Roofing Books

Rafter ready reckoners & span tables

Among my collection are a few roofing books. Some are about traditional cut roofs and others cover trussed roof construction in more detail.

Comprehensive guide to cut and truss roof construction with easy to understand detailed drawings. Less of a book for DIYers more for serious roofing carpenters and loft converters. For loft conversions the book covers early attics, development, floors and ceilings, cottages, utilising wasted space, conversion possibilities, roof types, letting in light, valleys, access and more.This book is a big help if you need to design a roof to build. I have an earlier book but this is a fourth edition and so has been revised and updated since mine.

One book I definately couldn't survive for very long without is my little blue Carpenters metric roofing ready reckoner. Although only small, its earnt its £6 cost a hundred times over because its saved me so much TIME and MONEY..

It's basically a book full of rafter span tables. All you need to do is measuring the span of the roof, take away the thickness of the ridge and halve it to find the span of a single rafter. Look up the table for the roof pitch angle you want and it tells you the length of the rafter. Doesn't just do common rafters but hips, valleys and the jacks etc. You can basically cut a whole roof on the ground with this book and then fit it all together! It's currently got 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.

Another great one I have is Goss's Roofing Ready Reckoner Metric Cutting and Sizing Tables for Timber Roof Members. Instead of just tables/angles this has Photos and useful information sbout warm/cold roofs, plates, strapping tools etc. I refer to both these books whenever I'm starting a roof after not doing one for a while and need to refresh my memory.

Roofing books related pages