Are these pole barn trusses defective, or are they okay to use?

[ju2tin]

So I'm having a pole barn built and the building company had trusses delivered from the truss-making company.

They mostly look okay to me, but about 6 of the trusses are missing chunks of wood along the edge of the bottom chord (?) at a joint where two pieces of wood come together. You can see the exposed metal fastener grid spikes where the wood is missing in this photo of the side of the trusses all stacked up:

There is also some cracking in one of the bottom chord pieces of wood:

I'm a pole barn n00b. Are these trusses okay to use, or are they defective and I should send them back?

(If it matters, the truss dimensions are 48 feet wide, 4:12 pitch, standard trusses. There are 17 of them, 4' OC, and the barn will be 64 x 48.)

 

[John Fitzgerald]

The builder should agree to reinforce the weak points with more wood or metal, or you should send them back IMO.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I think I would send them back if possible, otherwise a stern reinforcement plate would be needed to assure reliability.

 

[John Fitzgerald]

I always put collar ties at the tops on my trusses. Sometimes they tend to pull apart at the top, and the collar ties discourage that. Just short pieces of 2x4 or 2x6.

 

[/pine]

In my experience this is fairly common and typical of production truss plants...
Unless there is an actually damaged piece of material or gang nail plates etc. it is no cause for concern...
If your framing crew has any experience they will readily tell you they see them (trusses) like that all the time and can deal with any minor issues...

Trusses are engineered for specific applications...modifying in any way should be cleared with the engineer/manufacturer if only for legal prudence...

 

[RNeumann]

In my experience this is fairly common and typical of production truss plants...
Unless there is an actually damaged piece of material or gang nail plates etc. it is no cause for concern...
If your framing crew has any experience they will readily tell you they see them (trusses) like that all the time and can deal with any minor issues...

Trusses are engineered for specific applications...modifying in any way should be cleared with the engineer/manufacturer if only for legal prudence...

Second- looks like standard truss company issue. Lumber isnt the same quality as it used to be. Gang nails have always looked like they wouldn't hold their own weight but have held millions of joints for decades now.

Any modification will need to be done that the direction (and stamp) of the truss company engineer to maintain the integrity, liability and warranty of the truss.

 

[Rustyiron]

^^^ third.
The "crack" looks like a shallow poke from a fork, prolly from when it was in a whole unit.

 

[fried1765]

So I'm having a pole barn built and the building company had trusses delivered from the truss-making company.

They mostly look okay to me, but about 6 of the trusses are missing chunks of wood along the edge of the bottom chord (?) at a joint where two pieces of wood come together. You can see the exposed metal fastener grid spikes where the wood is missing in this photo of the side of the trusses all stacked up:

There is also some cracking in one of the bottom chord pieces of wood:

I'm a pole barn n00b. Are these trusses okay to use, or are they defective and I should send them back?

(If it matters, the truss dimensions are 48 feet wide, 4:12 pitch, standard trusses. There are 17 of them, 4' OC, and the barn will be 64 x 48.)

Sloppy workmanship!
Probably OK,..... but NOT!.
I am a former Civil Engineer, and those trusses would NOT be acceptable to me.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm a nobody, but IF those were in MY pole barn, it would drive me NUTS every time I looked up at them!

I don't think I'd accept them for my bld...

SR

 

[LD1]

Did you get an engineering print with the truss? Should have all the good technical engineering info on it. Should have a CSI number for top chord bottom chord and web.

A truss is designed around a set of parameters. Wind load and snow load for your area. At max wind/snow load that the truss was designed for, the CSI number tells how close to failure you are. IE: if the CSI # is 0.90, that means at the max load the truss was designed for, is 90% of what it can take before failure.

You might have a bottom chord CSI # of 0.60 and have nothing at all to worry about, or it could be 0.95 and would make me pause.

As others have said, dont do ANYTHING to the truss other than brace where they spec. If the truss fails, the insurance company is gonna go after them. IF YOU modified the truss in anyway, game over you lose.

Have you contacted the truss company? Showed them these pics?