The typical spacing standards for residential and commercial buildings are about 1 to 2 foot.
Rafter spacing for corrugated roofing.
Visit the roof framing page for more information on cutting roof rafters and visit the roof pitch calculator for determining rafter lengths based on rise and run.
For heavier material such as gage steel the metal roof purlins spacing length could go up to 4 feet.
24 1 2 every 7 ft.
For heavy roofs or in areas with substantial snowfall or winds call your local building department for code requirements.
Stockbyte stockbyte getty images when placing rafters for a tin roof also frequently referred to as corrugated metal or steel it is common to set the distance between rafters based on the size of the roofing panels.
Calculations determine the maximum spacing based on the material used rafter size and load the roof needs to hold so that the roof is safe and meets all building codes.
The support system for the roof is comprised of ridgepole and rafters or purlins.
For example in the rafter span table below the highlighted cell in the 40 live load table indicates that 2 x 8 southern yellow pine joists that have a grade of 2 that are spaced 24 apart can have a maximum span of 10 feet 3 inches 10 3 if designing for a live load of 40 lbs ft 2.
Rafter spacing depends on the roofing panel size.