Talk:Purlin

Prior to the introduction of trusses?
When was that? As can be seen in image:Truss_Dachstuhl.jpg, trusses have existed for a long time. The sentence makes it sound as if trusses were a recent American invention. &mdash; Sebastian 18:53, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Sebastian,-prior to the introduction of roof trusses- means just that. Don't confuse roof trusses with any modern invention. When spans got larger than single one piece rafters could cope with, people sometime in the dark ages built the fist primitive trusses. This enabled longer spans and the rafters were carried on and joined at the purlins that bridged the trusses. I have removed the offending phrase to save further confusion.billbeee (talk) 05:32, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Purlins were not always used
My house, circa 1860, has a traditional hipped cut roof (not made from pre-manufactured trusses). There are no purlins supporting the rafters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Atom0007 (talk • contribs) 21:44, 14 May 2009 (UTC) So what? All this means is that you have a fairly lightweight roof that is small enough or the builders managed to find timber long enough so that they did'nt need to use purlins.billbeee (talk) 05:40, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Use of purlins
I'm confused. In most of the pictures, the purlins are on top of rafters and support the roofing material; but in picture one, and in other pictures of traditional trusses I've seen, the purlins are underneath the rafters and support them. These uses should be differentiated —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marquetry28 (talk • contribs) 07:01, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

under purlin
I do not believe the term "under purlin" is used historically. Their are many names for types of purlins in traditional carpentry.

I believe "purlin" comes from words meaning prolong in that they allow longer rafters thus wider buildings. Another type of purlin in traditional timber framing is a common purlin which are supported by rafters and carry vertical roof boards, rather than supporting rafters which carry horizontal sheathing boards. I will work on a complete definition for the main entry for this word...eventually!

Jim Derby, student of historic carpentry, Waldoboro, Maine, USA — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jim Derby (talk • contribs) 21:34, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

European English
British English Pamour (talk) 12:26, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Accessibility issues
The image included https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_Purlin_Highlighted.jpeg includes the statement The purlins are marked in red. Approximately 10% of the male population has no way to see whatever "red" markings there are in the photograph. Dhlocker (talk) 23:24, 26 June 2024 (UTC)