When did Ridge Boards come into use?

[Ron B]

I would be more curious to know when trusses started to become a thing, over wider boards to be actual rafters and collar ties?

I would guess...and that's all it is, trusses started to become a thing in the 70's & 80's when lumber became more expensive. Before that time, stick-built homes were popular because lumber was cheap.

I remember my Dad building a farm machinery pole barn in 1965 that was built with trusses.  It was an open span of 42'.  Trusses were only 2x4" construction  4' on center.  I think my Dad paid extra because the standard was 8' o.c and he wanted more support than that. 

I am guessing the building with trusses did not start with houses, but bled over from other uses such as farm pole barns. That pole barn was 42' x 96' and if was finished in three days. 

 

[Packard]

I thought you had to wear straw hats, black pants and suspenders in order to build a barn.  You learn something new here everyday. [one of my favorite scenes in the movies, especially the music by Maurice Jarre.]


Ford has been widely reported as working as a carpenter between movie roles.  His thing was, according to one source I read, making residential front doors for the Hollywood elite. While this has been reported, there are no images of his work that I could find.

 

[Frank-Jan]

Peter,

You're the man !

I'll try to fill in the Dutch translation and paste it to the jargon thread as well.

Ridge board : I'm not very sure. If it is what I think it is, the Dutch translation would be "nokbalk" but I would have called that a ridge beam instead of a ridge board ?
Treenail : There may be a special word for this, but it's usually called a "spie" or "pen". Note that "spie" is also used for keg and when it has a distinct taper, a keg is called... "keg". "pen" is also used for tenon.
LVL : We just call it "gelamineerd" and it's mainly used in large span rafters an trusses.
Undersarking : In my country, sloped roofs are 99% tiled. shingles are rare and shakes are exotic. So we may not have a synonym, though there are LOTS of vapour/moisture barriers.
SPF : Over here, constructional wood is predominantly "vuren". This is Picea abies , known as European Spruce or White deal. In some cases, there may be tiny batches of Hemlock mixed in, but it's rare.
SYP : Known as "Amerikaans grenen". Old growth ( significantly harder ) is marketed as pitch pine or "Amerikaans hard grenen".

Perhaps someone can chime in to add to this/correct/polish it before it's moved to the jargonbuster thread ?

Back to the original subject:
Over here, the only examples of (residential) roofs without ridgeboards/-beams that I can think of are the newer prefabricated roofs built with rafters and thick plywood panels - theyre joined with heavy hinges and metal joints and put in place with a crane. Mainly used for hip roofs ( "schilddaken").

Regards,

Job

Job, I think the Dutch word that comes closest to a ridgeboard, is "ruiter(plank)". But they tend to extend higher to support the ridgetile in a tileroof.

I also found this, regarding the difference between a ridge beam and a ridge board: link

 

[squall_line]

I would be more curious to know when trusses started to become a thing, over wider boards to be actual rafters and collar ties?

I would guess...and that's all it is, trusses started to become a thing in the 70's & 80's when lumber became more expensive. Before that time, stick-built homes were popular because lumber was cheap.

I remember my Dad building a farm machinery pole barn in 1965 that was built with trusses.  It was an open span of 42'.  Trusses were only 2x4" construction  4' on center.  I think my Dad paid extra because the standard was 8' o.c and he wanted more support than that. 

I am guessing the building with trusses did not start with houses, but bled over from other uses such as farm pole barns. That pole barn was 42' x 96' and if was finished in three days.

A combination of this as well as "open floor plans".  In fact, I see trusses touted as a feature on some local real estate listings with the idea "no load bearing walls, full truss construction, remodel into open plan to your desire!"

 

[Packard]

I’m inclined to believe that the scarcity of labor might prompt the switch to trusses.

I never installed one myself, but I have observed on TV some fairly large homes that hat the truss system installed in one day.

That one-day constraint a product of hiring a crane.  I imagine hiring a crane is expensive so they would be motivated to getting it installed quickly.

I also believe that both the engineering would be solid and the build quality would be superior to working on site.  In the factory they would have large jigs that promote accuracy and reliability.

I have no data to support that belief however.

 

[leakyroof]

I’m inclined to believe that the scarcity of labor might prompt the switch to trusses.

I never installed one myself, but I have observed on TV some fairly large homes that hat the truss system installed in one day.

That one-day constraint a product of hiring a crane.  I imagine hiring a crane is expensive so they would be motivated to getting it installed quickly.

I also believe that both the engineering would be solid and the build quality would be superior to working on site.  In the factory they would have large jigs that promote accuracy and reliability.

I have no data to support that belief however.

  As a 'counter' to those thoughts, go on YouTube and watch some of the Building Inspectors videos that they post on new housing during the Framing Inspection... HOLY MOLY,, unbelievably bad framing, absolute trash work at times, and any precision you were hoping for in the manufacturing process, these crews found a way to wreck it... [eek] [eek] [embarassed] [embarassed]
Multi- Million dollar homes, assembled by drunks?  [blink] [blink] [blink]  [doh] [doh]