When I started out as a framing contractor, I was often faced
with complex roof structures that dwarfed my knowledge
and experience. To weave through that seemingly impenetrable
forest of rafters, I wished for a gray-bearded master
carpenter to float over my job and plop
down the brass ring of roof framing. He
never showed up, so I had to read a few
books and cut a lot of lumber. Eventually I got a fairly good feel for putting
roofs together.
Back then, I used the tried-and-true Full Length Roof Framer by A.F.J.
Reichers to figure out my rafters. Short on text (12 pages) but long on
span tables, generations of