# Forum Home Renovation Pergolas, Gazebos, Strombellas & Rotundas  Rafter positions

## Masseypg

Hi,
I am designing a pergola to be attached to a house. Do the rafters need to be positioned over the posts, or just evenly spaced over the roof area?
Cheers.

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## David.Elliott

hmmm more info needed. FWIW, and I'm no builder, I would have one on each of the posts and then divide the space between equally into the number of rafters you need, ensuring that you end up with smaller spacings than code rather than larger. 
A bit depends of roofing material if there is one. Pics?

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## phild01

The question seems a bit strange as you would normally have more rafters than posts!
Just be sure the beam supported by the posts is correct according to tables and put your rafters to it as you desire, evenly spaced.

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## Masseypg

Sorry, I didn't phrase the question very well. I meant to say, is it common practice to position rafters over the posts and space the rest evenly in between; or... is it common practice to simply distribute them evenly over the whole roof area, irrespective of the post positions?

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## jimfish

Evenly over the roof area generally

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## Bloss

:What he said:  Posts are holding up the support beam and need to be positioned to meet the span requirements of the beam and the expected loads from the roof. Their position is often adjusted to meet aesthetic considerations within the limits of the beam span - if the aesthetics can't be made to match then the beam size is increased so the posts can be better placed. But once the past & beam is sorted then the rafters would generally be evenly spaced, but again for aesthetic reasons the two outer rafters are placed where it makes sense, and that is not always over a post or at the ends of the beams, but so that spaces are less than the minimum required by BCA while maintaining a reasonable appearance. Noting that odd spaces on a small number of posts is generally not as bad to look at as uneven spaces of rafters, but most humans prefer symmetry.

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