My guess is you give very little thought to the roof over your head, other than worrying about whether it will develop a leak. It’s safe to say you don’t lose a minute’s sleep thinking your roof will collapse. You can thank great carpenters, structural engineers, architects and, to a large extent, the modern building code for the peaceful slumber you experience!
The bones of your roof can be made of many different materials. Most modern homes today employ roof trusses made in a factory. These are engineering marvels, as almost all of them are made using just regular 2x4 dimensional lumber. Carpenters three generations ago would have probably said that it was impossible to do, as they were used to common-framed roofs using 2x6s, 2x8s, and even much larger pieces of wood.
