Hadn’t seen this before and thought I would share it to get some opinions.
This one section of the garage had rafters where the two perpendicular sections of roof met, the rest were trusses. It was only a section of ridge about 12-14 feet long, but they staggered the rafter placement.
I called it out along with several other cobbled sections of framing because it uses the ridge board like a beam and makes it bear some of the load it was not intended to carry. I know some offset has been practiced for decades, maybe up to a couple inches, but these are fully offset. How much concern or emphasis would you have in your own mind about this? How much would you put on paper?
You photographed it and called it out. Hopefully you also recommend further evaluation by a qualified G C. or. S E which I’m sure you would. Then move on. You did your job.
I agree with Thomas, you passed the liability on, but to answer your question, if it had been this way for 20 years with no deformation of the ridge, I would mention that, because if the ridge hasn’t moved in 20 years, I can’t imagine that it would experience catastrophic failure in the future, especially being an over-frame. The ridge is probably nailed every 6 to 12 inches through the sheathing and face-nailed into rafters installed every two feet. To be honest I don’t see it going anywhere. In fact, in 30 years building and 10 years inspecting, I’ve never seen failure related to off-setting rafters.
Maybe it would fail sooner than a correctly built roof in a tornado or hurricane.
Realistically, it’s improper framing practice that produces a roof structure that is not as strong as a properly-framed roof. It’s ugly, but I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.
