Rafter Skills Tech

Welcome to Rafter Skills

Do you know of any books or anywhere online or in a carpentry class setting that offers technical courses from basic to advanced including in depth coverage of Irregular Hip & Valley Roofs using metric measurement and degrees for the calculations?

Unlock your potential with Rafter Skills online tutoring!

Here you can learn to master the technical challenges!, You will receive personalised, step-by-step guidance, ensuring you gain the knowledge, and confidence to excel.

Rafter Skills offers personalised online tutoring for carpenters at different skill levels. These are tailored lessons, from Tommy, who is a fully qualified and experienced carpenter. Rafter Skills Online guidance adapts to your schedule and is focused on assisting you with many of the technical challenges and in mastering your craft.

Meet the Tutor

Welcome to Rafter Skills my name is Tommy Doherty, I'm a fully qualified carpenter with 45 years of experience. I trained as an apprentice carpenter in Belfast before travelling and working in other countries and later returned to advanced carpentry & building studies.

For the first 10 years of learning and working as a carpenter I worked in an environment where there was a lot of competition going on and I had a fair amount of respect for the guys who knew their stuff because over a period of time this was a level that I wanted to be at. There was so much to learn and to grasp the best methods of doing things and most of the guys who knew their stuff were not willing to pass on this information for one reason or another.

When trying to really grasp some of the different aspects of carpentry there can be learning barriers that stop us from developing into the carpenter that we want to become. I’ve been through many of these barriers and have studied many books on the subject, and watched numerous videos.

But the best thing that really helped me was when I took an in-depth course that focused on steel square methods of finding all the different rafter lengths and angles, before moving on to doing the calculations with trigonometry. The main difference from learning this way was, were given the information and some of the parts that we still weren’t sure of, we had Paul our Tutor who would do his best to answer our questions.

Knowing how to relate to this learning experience and to put it all together in practice became a real game changer and it played a big part in beating off a lot of the competition and winning many contracts.

Now after many years of experience and practice I help others to quickly get past any of the barriers that are holding them back from moving forward and really grasping this stuff and moving up to their next level.

This online learning platform has provides me with the chance to share my enthusiasm for the craft, while helping others to gain a deeper and more technical understanding of the subject. My background is primarily a well studied and experienced hands-on carpenter. This enables me to pass my knowledge onto others by breaking down the information and explaining it in detail.

Just let me to reassure you that I have experienced of this entire process and Im capable of assisting you each step of the way. Therefore, do not allow any part of this learning journey to become a barrier for you!

How will this work?

You will learn this information during online lessons by getting step by step instructions that will cover the in-depth details that form the roof framework along with many other practical tips for bringing it all together in practice. First of all you gain the knowledge and a proven method of construction before putting this into practice by using your skills to build a model.

This is all geared towards practicing your knowledge and improving your skills, don't be put off by the fact that these are scaled models, these models can be key learning! Its the old proven recipe in this case, of learning the theory behind the drawings and geometry, before moving on to apply math calculations by using some trigonometry to find the lengths and angles of the different rafters within roof framework before bringing it all together in practice. This is the type of stuff that can become a real game changer and they are skills that lead to mastery.

"Experience a learning adventure unlike any other."

Explore Our Tailored Learning Paths

At Rafter Skills, we understand that everyone has different skill levels and goals. That's why we have designed optional paths of learning from beginner to expert.

Chose the path that best fits you and Experience a learning adventure unlike any other!

Beginner's Path: Foundations

Start with the basics! This path covers essential and techniques. Perfect for those new to roof carpentry and builds a solid foundation for future learning and development.

More about Beginners Path

Here you will learn How to accurately calculate and mark out a pair of template Rafters. By using some basic trig formulas. First we will find the technical length for a pair of Rafters from the give span distance and the angle of pitch. Then we move on to apply this information to the Rafters and mark them out in practice. This includes Birds mouth and HAP details, Set up for cutting Rafters, Gable overhang rafters, Lining the Rafters through at the fascia board, cutting the rafter tails.

