Roof frame along ridge. Photo by Timothy Sweeney

To the crew at least, the most impressive piece of the French frame is the roof system. The roof has a very low pitch: the apex of the ridge is little more than 4′ above the tie beams. There are two continuous ridges, each about 30′ in length, that meet on top of a short mast at the center of the crotch of the L. Each hip-roofed end also has mast resting on a mid-span tie beam, which catches the rugged hip rafters. Each full length tie beam is topped by a pair of principal rafters which tenon into the ridge beam.

Plate installation with Jake and Scott. Photo by Timothy Sweeney

The tops of the posts are ringed by a set of co-planar plates, joined to one another by mortise and tenon. There is 38′ plate along the south eave and a 36′ plate along the west eave. There is another full-length plate along the north eave connecting the east gable to the west eave. At the inside corner, where the valley collected rainwater, and where an interior post was removed or missing, the north eave plate failed, and required a long double-scarf repair (being assembled, above). For this house, we used plate to refer to the gable end timber that tops the studs and connects the corner posts. To create hip construction, this beam itself is crossed by a set of tie beams.

Foley Roof Frame

The tie beams cross over the plates using a partial half dovetail joint and overlap the plate to a depth of 3″. There are four full length tie beams in the main portion of the building and five full length ties in the ell. The ties closest to the gable are about nine feet from the end of the building. Two short tie beams cross the gable end plates and join the full length tie beam with a pinned mortise and tenon joint. A hip, or dragon, tie extends diagonally from the short tie and clasps the plate joint at the corner.

Hip tie clasps plate joint.

Each tie type is topped by a distinctive rafter. The full length tie is topped by a pair of principal rafters, which tenon into the end of the tie beam. The hip tie is topped by a hip rafter, and the short tie is topped by a jack rafter, which joins the hip rafter at a compound angle and full mortise and tenon joint. Zach had fun scribing one of these babies.

Masts in the Grass

A short four-foot mast supports the apex of the roof, receiving the end of the ridge, two principal rafters and two hip rafters. When we were inventorying the frame, the mast joinery looked rough, like it had been hacked with an axe. There was no consistency to the cuts, and no way to accurately model the joinery. When the frame was in parts, we weren’t crowing about the original builder.

Jake installs a jack rafter

We assembled the frame using a lull, dead men and muscles. Considering the inconsistency of the bents, and the complications of the second floor, hiring a crane wasn’t efficient. Using a crane on-site for more than one day is a huge investment, and more than two days was beyond the scope or need for this project. So the raising was incremental, and slow.

Raising in progress. Photo by Timothy Sweeney

We waited to assemble the roof parts until after the rest of the frame was raised. There was no advantage to fitting the parts on the ground. We had almost all the original roof framing, and we were going to sheath the second floor as soon as it was raised, providing us with a contiguous deck on which to roll staging. When we finally placed the first roof timber, we were more than a year into the project.

Scott fits rafters to mast

Where assembling the house frame was frustrating, assembling the principal roof frame was gratifying. The original principals landed on the original masts like they were going home. The ugly axe cuts at the top of the mast were beautifully scribed to the undersides of the hip rafters. In modeling the roof frame, we could tell that the design was complex, but until we fit the pieces together, we had no idea that it was also beautifully crafted. It inspiring to witness, and to contribute our skills to its repair.

Two ridges, three rafters, one mast. Photo by Timothy Sweeney

This is the third post in a series about the Foley-French House. Check out more in progress photos, here, or by clicking on the slideshow below. If any of the photos look professional, but they don’t say “by Tim”, I forgot to credit Tim. Next up, scarf joints.