Vaulted Ceiling Roof Truss Design

In a common truss design sloping top chords function just like rafters in conventional framing and horizontal bottom chords fill the role of ceiling joists.

Vaulted ceiling roof truss design.

Exposing elements of the roof structure including the trusses and or rafters can add character to a home. This design element makes a room appear larger and provides more natural light. In this example a simple 20 x 30 rectangular plan is used. The bottom chords are angled to create vaulted ceilings.

This decorative type of truss adds volume keeps the room cool and has a relatively low maintenance drywall. This works particularly well beneath lofty double height vaulted ceilings but can also work beneath in single height rooms as this example goes to show. This house will have a gable roof and a 16 center area with a cathedral ceiling over the living and dining room areas the roof pitch will be 5 12 with a cathedral ceiling at a 2 5 12 slope the overhang will be 2 around the whole house the trusses on the ends of the house will be drop top gable trusses. Using the select objectstool select the walls to make gable ends then click the open objectedit button.

In order to create the semi cylindrical appearance for the ceiling this truss would need many small pieces of wood framed together. To build the roof. Launch chief architect and use open planto open the chief architect plan in which you would like to create scissor trusses. Vaulted trusses the simplest way to get a vaulted ceiling is by setting vaulted roof trusses.

You can ask the structural engineer at the truss fabrication plant if there is a way to increase the interior slope but i doubt you ll get much more than one half the slope of the exterior roof surface. Roof trusses are built in a truss manufacturing warehouse and delivered preassembled to the jobsite. The companies that fabricate the trusses use sophisticated software to design the trusses. Engineered roof trusses may be designed to create a vaulted ceiling while still providing sufficient support for the roof s weight.

Parallel chord trusses allow for greater interior clearance in buildings. A vaulted ceiling angles up from the top plates of the wall sections. Trusses consist of triangular shaped components that hold up the roof and keep the wall sections in alignment. It s often used for cellars and long hallways.

You provide the span of the roof and the desired exterior roof pitch and the software does the rest. There are variations of this design to create numerous unique ceilings. This has a characteristic barrel shaped ceiling.