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
