Types of Metal Connectors for Roof Framing

Skewable Hangers

• Adjust these hangers when installing them to get up to a 45-degree pitch for rafters. You can adjust them left or right, or up and down. Select hangers for lumber with thicknesses ranging between 1½ inches and 3½ inches.

Variable Pitch Connector

• Handy for attaching rafters to top plates, these connectors fit from 3:12 pitch (3 inches rise in the roof slope to every 12 inches in horizontal distance) to 12:12 pitch. You adjust them in the field. Use them to eliminate notching the rafters where they cross the top plate. These come in sizes to fit lumber thicknesses of 1½ inches, 2½ inches and 3½ inches.

Hip Corner Plate

• These plates simplify the complicated connection where a rafter of a hip roof crosses the top plate at a corner. You nail the bent sides of the connector to the sides of the top plate corner. The rafter drops into a raised slot in the top of the connector. This connector is preset to 45 degrees.

Hip Ridge Connectors

• Use these connectors to attach hip rafters to the ridge, or to trusses. One version nails to the end of the ridge board and has two slots to accept two hip rafters rising from the top plates. The other version nails to the side of the last truss before the hip. The two hip rafters drop into its slots.

Adjustable Truss Hangers

• These hangers are commonly used for hanging flat roof trusses from the sidewalls of the building. They also support the bottoms of trusses that attach perpendicular to other trusses. They have long straps that make them adjustable.

Face Mount Truss Hangers

• Use these hangers when you need to attach a truss to the face of a supporting beam or other load-bearing framing member. You select them based upon the height of the truss heel (the part that intersects with the beam).

Girder Truss Hangers

• Girders typically carry the roof loads of trusses that are attached to their sides. Use these hangers to make those attachments.

Truss Clips

• Truss clips help to maintain the alignment of trusses where they pass over non-load-bearing walls. They have slots where the nails are inserted so that the truss can still move vertically.