Conical Roof Onto Cylindrical Turret

getthewheelsinl

Hello,
I am considering replacing the conical roof on my parent’s house in Scotland. This was burnt in a fire in the late 60’s.
This is a painting commissioned before the fire.


This is a photograph as it stands today.

I was looking for some advice/ direction on the typical design of the internal wood framing of this type of roof . Any website recommendations or even reference books you could suggest I look at?
I own my own engineering company and have steelwork fabrication facilities. With this in mind I was going to build the back bone, ring beam etc in steel then add wood rafters. My first thoughts are to build this at ground level then crane up into position fully clad with wood and slated?!? Do you think this is possible?
I project managed their last project – rebuilding of their sunroom at the front of their house.
Demolition of old Sunroom, new foundations, Steelwork Framework, Internal wooden kit, External quarried stone, roof, slating etc. etc


Thanks in advance,
Callum Smith B.Eng Hons.
Mechanical Engineer

jimAKAblue

Yes, it's possible.

Why wouldn't you frame it all with steel?

iHandy

Try Google Books. That's where I downloaded The Builder's Pocket Manual, by A. C. Smeaton, which was published in 1837.

getthewheelsinl

Thanks for your reply.

Fair point I guess. Just thought it would be easier securing my roof sheeting onto wooden rafters than metal.

Have you had any experience in conical roof building? or know of any website's with such information.

Thanks,
Callum

getthewheelsinl

Thanks for your reply.

I will look into downloading this. Does this have specific information on conical roof building / design?

Callum

getthewheelsinl

Appoligies for the photo links in the first post. As I am a new member I am not allowed to post links / photos. So you will need to cut & paste link into your browser.

I feel this should be an interesting project and am just looking for some advice / guidance before I speak to the architect / structural engineer.

Thanks,

Callum

jimAKAblue

Yes, I framed one conical roof about 7 years ago.

Fastening the sheathing, in the tight radius near the top will be challenging no matter how you do it.

getthewheelsinl

Thanks! Do you have any photographs of the project?

iHandy

Hi Callum,

I didn't get too far into the book, but as one Mechanical Engineer to another, I figure you'd enjoy checking out the state of the art from long ago.

Also, I did a quick Google of 'conical roof framing' and rapidly found some illustrations of rafter placement and so forth. Set results for Images, and Web, as either will get you different results.

Cheers,

getthewheelsinl

Thanks IHandy.

Had already spent yesterday doing some research for the conical roof - but did not find any definitive answers.

The conical roof will be approx 5m diameter at base and the height of the cone will also be approx 5m - so a far size!

I just want to understand the typical design layout. This should allow me to push the structural engineer down the steel route if I think it is possible.

Thanks.

User60231

It's been quite a few minutes since I last built a conical roof, but I can give you the name of the book that enabled me to build it.

Have a look at "Circular Work in Carpentry and Joinery" by George Collins.

BTW, he's no relation to Bootsy Collins of Parliament/Funkadelic fame.

Nonetheless, you should find this book will answer most if not all of your questions and concerns.

http://www.amazon.com/Circular-Carpe.../dp/0941936481

getthewheelsinl

Thanks for the link.

I will try and locate a copy in the UK.

Callum

User60231

You should be able to find something there, as London is where the book was originally published in 1886. The book I have, which is the one I would recommend, was reprinted in 1992 with additions to it.

Best of luck.

Edited to add: I would highly recommend building it on the ground and booming into place.

getthewheelsinl

Amazon UK have the book - so I'll order this and hopefully I'll get the design posted up.

Thanks

User60231

Hey Callum,


I found some very helpful links and another book that has an excellent, very straight-forward article on "framing tower roofs". The book is "Advanced Framing" by The Journal of Light Construction. It would behoove you to get this book in addition to the Circular Work in Carpentry due to the fact it precisely covers what you apparently want to do, and it is written so as it is easy to comprehend (for those who don't fair as well with geometry of which you will need to be very familiar with when getting the George Collings book). Anyway, here's a link for the book:

http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlc.../Product/AF008

Also I found some other very helpful links:

http://www.sbebuilders.com/tools/circular-tower.php

http://books.google.com/books?id=1nz...0roofs&f=false

http://chestofbooks.com/architecture...fs-Part-3.html

I have not seen this book personally, so I can't vouch for it, but it does look like it is a very good reference:http://www.contractor-city.com/rocusetofrcu.html

http://chestofbooks.com/architecture...fs-Part-4.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=v-N...0roofs&f=false

getthewheelsinl

thanks jeff! I had already bookmarked some of the links noted. I will have a look at the others in greater detail.

getthewheelsinl

P.S. Being an mech engineer, thankfully mathematics/geometry are one of my strong points! Also helps that my brother is a mathematics teacher!!

English Roofer

While i can offer you no real advice on this mater i feel like getting down after reading what Jeff. G.
Said;

BTW, he's no relation to Bootsy Collins of Parliament/Funkadelic fame.!

Priceless!
Good luck with the project
Dave

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www.drroofing.co.uk

seeyou

I also have nothing to add to this thread other than I was at an NBA (basketball - thought I better clarify that for you guys that throw balls with your feet) game a year or two ago and was sitting about 10 rows behind Bootsy. Good thing I was that far back from him or I couldn't have seen over his hat. The glare from his clothes was still pretty bad that far away. He's a dapper fellow.

Maybe I do have something to add: I've roofed many cones and the easiest ones to roof are sheathed with 1x rather than plywood or OSB. It's a lot easier to fine tune a small piece of 1x vs a big wedge of plywood.

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getthewheelsinl

Thanks Seeyou,

Can you confirm what 1x is? must be american roofing jargon?!?!

Callum