Re: Repairing the roof truss

On Sep 27, 4:20 am, Doug <sparks06524nos...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 27, 12:16 am, Red Green <postmas...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You cannot just change trusses. Every piece of a truss has an effect on
the others. Most trusses can be repaired but before anything you have to
have a PE's statement approving it. This is not just some PITA rule. The
weight of the entire roof and anything that's ever on it is on those
trusses and transfered to the outer walls. Repairs and changes are often
done with gussets. The geometry, specs, placement and even screw spacing
and type are part of the PE's statement.

The reason those plates are hard to pull out is so that they don't pull
out. They are put in by hydraulic presses to apply an even calculated
pressure that is part of the overall geometry of stresses and loads of
the truss. Even the lumber used is part of the calculation, i.e, SYP,
SPF, No 1,2 or 3, cord & web widths.

What you have done may be fine but you will need to show many buyers a
PE's statemnt that says so...and any buyer that gets a home inspection.
Personally, I would go after the *** for altering a significant
structural component of your home. They may or may not have needed a
permit to do the HVAC work but I bet a permit is required to modify
trusses. Did they get one? The the inspector sign off on it?

As a buyer I might hear yadda yadda yadda from the seller and much of it
good convincing info. When the seller was done I'd say, "Great! Show me
the approved PE's statement stamped".

And as a seller, I'd say "well, then Mister, find yourself another
house because I'm not hiring a PE or a structural engineer just to
reduce your stomach butterflies".

Since when in our society do we always need such ironclad guarantees,
stamped with approval?

How the hell did they ever manage to build houses before structural
engineers existed? Give me a break...

I raised the roof of a house using 26 ft long rafters to give a clear
span with a 16 ft cathedral ceiling in one part and designed my own
trusses in another. I simply used code books and books on
architectural engineering standards, did the simple math and had it
built, but also doing much of the work myself.

The City's building inspector approved my drawings, signed off on the
inspections and it passed with flying colors. When in doubt, I simply
went up one extra lumber size over what the simple match dictated.
That was done in 1988 and I still own the house and it survived a
tornado that shook the entire building.

It ain't rocket science and no structural enineer is necessary to do
such a simple repair. The orginal poster has done a perfectly
satisfactory job.

Jeez, it's amazing that Monticello is still standing. Jefferson wasn't
a structural engineer...

In this economy, where the economy is in dire trouble, and there is a
glut of homes for sale - many going begging, you're suggesting turning
away a potential buyer because of several hundred dollars that will
most likely (if the OP has any common sense at all) come out of the AC
guy's pocket.

Forgetting the financial and concentrating on the structural, do you
really expect a buyer, even one as can-do as yourself, to walk into
such a house and not have any questions about the repair, who did it,
whether it was done right, etc.? Are you suggesting that someone can
simply eyeball a truss and tell if the connections and members are
correctly sized?

Buying the house is not entirely up to you unless you're paying cash.
A bank will almost certainly require an inspection and any inspector
worth his salt will red flag such an obvious modification to an
engineered truss.

You can take umbrage at the unfairness of the situation - it just
won't change it.

R
.