Optimal eve overhang on universal 2 story?

[cedarglen]

I hope to start putting my rafters in place on Wednesday. We are at 5300 feet elevation and do get snow. We are also in a high fire risk area. I was thinking of going with 1 foot overhang. Any thoughts? I want enough eve that the water running off the roof won't be a problem, but little enough to minimize fire risk. Of course I want it to look good too.

[Redoverfarm]

I usually use the same dimension for the overhang as I do for the rafter spacing on the gable ends. As far as the overhang on the rafter tails I usually will go at least 12" or a little less to take advantage of the maximun use of materials.

[MountainDon]

The first thing that caught my eye in your post was that you are in a high fire risk area. IIRC, the eves / soffit area is a prime "fire catcher" in an area where fire may come across the ground at the building. So strictly from a fire prevention point of view no eves are a benefit. I don't like that for other eeasons though. Fire resistant materials are a plus. Keeping the ground around the building clear of burnable materials should be high on your list of "musts".

There are also special intumescent coatings/paints available for help in resisting fires. They expand under a fires heat and then resist the fores penetration.

http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1166837327

[glenn kangiser]

With proper flashing and trim, you don't really have to have much of any eave or overhang. If you have gutters though it may not work good with your snow.

[Redoverfarm]

Don good point about the fires but my main concern is the weather that will rot my house.  Most cabins are conctructed of wood, wood siding and a lot of basic building materials which usually do not include brick and other materials that are a little more retardant.  That is why I usually opt for a wider gable to give a little more protection to that exposed end.  The rafter tail soffit or overhang is basicly for asthetics or to seal the rafter cavitys to critter invasion as there are no basic protection qualities when gutters are installed.  

[glenn kangiser]

I'm on the ridge of a mountain and the rain blows straight sideways here, so my only reason for overhangs is to keep the summer sun away.  The rain will end up on the wall 6' up even with an 8' wide porch, speaking of our rental house on the ridge 1/4 mile away.  Other places are different though.