Hip Beam: Wednesday’s Word Of The Week

The next type of beam is a hip beam. A hip roof is a rectangular roof that slopes on all sides. Therefore, at the corners two slopes come together at an angle. Anywhere a sloped ridge between two roofs occurs, it is called a roof hip, and a hip beam supports this line.

Hip beams from below

Hip beams can be quite complex to detail and manufacture, because of all the different angles involved, so we always build a 3D computer model first to make sure all of the roof surfaces come together properly.


Similar to rafters, hip beams are either fully supported at both ends, or tied together to keep their bases from spreading. This is more complicated for hip beams, even on a rectangular roof, because it requires all four hip beams to work together with the ridge beam (to transfer compression forces between tops of hip beams) and a complete ring of perimeter beams (to act as a tension ring holding the hip bases together.)

Hip beams for dormer

*Wednesday’s Word Of The Week is a new feature on Unalam’s Wood Times Blog. Each Wednesday our structural engineer, Rik Vandermeulen, will discuss a new term associated with glulam manufacturing. He will do this until we run out of words. If there is a timber or glulam term that you have heard of and want to know more about, let us know in the comments.