If you haven’t used trigonometry before, the first time you calculate a pair of rafters using this simple formula using (half the span) ÷ (pitch of roof) = the length of the rafter, for example lets say the half span distance is 1250 ÷ cos (35) =-1,383mm. Try it out, even cut a pair of rafters. From here it’s just a matter of moving on to the next step in calculating other dimensions and angles and it all leads on to futher understanding and calculating for other more complex roofs.

Why use trigonometry to calculate rafter lengths and angles as opposed to apps and tables etc! Trigonometry is a universal method of calculation used in building and construction by engineers, surveyors and architects etc and becoming familiar with using it can lead to career extension and job promotion.

This can also include making adjustments for different types of ridge, ridge board and ridge beams, purlins, vertical and tilted, along with the different methods and tools used for marking out.

1-to-1 interaction can help to play an important part of this when starting off, it can really help to grasp the methods and the process used and leads on to other more challenging Roofs.

Start adding to your skills today and Experience a learning adventure unlike any other!

Contact & Booking

1-to-1 interaction for fastest progress! Sessions for Beginner's Path: Foundations

are priced at £25 for each 40-minute booking and at the moment there is a promotion offer of 10 lessons for £200.

This is a flexible form of booking, it's up to you to decide, we only need to agree on a date and time slot for the booking and we can take it from there. The video link-up can be done using WhatsApp or FaceTime on your smartphone or tablet.

If you are interested in any part of this or if you would like to have a chat to find out more, it would be best to send a message to Tommy on WhatsApp or by sending an email to rafterskills@gmail.com

Contact via WhatsApp

Intermediate to Advanced Path:

Enhance your expertise! This path focuses on advanced techniques, problem-solving, and practical application. Ideal for those with some experience looking to refine and add to their skills and tackle the more challenging projects.

More about Intermediate to Advanced Path

In this part we cover Regular Hip & Valley Roofs, looking at the drawings and geometry to become more familiar with them before moving on to the calculations for the lengths, angles and bevels and how to bring it all together in practice.

This can also include looking at the geometry for the Hip & Valley rafter Backing bevels, even though you may not use it, it's good practice within the craft and as a tradesperson to have the know-how! and this applies to other aspects of this learning that lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the subject.

We can also cover many other practical methods, the tools involved, speed square, how to set and use a Steel square to all the different angles and bevels within the roof frame.

Start adding to your skills today and Experience a learning adventure unlike any other!

Contact & Booking

1-to-1 interaction for fastest progress! Sessions for Intermediate to advanced

are priced at £30 for each 40-minute booking and at the moment there is a promotion offer of 10 lessons for £250.

If you are interested in any part of this or if you would like to have a chat to find out more, it would be best to send me a message to Tommy on WhatsApp or by sending an email to rafterskills@gmail.com

Contact via WhatsApp

Mastering Irregular Pitch Roofs

This is all about Mastering Irregular Pitch Hip & Valley Roofs. These types of roofs have different roof pitches on either side of the Hip or Valley intersection.

More about Mastering Irregular pitched Roofs

During these online lessons I’m going to take you through the step by step in-depth process of how to go about mastering Irregular pitched Roofs, these type of roofs are often referred to as roofs that have bastard Hip or Valley Rafters. This will be explained by first of all looking at the drawings and the geometry involved before calculating the rafter lengths and angles. This includes all the importaint points that are necessary to bring it all together in practice.

Start adding to your skills today and Experience a learning adventure unlike any other!

Contact & Booking

1-to-1 interaction for fastest progress! Sessions for Advanced Roof Carpentry: Mastering irregular Pitched Roofs

are priced at £30 for each 40-minute booking and at the moment there is a promotion offer of 10 lessons for £250.

Contact via WhatsApp

The model above is an Irregular Hip Rafter with intersecting pitches of 30 and 40 degrees.

The model below is an Irregular Valley Rafter with intersecting pitches of 30 and 40 degrees.

The models below are of a Roof that has Irregular Valley intersection, in this model one of the Valley lay-boards has a bevel applied running up the length of the board and the other Lay-board has square edges running up its length.

Contact via WhatsApp

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