Boston: a five bed house roofed in a single day

The brief

A big roof, a regular client, one day on the programme

Lincolnshire Resin Drives Ltd is a client AJB Group carries out regular work for, and in September 2026 that work was the roof on a five bedroom house being built on the outskirts of Boston. The brief was the full roof structure: every truss landed, fixed and braced, both front projections tied in and the valleys formed.

It is not a small roof. A five bed house at a 40 degree pitch is a lot of timber in the air, with 9 metre spans across the main house and a rear elevation carried on 7 metre prefabricated trusses. On a plan like this most of the time goes into the junctions rather than the straight runs, and this house has two front projections and three valleys to form where they meet the main roof.

What we did

Prefabricated trusses at 40 degrees

The main roof is a prefabricated trussed roof pitched at 40 degrees, spanning 9 metres across the house, with 7 metre trusses on the rear elevation. Trusses arrive designed and made to the roof layout, which takes the guesswork out of the timber sizes but not out of the fitting. Each one has to go onto the wall plate at the right centre, plumb and in line, and the set has to be braced as it goes up so that it stands as one structure rather than a row of separate frames.

On a steep roof that matters more than on a shallow one. A wide truss at 40 degrees stands tall at the apex and catches the wind as soon as it is up, so the order of work and the temporary bracing are what make a one day programme safe rather than rushed. This is the everyday work of roof truss installation, and it is where most of the roofs AJB fits begin.

Two front projections hung off the main roof

The front of the house has two projections, and their roof structures hang off the main roof. That junction is where a trussed roof stops being a delivery and becomes carpentry. Each projection has to meet the main slope at the right height, with its ridge running true into the main roof and its eaves lining through with the rest of the house. Get it wrong and every trade that follows, from the felt and batten to the tiler and the fascia fitter, inherits the error.

Three valley sets, installed to the manufacturer's requirements

Where the projections meet the main roof, three valley sets form the internal corners. A valley set is a series of diminishing frames supplied with the trusses and built up on top of the main roof to create the second slope into the valley. All three were installed to the manufacturer's requirements, which is how it should be done: the manufacturer designs the set, and the carpenter's job is to follow the layout exactly and fix it to specification, not to improvise one on the scaffold.

One day, start to finish

The job started on Monday 14 September 2026 and the full roof structure was complete the same day. A one day roof on a house this size is a planning result as much as a fitting one. The wall plates and the truss layout have to be ready before the delivery, and there have to be enough carpenters on the scaffold to work the main roof and the junctions at the same time. AJB runs fourteen employed carpenters, which is what makes a day like this possible.