JLC • NEW ENGLAND EDITION • MAY 1995 We recently completed an oceanfront house with a complex gambrel roof. The roof was a challenge to frame for two main reasons — not only were there four large cross gables intersecting the main ridge at various heights, but the lower sections of the gambrels were curved, to create "swept" eaves. The roof was supported with structural ridge beams and purlins — an assortment of Parallams, flitch beams, and steel I-beams (see Figure 1). In most cases, the purlins of the secondary gambrels intersected and were supported by the purlins of the main roof; in one case, the ridge of the cross gambrel was much lower and intersected the purlin
