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- The contractor should examine the trusses when they are delivered and determine if there is any damage that would impair the structural integrity of the trusses.
- BCSI recommends that trusses stored outside for more than a week be stacked on blocking and have a cover that provides adequate ventilation.
- The contractor is responsible for the construction means, methods, techniques, sequences, procedures, programs, and safety in connection with the receipt, storage, handling, installation, restraining, and bracing of the trusses.
- The strength axis of a structural panel is the direction parallel to the grain of the wood fiber in the face and back surfaces of the panel.
- The strength axis is usually the long dimension of the panel.
- The IBC provides two tables with the allowable spans and loads (psf) for wood structural panel sheathing installed continuous over two or more spans with their strength axis perpendicular and parallel to the supports.
When a homeowner asked for the contemporary look of a curved roof without the expense of beam or steel construction, the designer knew the answer was trusses.
- According to an SBC One Minute Poll, CMs name finding and retaining good employees as one of their top challenges as business picks up.
- Good workers are all around us and a lot of them are still looking for a job that is worthy of their devotion and work ethic.
- Implementing recruiting strategies in and around your community can produce some of the best results with great, long-term employees.
Floor systems have long been the bread and butter of building material dealers offering pre-cut structural frame components. Wood product manufacturers have offered dealers tools and support for precision end trim (PET) floor framing for several years, and now are expanding their offerings to encompass other parts of the structure. For example, advances in design and fabrication software are enabling dealers and other fabricators to more efficiently produce PET roof components.
Many potential complaints and problems can be mitigated by an astute truss technician during the design phase.
For Cascade, gambrel trusses were just one unique aspect of an entirely unusual project
From BCMC 2012 Educational Session: “Lumber Production, Grading & Design Values Part 2: From Stick to Truss”
An unusual project with an uncommon shape presented the kind of design challenge truss technicians don’t see every day.
What will happen if the plies of a multi-ply girder truss are not fastened together properly? Overloading and, potentially, chord fractures can occur.
I recently talked with Gene Frogale (Allied Systems) and Jack Dermer (American Truss Systems) about their experiences at the International Builders Show (IBS) in January.
Who’s in your social truss network? If you’re like a majority of component manufacturers, your social truss network might be a bit lonely online and off! SBCA President Jess Lohse has a few ideas for how to beef up your network in 2016!
I first started pursuing a college engineering degree, but had to leave due to some family emergencies. In 1982, I started selling lumber and trusses for 84 Lumber and then with a local lumberyard a year later in my home area of Portage, Indiana. When construction tanked in the early 1980’s, I moved my family to Florida near my wife’s family. I decided to use more of my background from college and found a job in 1985 estimating floor and roof trusses for WD Lumber & Truss in the Tampa Bay area.
- Based on the recommendations of the IRC, IBC and ASCE 7, truss or rafter uplift connections should be designed for applied wind loads using MWFRS analysis.
- Individual truss and rafter members should be designed using C&C generated wind loads.
- The SBCA Load Guide includes information about uplift connections for structural building components.
In a lot of ways, I grew up in the industry as this was the family business. My uncle and father were home builders. In the mid 1970’s they were having problems getting lumber and trusses delivered on schedule, so they started a lumber yard and then bought a truss plant.
The purpose of this article series is to identify truss-related structural issues sometimes missed due to the day-in and day-out demands of truss design/production and the fragmented building design review and approval process. This series will explore issues in the building market that are not normally focused upon, and provide recommended best-practice guidance.
- The 2012 IRC does not provide sufficient details on how to connect wood trusses to braced wall panels.
- SBCA has developed a couple of details and will continue to develop standard details that provide code-compliant connections between roof/floor trusses and braced wall panels.
- Component manufacturers can provide framers with specialty or standardized blocking panel products to reduce the time needed to install the blocking between trusses for these connections.
Since I was 14 years old, I just wanted to own my own business. In 1986, I was selling lumber in Texas when the economy collapsed. With the market tanking, they laid off half of the employees. I was fortunate, I was pushed back down to retail sales but I wanted to get back into outside sales. The company’s truss plant began to struggle and I was asked to sell trusses. I said yes, despite not knowing what a truss was, and I have never looked back from there.
- Before a new truss designer designs their first truss, it’s a good idea to have technicians work as a helper on a truss production team.
- Understand the personal characteristics, education and knowledge of your plant personnel because often talent is there that is unexplored and unrealized.
- Training a new designer is an ongoing process that takes time. When you have good designers trained, you will want to do everything you can to keep them employed with you.
Jess Lohse (Rocky Mountain Truss) returns again this month to provide a component manufacturer's perspective on the contents of the new March issue. We hope you enjoy it as much as he seemed to!
Learn more about the training programs that SBCA offers. SBCA's Truss Knowledge Online (TKO) website lets professionals train anytime, anywhere with flexible online courses.
One of the primary missions of SBCA is to help component manufacturers (CMs) gain greater market share. Traditionally, those efforts have been aimed at turning roof rafters into roof trusses, and that focus has paid significant dividends.
Six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and three half baths. A three-car garage, elevator, theater, exercise room, billiards room, library and six fireplaces. Is this a description of a quaint bed and breakfast? No, it’s a residence, a mansion in fact, in need of a roof. Initial plans for this 18,203 sq ft mansion called for a stick-built roof, but the team at Riverside Roof Truss in Danville, VA, proved the benefits of component construction both conceptually on paper and in the field.
- Plywood and OSB design values are given; those that are doing repairs in your office should have a good feel for the similarities and differences.
- Plywood and OSB generally have similar design properties with a key exception of fastener strength where plywood will require more fasteners to be used.
- If a truss repair specifies only OSB, plywood should not be substituted without written permission from the registered design professional who prepared the truss repair design drawing.
Annandale Millwork & Allied Systems ventured into the components industry differently from most manufacturers as our original business centered on doors and millwork. We diversified into wall panels in the early 1980s and eventually into roof trusses. From the beginning, we’ve always looked to use innovative processes to solve common construction problems.
Ric Thompson, a senior truss designer with Millard Lumber, is used to taking on a challenge. “I don’t do small jobs,” he said. “I only do monsters.” Still, some monsters are more monstrous than others. Ask him about BLUEBARN Theatre, and it’s clear that this project stands out.
For decades, SBCA Jobsite Packages have helped component manufacturers (CMs) provide handling and installation guidance to their customers with every order. These pre-assembled packages of instruction documents, attached to truss deliveries in a zippered plastic bag, are now available in a digital format.