AskCodeMan

I own a home that was built in 1924. The roof was framed with 2x4 rafters and a 1x6 ridge board. The rafters were face nailed into the ridge board 24in on center alternating on either side of the ridge not opposing each other. I recently had a new roof installed and in the process the ridge board was over stressed and cracked in three areas with some significant deflection in the ridge board. Any ideas on how a repair could be made. The damaged area is about 6ft. long. Thanks for any help,

jmbonar wrote:The rafters were face nailed into the ridge board 24in on center alternating on either side of the ridge not opposing each other.

"alternating on either side of the ridge not opposing each other"

Therein lies the problem - which I am sure you are by now aware of.

Rafters are required to be opposite each other when a ridge board is used. My guess would be that the ridge board in your home was already bowed and deflected due to the alternating loads of the rafters.

How to fix? The right way?

Have the roof removed back about 3 feet from the ridge on each side of the ridge, support the rafters from underneath, remove the 1x6 ridge board, replace with a 2x6 ridge board, then install 2x6 headers between each pair of rafters on each side of the ridge board - the header will help take the load of the opposite rafter and help transfer that load to each of the rafters the header is nailed to. If you cannot fit in a 2x6 (I suspect you can, just not easily) then replace with another 1x6, installing the 2x6 headers as stated previously.

Any repair you attempt to make without removing the roof covering over the repair area may well damage the roof covering and create a leak area, if not at the time of the repair, at some premature time in the future.