Step-by-Step: How to Install Garage Roof Framing

There are a handful of home characteristics that should never be underestimated. A functional garage will almost always reside at the top of that list. A garage not only offers you the ability to keep your car safe and protected, it also provides added storage opportunities and helps free up your driveway and street space. In the following step-by-step project (from Black & Decker Complete Guide to Garages), you will see how to construct a single-car garage in your available space.

Choose two straight 2 x 6s to create a full-size pattern rafter for each leg of a rafter pair. Mark a cutting line on one end of each patten with the correct angle formed with the ridgeboard. Refer to your garage plans to determine the correct roof pitch (which determines the cutting angle).

Set your patter rafters in position on top of the side walls with a 2 x 8 space block tacked between them to represent the riddgeboard. You'll know you have a good fit if the top angled ridge cuts meet the ridgeboard flush and the birdsmouth cuts sit flush on the wall plates.

Use the pattern rafter to trace the plumb cuts and birdsmouth onto the workpieces for all of the rafters. Set the cutting angle on your power miter saw to match the plumb cut and cut each rafter at the cutting lines.

Mark the location of each rafter on the double top plates. The rafters begin at the ends of the walls, and the intermediate rafters should line up over the wall studs that are space 16" on center. Use a speed square to extend a rafter layout line up from each wall stud layout line to the top plate.

Select a straight, flat 2 x 8 for the ridgeboard. It should be several feet longer than the roof length. Lay the board face-down over the tops of the end walls and flush against a side wall. Adjust the ridgeboard so it overhangs the end walls evenly. Use a square to transfer the rafter layout lines and X marks from the wall double top plate to the ridgeboard.