[tpagel]

I am looking to build a new patio cover to shelter the rear door from harsh New England weather. The house has painted pine trim all over the exterior. The patio cover should also be painted white to match. The 6x6 posts will be clad in white trimboard, so that's no problem, and I will just paint the LVL beam and live with it. But what species would you suggest for the 2x10 rafters, purlins and ledgerboard. Can I use southern pine if all surfaces are painted, or do I need to use douglas fir or cedar?

Also, I think I am using the span calculators right in figuring for 2x10's, but I would love to know if I can use 2x8's for the rafters to lessen the weight. I live in CT. The patio cover will have painted pressed metal roofing panels on the top 10', screwed to purlins. Very little dead load. See attached diagram for dimensions.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

 

[ChuckF.]

What are you going to attach the ledger to? Do you intend to find the vertical 2x4's in the wall and bolt the ledger to those? If you want to hit the top plate(s) on the upper wall, that means your ledger board bolts will be only an inch or two from the top, if that. That means you will be crowding the fascia and gutter.

Might look better if the cover begins a foot or two below the eaves.

Snow load should be your main loading concern.

 

[tpagel]

Chuck,

Yes, the ledger would be going about 18" below the top plate of the wall, under the eaves. The ledger would be fastened through the (flat) fiber cement panels, through the plywood sheathing, and into the 2x6 stud wall. I was thinking of using those ledger-lok fasteners.

IN the span calculators, I was using 25 psf for snow load, which gave me 2x10's for rafters.

 

[mako1]

Stick with 2 x10's. SYP will be fine ,less expensive and readily available. In place of paint,and" just living with it", why not wrap in white coil stock or pvc?

 

[Daniel Holzman]

You should check in with your local building inspector relative to the required snow loading, use of ledger loks, post to floor connection detail, and beam requirements. Your building inspector should be able to help you size the pieces, my building inspector has been very helpful to me in the past on that type of question. 25 psf for snow load is pretty low for New England, that corresponds to about two feet of snow, last year I had four feet on my roof. Granted it was an exceptional year, but the design snow load in my area is between 30 and 40 psf, depends on roof slope and a few other factors.

 

[mako1]

Daniel always has some good points which I tend to forget once I start typing other subjects that come to mind first. He knows what he's talking about .