the roof on before the walls are sheathed.

For that matter, I've never seen roof rafters or trusses put on a house before the walls are sheathed.

Pole barn maybe. Garage stick framed, never.

In tract construction sometimes crews get ahead of each other.

There was extensive study with pictures in the aftermath of the big Loma Preita earthquake in California.

Several partially constructed homes collapsed and some fully roofed but wall sheathing not complete…

It also showed the added imporatance of wall sheathing the heavier the roof… resulting in many new homes adding sheathing to interior walls for added shear strength.

Anything to tie more of the structural members together adds strength… so birds mouth over sheathing.

 

[2manyrocks]

California has changed its building codes due to earthquakes. However, I believe let in braces were once commonplace there because Larry Haun did a wall framing video for Fine Homebuilding demonstrating how to cut the let in braces with a worm gear saw. The video is still on Youtube and the let in braces are plainly evident. The braces were cut, but not nailed until the wall was raised and then checked for plumb.

I'm still pretty impressed by anyone who can handle the weight of a worm drive saw like that guy.

 

[ultrarunner]

1920’s 2x4 cross bracing

Post War lots of Let In bracing.

California residential stick framing.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

In tract construction sometimes crews get ahead of each other.

There was extensive study with pictures in the aftermath of the big Loma Preita earthquake in California.

Several partially constructed homes collapsed and some fully roofed but wall sheathing not complete…

It also showed the added imporatance of wall sheathing the heavier the roof… resulting in many new homes adding sheathing to interior walls for added shear strength.

Anything to tie more of the structural members together adds strength… so birds mouth over sheathing.

If building a house, studs are 92 5/8", two top plates, 3" , and treated plates are most always 1 5/8". So that's already 97 1/4", plus I always lap down on the foundation whether it's a slab or wood floor, 1" or so. Sheathing only catches the bottom top plate. So if cutting a 2x4 rafter, which you use the 2" part of a framing square to make notches on 3 1/2" lumber, that's by the book. Sheathing won't touch rafter tails anyway. I do take the banding off the lumber and make truss straps on inside and outside of rafter and trussed walls. I usually put one to doing that while I'm cutting rafter tails off, putting band boards and barge rafters on. Then if he ain't finished putting straps on when we finish getting ready to deck, we jump in and knock it out. Then we deck it and I always use 30# felt. It's rare these days to build less that 7/12 pitch. I am not a fan of getting up there and fixing felt, with 30#, I don't have to.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

In tract construction sometimes crews get ahead of each other.

There was extensive study with pictures in the aftermath of the big Loma Preita earthquake in California.

Several partially constructed homes collapsed and some fully roofed but wall sheathing not complete…

It also showed the added imporatance of wall sheathing the heavier the roof… resulting in many new homes adding sheathing to interior walls for added shear strength.

Anything to tie more of the structural members together adds strength… so birds mouth over sheathing.

I've built many ICF homes, over a dozen. But, most people can't see it and go with wood because grandaddy used wood, I don't know. When you have a 12" top plate anchor bolted down and have your trusses strapped to that, you have a lot more sho-nuff hold on it then. I always put anchor bolts in center and learned to run a 2x4 around inside and outside of the top plate. All because it's a lot easier to do crown molding inside the house. But I do use strap steel banding to tie trusses down to the top plate inside perimeter and inside perimeter. Them houses will stand any hurricane, tornado on record so far. Another house may blow over and hit your ICF house, but it ain't knocking it down. I use FastFoot too, and wet set those blocks. That is the cats meow for footings. I do in ground footings too in conjunction.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

For a 12 x 20 shed, wall sheeting can be put on after rafter and put to the bottom of the rafter. If you are putting on horizontal soffit, it will be lower than that. If you put soffit on bottom of rafter, it will still be ok for wall sheeting to stop at the bottom of the rafter.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I've never seen a house built with the roof on before the walls are sheathed.

For that matter, I've never seen roof rafters or trusses put on a house before the walls are sheathed.

Pole barn maybe. Garage stick framed, never.

Notice I'm in both pics, no braces outside the structure.

 

[Hay Dude]

Good morning all. Two questions fro all the builders on here:

1. Is it a good idea to put the sheathing on frst and run it to the top plate. Then cut the birds mouth on the rafter to go over it and the 2 by 4? Hope I said that correctly!!! LOL

2. Have you used the Zip System? Is it a good way to go. I am building a 12 by 20 shed that I am insulating and putting electric in for my wife and kids to use.

Thanks

I like to put sheathing up to the top of the double top plates because it makes the walls stronger and helps square them. It “locks” the top plates to the studs.