I’ve been drawing plans for my timberframed roof. actaully just the lake side of my house. It’s a compound curved cone shaped roof.
It will require me to do some really strange consruction techniques, more of like building a boat than any roof construction you’ve ever seen.. What’s worst I need to loft my lines in place rather than on a flat surface. Each timber will have a differant length, differant angle, and differant bevel.
That’s not the crazy part, heck I did that already. when I put my tower partially up on the 17/12 pitch roof of my house.. It might of added two days to construction but that’s all.
The crazy part is I’m thinking of putting an eyebrow dormer into the cone. The cone is facing the lake and I could have a magnificent view of the lake from the attic.
Has anybody ever done anything like this? Ever seen it done? Ever talk to somebody who’s second cousin saw it done once?
Replies
Frenchy,
Eyebrows are very cool especially if the moldings are prominet and curved...but even with just shakes they are still beautiful. I think Norm did an eyebrow(re-roofing, TOH) on teh Arlington, MA house a few years ago.
frenchy,
Just a suggestion. Have you posted this over on Fine Homebuilding? Breaktime I think? You should get all kinds of responses there.
By the way, we're ALL crazy to some degree depending on who you ask! :-)
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 3/10/2007 8:54 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Hey Frenchy, You have already posted enough information on this forum to settle the issue of whether you are crazy or not. At this point, taking on a project like this so the squirrels in your attic will have a good view of the lake is just icing on the cake. Ha ha.
I had to take over a job once that had a roof that came close to fitting into your description. Only problem was that it was supposed to have been straight. Seems they had done such a bad job of laying out the foundation, that the house was so out of square that they had to sharpen the pitch just so they could toe-nail the edge of the steepest rafters to the cleat nailed onto the top edge of the celotex. Who needs a birds-mouth cut on rafters? not those guys.
Frenchy, that sounds like a fun kind of project. I think you should do it. Aside from the tricky framing, I suppose you will also be taking care of making the sash, so we don't need to worry about where to find that, but keep in mind that you may need some pretty specialized flashing to make sure that this thing doesn't leak, so I hope you have some metal working skills in your bag of tricks.
Back to where you are now. This is just like walking, you do it one step at a time. All you need to know to get started is to get the common rafters up. . With a thin batten bent around the existing rafters, and kept level, you should be able mark where to cut, and to pick the shape for the sill plate, just by bending the batten around the other rafters.
Just keep in mind that the further into this project you get, the tricker it gets, and the higher the skill level required. If you don't get it right, you will have built in a nice leak problem into your roof, which will not be easy to deal with. Have you talked this over with your wife?
Ha, I feel like the devils advocate asking that. Like, Click and Clack on Car Talk, can we have her phone number so we can talk to her before you get too far into this?
Hi frenchy,
That sounds like a fun project. If you don't have it already, look up a copy of " Circular Work in Carpentry and Jointery " by George Collins. This is the most complete book on the subject I've seen. There is a section on roof framing that may be of interset to you. Enjoy your project.
Paul
frenchy
With all that you have already done with that magnificent home you are building, why even doubt yourself? Get your #### up on that roof and get busy on that eyebrow!! I hope you're using a safety rope on that pitch, my friend.
Eyebrow roofs are architecturally beautiful, in my opinion, but they are also tricky to do correctly. They have a propensity towards leaking if not done correctly, more so than your usual roof. If you're not already familiar ( I don't know your roofing skills, but I'm not doubting them) with the process, maybe researching the eyebrow very well before beginning would be sound advice.
We wouldn't want to see all the curly maple and walnut flooring inside the house get wrecked by that winking eyebrow.
Jeff
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