Build your own roof trusses -advice ?

[gabeancounter]

working in the industry for 5+ years (for the second largest maker of steel plates and truss fab equipment)

a large facility that is makeing stock trusses (like the ones you wanted) buys lumber by the train car load. Significant saveings over what you pay for a 2x4 at lowes/HD

autosaws, automated lumber bunks and feeders mean you can cut every stick of lumber on a stock truss simultaneously. litterly able to cut out an entire truss worth of material in seconds.

autoset tables with laser layout mean you can assemble them with near 100% precision even with the most uneducated/unskilled labor.

Theres no question thats its impossible for a home owner to build a stock truss as cheeply, quickly, and maintain better quality than that of profesionaly fabricated trusses.

Since they get such good pricing on lumber, do you normally try to purchase purlins and girts from them? Maybe all lumber other than PT?

 

[gabeancounter]

Exactly my concern with the first drawing. Isn't the splice at exactly 50% of the overall span away from a bearing point? Namely the ends where it sits on the wall.

I noticed several of the pavilions (pole barns) at the local park have trusses built this exact way. They did stack a 2x4 about 18" long above the splice, then the metal gusset. Couple of them appeared to be around 20 years old.

 

[mx842]

Yah, I understand --sheds are different from living space. But do yourself a favor and have those trusses fabricated by someone who's done it before--preferably a certified fabricator who has the experience to do the job right the first time. Factory-built trusses are not that expensive.

Please don't take this in a way that you feel I am trying to start a fight with you for your comments because I am not meaning to do so. I would just like to point out that some of us especially us old farts that have been around for a long time and seen how things work over a period of time. I had a place one time that had a 50'x 50' wooden barn that was built 130 years before I got it and that was 40 years ago and it is still standing today. It didn't have a nail in it because it was all put together with hand made wooden pegs.

I looked at buying ready made truss for my barn but after doing the math I decided to build my own because I can do it for 1/3 of the cost. Also I don't have much else to do these days, other than clean up after the last storm but to me it's more of just being able to do it. Once you get a certain age you can do one of two things.....either get lazy and sit around watching Oprah and reruns of Happy Days on TV all day or you get out and enjoy the fact that the good Lord gave you the skills to be able to get things done.

You see it's not just the money it's more to it than that, not everybody is a tight wad like me. No, some folks just like to sit back after a job is complete and enjoy what they have put together. This moment wont last too long though because these folks will soon be busy building something else that somewhere some engineer will be telling folks on a forum just like this that it can't be done this way or that. I'm not taking anything away from the guys and gals that have gone to school, gotten that pedigree and wall mount to hang in their office some day. Education is a wonderful thing and they should be proud of what they have done.

All I am saying is that some people learn to do things in different ways and most of the time what they get done is by trial and error method over a period of years. To me it seems that a lot of the codes and standards that are written as gospel have been written by people that have a vested interest in seeing to it that their pocketbook is protected and not as much to protect the sheep like you and I. If this were not true they would write these codes and standards in language us peons could understand and not have a law degree to figure it out. But I understand that everybody just wants a piece of the pie. It's just that some folks like to divide the pie and pass it around their way and and not have to rely on others to hand them a crumb or two as they choose.

 

[gabeancounter]

MX,
I am not sure if Ophara is even on anymore and the last time I seen Happy Days was about 20 years ago - heyyyyyy:laughing:

My views are the same as yours and yes there is not a better feeling than that of self accomplishment. Even an oil change puts a smile on my face. I can not understand this move towards reliance on goverment.

 

[massey990]

To me it seems that a lot of the codes and standards that are written as gospel have been written by people that have a vested interest in seeing to it that their pocketbook is protected and not as much to protect the sheep like you and I.

Most of the structural codes and standards are there because inferrior methods and techniques have caused failures many leading to injury or death.

If someone builds something that does not meet building code standards and later sells it they can still be held liable in some states.

 

[beppington]

... All I am saying is that some people learn to do things in different ways and most of the time what they get done is by trial and error method over a period of years.

The trial-and-error method when building trusses sounds painful ... or maybe deadly.

What if it's your "trial" but the "error" part is inflicted on someone else? Perhaps even after you've moved on.

 

[Duffster]

When the truss is in poistion, the lumber pushes into itself to lock it into position. If you where really good, and lucky, you could assemble a working truss without any screws, nails or plates. The ends of the wood would wedge into each other like a keystone, and it would stay in place. Since that's not possible, you have to use fastners to hold them in place. Either metal plates of plywood will do this. It's not about the stregth of the plates as much as it is to make sure they wont let the wood move.

This isnt the case when the bottom chord is seamed.

 

[Duffster]

I am going to have to go out and gets picture of 2 of our post frame buildings trusses. You all wouldn't believe me with out pictures. Both are over 35 years old and still standing perfectly. One uses a bolt and split ring for the lumber connection in the trusses. The other just uses a single lag bolt. The companies that built these barns have built literally thousands of buildings around here.

 

[schmism]

Since they get such good pricing on lumber, do you normally try to purchase purlins and girts from them? Maybe all lumber other than PT?

This is why i mentioned priceing an entire package from a large lumber yard that builds trusses much earlyer.

 

[gabeancounter]

This is why i mentioned priceing an entire package from a large lumber yard that builds trusses much earlyer.

The places around me are seperate companies. Truss manufacturer or lumber yard. Most lumber yards have closed up shop. The main lumber yard within 30 miles is actually an ACE Hardware.
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