Vaulted Ceiling Roof Truss Design

The bottom chords are angled to create vaulted ceilings.

Vaulted ceiling roof truss design.

Launch chief architect and use open planto open the chief architect plan in which you would like to create scissor trusses. Exposing elements of the roof structure including the trusses and or rafters can add character to a home. A scissors truss provides for a vaulted ceiling in the same time frame as standard trusses. Parallel chord trusses allow for greater interior clearance in buildings.

A scissors truss creates a vaulted ceiling in the same framing time as standard roof trusses that produces a bland flat ceiling. When a vaulted ceiling has a different pitch than the roof planes above scissor trusses are produced. This design element makes a room appear larger and provides more natural light. The offset scissor truss has a bottom chord that is flat for a distance and then is vaulted up and back down.

Roof trusses are built in a truss manufacturing warehouse and delivered preassembled to the jobsite. 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. 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. There are variations of this design to create numerous unique ceilings.

Using the select objectstool select the walls to make gable ends then click the open objectedit button. Vaulted trusses the simplest way to get a vaulted ceiling is by setting vaulted roof trusses. 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. Its bottom chords join together at the apex creating a pitched or vaulted ceiling.

In this example a simple 20 x 30 rectangular plan is used. Explore all truss options with your builder. Engineered roof trusses may be designed to create a vaulted ceiling while still providing sufficient support for the roof s weight. A vaulted ceiling angles up from the top plates of the wall sections.

Naturally this truss is used in buildings for creating a pitched roof. A howe scissors truss is so called because its appearance resembles that of an opened pair of scissors.