Rafters Bearing On Floor Plate

To tie a new roof into an existing roof line rafters often bear on the toe rather than the heel of the seat cut or are notched too deeply over the top plate.

Rafters bearing on floor plate. Continuous ceiling joists or collar ties span from rafter to rafter. The rafters will typically be equally spaced to distribute the load from the roof to the top plate or rim joists of the floor or ceiling below but the spacing may not be the same as your studs or joists. Maybe it has to do with the seismic zone we are in. Toe bearing rafters one of the last things done on an addition is framing the roof.

Large openings in the wall are made for windows and doors. These situations weaken the rafter at the bearing point and can split the rafter. Roof trusses shall be supported laterally at points of bearing by solid blocking to prevent rotation and lateral displacement. The rafters will bear on the top plate of your load bearing walls with the roofing members on top of that.

There is no need for bearing posts under the ridge board which is nonstructural. Double plating is most common on load bearing walls unless the roof rafters or trusses and floor joists stack directly over the studs in the wall then a single top plate can be used. The roof loads are carried to the top plates of the bearing walls where the floor joists acting in tension keep the rafter ends from spreading out. While typically not a problem when the roof is flat and the i joists bear perpendicularly on the top plate when the rafters are sloped proper bearing becomes an issue.