How to: Dog House Truss

Building a good dog house truss is the difference between a weak dog house roof that collapses when the dog moves around and a sturdy one that can take a good amount of battering before wearing out. A good truss should be able to hold a sturdy roof over the house without collapsing under pressure. Building a good dog house truss will not require much time, effort and money. No skills beyond the grasp of using basic tools will be required.

Things You'll Need

  • Long wood plank
  • Pencil
  • 8 short wood planks
  • Saw
  • Hammer
  • Nails
  • 4 medium wood planks
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Instructions

    • 1

      Draw one mark at each of the ends of the long plank and two more evenly spaced out inside, around a third of the way across and two-thirds of the way across the board.

    • 2

      Overlap the ends of two small planks together. Hold the overlapping ends together and rotate the planks until you reach the decided angle for the roof. Saw down the overlapping end directly in middle of the angle. Repeat this step for three more pairs of boards with the same angle.

    • 3

      Hold the sawed ends of the small planks against the long plank. Nail two small planks at each marked place on the long plank with the hammer, each on opposite sides of the long plank.

    • 4

      Hold a medium plank directly underneath two small planks at the same mark. Line the plank up so that the ends of the smaller planks are on the medium one. Nail the medium plank to the ends of the smaller planks and saw off the extra length from both sides of the medium plank. Repeat this step for each of the other pairs.