Business Logistics

Charring Of Trusses

Question: 

Our home caught fire last month and burned partly through a tongue and groove ceiling to the trusses. Some are charred. Our contractor did a moisture meter test. An engineer for the insurance company said the trusses were only smoke damaged & the moisture meter test is invalid (it can be set to read anything). I found one article on charred trusses, but it’s pretty vague. We do not feel safe with the insurance engineer’s assessment because some of the trusses are obviously charred. We hired an engineer who agreed with us.

Sloping Floors

Question: 

In our one-year-old home, as you approach the hallway, the floor slopes downward. Our home inspector said that this was most likely due to the fact that the walls were resting on the floor as opposed to being load-bearing walls. What has been your experience with sloping floors in a new home? The floors are very flat elsewhere until the walls start. Do you think this sloping could turn into a structural problem eventually?

Floor Vibration

Question: 

We have designed a custom home that needs a good solid floor, with low vibration perceptibility. The system we have specified consists of 2 in. of gypcrete over 1 and 1/8 in. thick plywood or OSB. The floor trusses are 20 in. deep at 16 in. O.C., spanning 31 ft. 6 in. The preliminary truss design shows a double top and bottom chord with a total load deflection of 1.30 in. (l/290) and a live load deflection of 0.65 in. (l/581). The basement ceiling will be 1/2 in. gypboard nailed to the bottom of the trusses.

Retrofitted Shed Dormer

Question: 

I own and live in the middle unit of a one-story tri-plex that has a truss-framed roof. The interior has high ceilings that would potentially allow the addition of a second floor room. I am contemplating adding a shed dormer to create a second story bedroom. Do you have any suggestions as to how a shed dormer could be added? I am familiar with how to frame up a shed dormer if the original framing were rafters and a ridge board, but the truss construction has thrown me for a loop.

Structural Composite Lumber In Trusses

Question: 

The lumber used in most metal plate connected wood trusses is either visually- or mechanically-graded solid sawn dimensional lumber. However, the Truss Plate Institute's ANSI/TPI 1 allows the use of structural composite lumber (SCL) products such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL), laminated strand lumber (LSL) and parallel strand lumber (PSL). These engineered wood products can conceivably compete with sawn lumber and complement it in truss designs.

Truss Blow Down

Question: 

If trusses blew down from insufficient temporary bracing and the contractor put them back up without the knowledge of the truss manufacturer and gave the truss manufacturer a letter stating that the trusses were okay, is that sufficient? Do you know of any truss manufacturer who would accept this?

Truss Storage Responsibilities

Question: 

We have a customer that bought trusses in June. The trusses were shipped [ and one month later are] being set. The chords have weathered and bowed. What is the industry standard for dealing with this problem? What is our liability in this situation? We were not aware of any delays on the customer’s part and shipped as requested. Note: These trusses are 62 ft. scissor trusses.

Truss Design

Question: 

Recently, I was invited to view a newly-constructed 60 ft. by 36 ft. barn, with homemade big timber trusses as follows: 36 ft. span, 12/9 pitch, construction was 26 ft. 2x12 rafters, bracing 2x6, ceiling joists were 36 ft. boxed, 6x12 out of overlapping (6 ft.), 2x12 glued and nailed center, 16 feet of joist doubled as an 8 ft. high loft, floor trusses were on 12 ft. centers atop posts deeply anchored with good footings, roof and wall cross ties were 2x6 on edge every 24 in., floor cross ties in the loft were 2x8 on edge every 16 in., 4 ft. snow load.

Sealed Placement Plans

Question: 

Is it the responsibility of the truss manufacturer to provide a sealed layout drawing for roof trusses?

Hand Built Trusses

Question: 

I am building a new shop that is 30 ft. x 32 ft. I need to free-span the 30 ft. dimension. Where can I get a load chart that recommends lumber size and strategic locations of the angle braces to support the free span? I am going to field erect the trusses and stick build them on the building.