Which screws for roofing rafters?

[Bonce]

Morning All,

Quick question. I am putting up a roof, simple lean to 125*50 rafters sitting on a wall plate attached to the top of block work and then other end the rafters onto a 100*50 timber bolted to existing house wall.

Used to have a massive bucket of screws that my joiner neighbour gave me when he left his job but I'm running out so need to get some. I never knew that choosing a screw was such a science - a quick look on screwfix gave me hundreds of choices!! Can I use drywall screws? these seem cheap (I know originally intended for plasterboard applications but would they be ok).

What do the pro's tend to do at the wall plate rafter junction and for noggins. I know the practice used to be to skew nail at rafter wall plate and I think we used to just screw through rafter into end grain of noggin when I worked as a labourer - but that was a while ago now.

Thanks in advance

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[noseall]

Small headed 70mm #4's screws.

Larger headed screws will split the wood when skew fixing.

If the b/m cut is deep then you can whack a 4" straight through the rafter (top edge) and into the plate.

 

[Bonce]

thanks noseall

 

[^woody^]

For roofing work, nails are best as they are flexible (not hardened) and so will accommodate movement whereas screws tend to snap.

However, look at coach screws, or better still, the turbo coach screws from Screwfix

 

[noseall]

I agree with the screw snappy thing so a nail gun would be a good alternative to screws.

 

[Bonce]

Thanks noseall and ^woody^ get your point regarding nails plus the builder opposite is going to lend me his nail gun and I have always fancied a bit of a go on one of them!

Cheers again both.