Framing Roofs With Steel - Continued
Gable-End Walls and Eaves
There are several ways to frame gable-end walls, but our
approach is to cut a section of flange from the upper end of
each gable-end stud with a circular saw equipped with an
abrasive blade. A short right-angle cut forms an attachment
flange that's bent outward with a pair of duckbill locking
pliers. The bottom of the stud is screwed to a track section on
top of the wall below, and the upper end is screwed to the end
rafter (Figure 3).
Gable-end studs are notched and bent to form
attachment flanges before being screwed to the end rafters
(top). Note the green layout line on the stud, drawn with a
permanent marker before the flange is formed with duckbill
locking pliers (above).
Limitations of all-steel eaves. In a conventionally
steel-framed roof, the rafters extend all the way to the eaves,
and a track member is screwed to the outboard ends to serve as
a subfascia. We've found this to be ineffective for several
reasons.
First, it results in a fascia that's perpendicular to the
plane of the roof. The detail common to our area, and the one
we prefer, uses a vertical fascia and a horizontal soffit. To
do that with steel, you need to have a subfascia custom-made on
a roll former or use one made from a cut-down track section
attached with clip angles. And, no matter how it's put
together, an all-steel eaves detail makes life difficult for
the siding contractor, since the aluminum fascia and vinyl
soffit can only be fastened to the steel framing with
screws.
Steel frame, wood eaves. To avoid those
problems, we've devised a way to use wood members for the
rafter eaves and subfascia. We stop the steel rafter flush with
the exterior wall framing and fasten short lengths of 2x4 to
them with an air nailer (Figure 4). After making a plumb cut at
the end of each rafter tail, we nail a wood subfascia in
place.
To simplify installation of the soffit and
fascia, short sections of 2x4 stock are air nailed to the
rafter tails (top). The rafters are screwed to the ceiling
joists, forming a rigid assembly (above).
We also use a wood subfascia at the rake, by extending the OSB
roof sheathing a foot or so beyond the outside wall and air
nailing a 2x6 subfascia to the sheathing. The siding sub then
installs the finish fascia and soffit the usual way, with
light-gauge trim nails.
Jon Henderlong
is the former
operations manager of Generation Homes in Valparaiso,
Ind.