Graphical Construction Glossary >> Roofs and roofing. >> Roof Framing >> Wall Plate

Wall Plate

1.) A horizontal member, usually timber, bolted or otherwise fixed to the top of a wall to which the roof framing is fixed.
2.) A horizontal member, such as a steel plate fixed to a masonry or concrete wall to carry the end of a beam or to attach a beam to other members.
3.) A horizontal member, either at the top or bottom of a wall frame. Known as top plates or bottom plates.
4.) A board fixed to a vertical surface of a wall to which shoring or props are fixed.

Pole plate

A horizontal member, usually timber, bolted or otherwise fixed to the face of a wall to which the roof framing, usually rafters, is fixed.

For centuries wall plates have sat on the top of walls with little fixing down. They may have been bedded in cement but they and the roofs that were sat on them stayed there by there own weight.

In the sketches here the plates are shown bolted, which is as it should be in this age of extreme weather events. A structural engineer will lay out the type of fixings and the spacings of them. Quite often it will be alongside each rafter.

The sketches show the rafters fixed to the plates with timber nailplates, which could be any one of the dozens of pressed metal timber connectors available.

For instance the rafter connection to the plate on the face of the wall could quite easily the "U" shape joist hangers to good effect.

If the roof is sat on framed construction then the term wall-plate is not used. Usually the top plates of the wall frame are beefed up and bolted connections from the roof are used via angle brackets.

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