This is the typical structure of a hip roof.
Hip roof ridge beam.
Supporting hip truss roof load and under hip master concentrated load.
A ridge board or beam runs through the tops of rafters or trusses from end to end along a gable roof tying those framing members together.
The first step in the process of erecting the hip roof is to get the ridge beam into place at the top of the roof.
Determining the ridge beam height.
Hip ridge the header 4 0 load h hip jacks load b load i approximate load conditions based on a truss use of partial uniform loads.
The ridge beam shown below at the living room of a 1950s modern style ranch house in gainesville has cracked at mid span and is slowly heading towards failure after.
More accuracy could be achieved by taking each truss as an individual pt load.
Because a ridge beam often carries a significant area of roof load they can exhibit structural distress due to a defect in wood impact on the roof or use of an undersize beam.
The loads on the ridge beam are carried by vertical posts at the beam ends down through the building structural walls to the building foundation.
The ridge board holds them in place.
Attach 4 6 centering rafters and lift the ridge beam into place.
As you can see the ridge board or ridge beam is holding up the jack rafters at the top of the incline.
The rafters bear most of the weight of the roof.
Ridge beam sizing is based on the span of the beam between supports and the amount of roof load supported by the beam.
Hrc is a field slopeable connector that attaches hip roof beams to the end of a ridge beam.
The hrc may be sloped downward a maximum of 45.
A structural ridge beam is a horizontal beam placed at the peak or ridge of a roof and is designed to carry much of the live and dead loads or weight of the roof structure by itself.
Ridge beams are required by code if the roof slope is less than 3 in 12 irc section r802 3.
If you know the slope x in 12 you want to use for your roof framing design you can use it along with the run r to determine the height of the ridge beam for example if the slope is 4 in 12 and the run is 12 feet the ridge beam height m will be 4 feet.