Thanks for all the input and help you have provided me. I'm currently working with an architect who just finished my first draft ICF home plan. We're making a few adjustments but its really close. Just for info it's a single story ranch style and I'm having trouble with the roof pitch. It was designed with a 6/12 pitch. I'm not sure if that's enough or not. I have a hard time looking at it on paper. I was thinking 8/12 because I don't want it looking like any old ranch home built around here in the 50's. anybody have a suggestions? The great room will be vaulted as well as the master suite. Maybe 6/12 is perfect , I just don't know.

This should really be answered by your architect. It's based on their design. If they did it at 6:12, leave it at 6:12.

An 8:12 is pretty steep and unless you get a lot of snow where you live, installing a roof gets tricky at the pitch.

Posted By therev on 11 Jun 2013 01:42 AM
Thanks for all the input and help you have provided me. I'm currently working with an architect who just finished my first draft ICF home plan. We're making a few adjustments but its really close. Just for info it's a single story ranch style and I'm having trouble with the roof pitch. It was designed with a 6/12 pitch. I'm not sure if that's enough or not. I have a hard time looking at it on paper. I was thinking 8/12 because I don't want it looking like any old ranch home built around here in the 50's. anybody have a suggestions? The great room will be vaulted as well as the master suite. Maybe 6/12 is perfect , I just don't know.

Here's a corner view of my house near end of construction. The garage is 6/12, the others 8/12. Not a lot of obvious difference. As Lbear says, 8/12 gets a bit steep for climbing around on, but the contractor who worked w/ me had no problem, and neither did the roofer. But the contractor did not want me up there, even if I was the GC and it was my house! Age diminishes agility and sure footedness! I was 64 then.



The 8/12 gives good headroom in the attic for 22' and 24' wall to wall spans, and gives the house a better look, I think, than 6/12 would have. The living room, in the center, has a vaulted ceiling, 4/12, 5/12, 6/12, I don't recall. The living room ceiling is centered even though the truss extends 30" on the side you see above and 16" on the back side. The other 3 roof sections have trusses built with clear space for access and designed for live storage load.

Posted By dmaceld on 11 Jun 2013 02:03 AM

Here's a corner view of my house near end of construction. The garage is 6/12, the others 8/12. Not a lot of obvious difference. As Lbear says, 8/12 gets a bit steep for climbing around on, but the contractor who worked w/ me had no problem, and neither did the roofer. But the contractor did not want me up there, even if I was the GC and it was my house! Age diminishes agility and sure footedness! I was 64 then.



The 8/12 gives good headroom in the attic for 22' and 24' wall to wall spans, and gives the house a better look, I think, than 6/12 would have. The living room, in the center, has a vaulted ceiling, 4/12, 5/12, 6/12, I don't recall. The living room ceiling is centered even though the truss extends 30" on the side you see above and 16" on the back side. The other 3 roof sections have trusses built with clear space for access and designed for live storage load.

Being a roofer is one of the most dangerous jobs out there. They should tie off but many don't. Over confidence has claimed many roofers.

There's a lot of yard out in front, looks like you now have a lot of grass to cut. Out here in Phx they would just dump tons of rock out front and call it a day.

Are those gable ends made out of ICF or the wood trusses?

I spent a lot of time trying to decide on roof pitch for our small, one story ranch. 6/12 is my limit for comfort, and since having had vertigo, I'm real shaky on ANY roof. I finally went in another direction, building a 5/12 pitch, but incorporating large overhangs and roof brackets to make a Craftsman bungalow look. Coupled with the typical fat tapered porch columns, my house will not look like a typical ranch.

How deep is your home from front to back? That depth combined with the roof pitch will determine how tall your roof is.

I have 6:12 pitch on my homes main roof (34' deep) and the attached garage is 8:12 (24' wide). This gives me ~9' tall trusses. The framers and roofs had to use toe boards on the 8:12 pitch roof but didn't need it on the 6:12; consequently, the cost to frame and roof the 8:12 was higher than the 6:12.

My only regret is not adding a little more pitch to my front porch. I have a 3:12 pitch roof on the front porch and wish I had increased that to 3.5:12 pitch to get better water run off (we rarely get more than 6" snow/year here). It looks fine at 3:12 and a 4:12 pitch ran too far up on to the main roof.

Posted By Lbear on 11 Jun 2013 02:46 AM

Are those gable ends made out of ICF or the wood trusses?

Trusses. I discussed my reasons somewhat in the recent discussion about gables.

Here is a picture of my ICF home described above right after the shingles were installed.

Thanks for the input. My architect is going to show me the plans with a 8/12 pitch also. He also stated either pitch would look ok in his opinion but stated you don't want to go any than 8/12 steeper or the house would look "squatty" The house is 30x64 not including a 3 car attached garage which makes the house a L shape.

Are you using roof trusses or stick building your roof? If trusses, I would recommend that you consider raised heel trusses or what is often called energy trusses. This allows more insulation right at the intersection between the roof and the top of the wall. With regular trusses and a vented attic with soffit baffles at the top plate, you only have a couple of inches of space for insulation. Raised heel trusses can increase this amount to whatever you desire, typically an additional 6" to 18", for minimal cost adder. Google energy truss for more info.

Posted By therev on 11 Jun 2013 11:09 PM
  ...The house is 30x64 not including a 3 car attached garage which makes the house a L shape.

My home pictured above is a similar "L" shape, 34' x 62' with an attached 24' x 32' garage plus 10' x 24' covered porch area behind the garage that you can't see in the photo.  The garage will hold 2 cars plus motorcycle parking (I already have a 30' x 40' 3 bay workshop behind the house).  I designed my garage and home trusses with 8:12 and 6:12 pitches and raised heels as required so that the peak height of the trusses was the same and the soffit and facia was at the same level.