In his book a visual dictionary of architecture francis d.
Supporting roof rafters without knee wall.
Without support for those spliced boards they ll collapse downwards.
A knee wall is a short wall typically under three feet one metre in height used to support the rafters in timber roof construction.
Knee walls are short usually wooden walls installed around the sides of an attic where the rafters meet the floor.
At the peak the rafters are nailed to a ridge board and at.
You can see the image below for an example of a knee wall.
This indicates that the wall is bearing the weight of those joists supporting upper stories of the home or the roof.
All outer walls of a home are load bearing as they support the edges of the roof.
Ching defines a knee wall as a short wall supporting rafters at some intermediate position along their length the knee wall provides support to rafters which therefore need not be large enough.
Collar ties rafter ties tension beams structural ridge beams.
This article describes and illustrates the different types of support that prevents roof sagging and wall bulging at buildings including definitions of collar ties rafter ties and structural ridge beams.
In a sloped roof common rafters run from the peak of the roof down to the top of the exterior walls of the building.
In most instances they are no taller than 3 feet but some builders may custom fit them according to the roof s shape and size.