Build your own roof trusses -advice ?

[woodlandfarms]

we looked into building our own trusses, and at the end of the day the local truss building company did it cheaper. Trusses are no easy feat, it is best to have a jig and patience from all I have been told.

I would call and get some quotes before you go much further.

 

[MarkV]

I have to wonder, you have an HOA that does not allow metal roofing or siding. Doesn't sound that rural. That generally means you live somewhere that will require a building permit. If that is the case I"ll bet you have to have an engineer sign off on your home made trusses before the building inspector with agree to then. I would also bet that with some looking into it it you will end up cheaper buying from a truss company that provides and engineering stamp with the product. Just my experience.

MarkV

 

[SandburRanch]

Being the OP is seeking advice I'd like to mention camber. Unless you have a reputable firm build them, in my opinion you'll be in for a big surprise building 26, even with free labor, and a few years later you won't like the looks of them so well when it all shrinks, sags and settles. Some things it just pays to have made and make up for the extra cost in things we can better do ourselves.

The camber in trusses

 

[schmism]

Mike,
What type lumber are you using? (HD and Lowes #2?). The advantage to ripping in half was saving $4 per cut and the wood possibly being stronger than standard spruce. Would you use 7/16 osb and 19" spacing or 19/32 osb and 2' spacing?

I say again, YOU CAN NOT RIP A solid sawn 2x8 in half and expect the resulting material to conform to the same grade. THe resulting material, in fact, now has no grade and is considered unusable in structural building.

you can not use a 6D 2" nail instead of a 3" common. NDS holding values differ between the 2 by more than half.

you can either use the drawing for the truss design as indicated only increasing grades and sizes or else do not use it at all.

 

[Fixemall]

Buy your trusses, shop around and look into the ones that have the "attic" void built in for future expansion.

 

[schmism]

Being the OP is seeking advice I'd like to mention camber.

very few "machine made" roof trusses include camber. The deflection amounts for dead load are relativity small for normal trusses. there generally isnt a deflection amount figured into the autoset tables untill you get to 80'-100' clear span trusses.

now system 42 trusses (sys42) floor trusses have built in camber in the jigs used to build the trusses. but then again dead loads for floor trusses are MUCH higher than dead load for roof trusses

 

[cjfling]

Eddie's got it right. Also, If you want to make it bigger, go to a local lumber store instead of a home center. I found that they carried longer 2x6s in stock without the cost of special ordering. I used 16 penny pole barn nails. Gussetts need to be bigger. If you haven't built them before it can be a challenge. A previous poster had it right, build one as a templete and get all your demensions down. Have the templete laying on level ground and build the next ones one at a time on top of the templete. The thing about manufactured ones is the fastner plates are pressed into the lumber instead of nailed.

Good luck.

 

[schmism]

Being that I am doing an ashpalt shingle roof, I don't want to go over 2' OC. I was actually going to use 5/8 plywood sheathing to cut back on sagging between the trusses.

so are you building a garage (with continuous studded wall) or pole barn with posts (aka poles)?

do you have posts at large intervals and plan to put some sort of header ontop to carry the 2' OC trusses? how have you sized your headers and poles?

what is your side height? (as it greatly affects the post design)

 

[gabeancounter]

so are you building a garage (with continuous studded wall) or pole barn with posts (aka poles)?

do you have posts at large intervals and plan to put some sort of header ontop to carry the 2' OC trusses? how have you sized your headers and poles?

what is your side height? (as it greatly affects the post design)

Looking to use 4 - 2x6x16 laminated together for the post. The header will be 2x12 sitting on the inside and outside 2x6's. Spaced 10' OC.

 

[gabeancounter]

I have to wonder, you have an HOA that does not allow metal roofing or siding. Doesn't sound that rural. That generally means you live somewhere that will require a building permit. If that is the case I"ll bet you have to have an engineer sign off on your home made trusses before the building inspector with agree to then. I would also bet that with some looking into it it you will end up cheaper buying from a truss company that provides and engineering stamp with the product. Just my experience.

MarkV

One street subdivision with 5AC lots. Across the street is 1500 Ac of cotton. The HOA is one of the reasons I built here - no livestock etc. But I have spoken with the building inspector and he was ok with using the plans above. Nothing difficult - inspection on the holes - just wants to see them 4' deep. He is ok with the header size etc. Final inspection is after it is done- just to ensure the hurricane straps and framing was what we spoke about.