Oh Boss…Got me a floor truss question/problem….
So this idiot at work decided to completly cut out about a 4″ section of the top cord of a wooden floor truss, He did this because “That’s where the drain had to go”
anyway, on a scale of 1-10 how bad is this and how likely is it that I will get laughed at when I call the company who made them and ask for a “fix”
this was on a manufactured home, though a “nice” manufactured home, not simply a trailor, the truss spans roughly 15′, 3 1/2″ lumber for the whole system, spaced 16″ O.C. Depth looked to be about 12″ but I didn’t put a tape on it. I Plan to go take a picture tomorrow and send it to the company.
The cut is placed about 18″ from the outside supporting wall, Wish I had the camera with me when I saw it today. It looks something like symbols below if you can imagine the large space between top and bottom cord not being there.
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Replies
This happened to me as well, I contacted the truss company they said you can cut one truss for every 10' of trusses in my case. Top cord only and they sent me the paperwork with a stamp so the building inspector was happy. I was relieved as well wasn't looking forward to replacing or sistering a 38'x12" floor truss after the deck was on.
"...you can cut one truss for every 10' of trusses..."
That's absolute crap. No way is any engineer going to go for that.
More than likely they just didn't want to deal with it.
Red Green: You can't be forgetting your wedding anniversary, Dalton.
Dalton Humphries: Yeah, it's kind of ironic when the second dumbest think you ever did was to forget the dumbest thing you ever did.
That's what I thought too, but what do I know.
Since it's near the end of the truss, it won't likely be too bad.
The only problem is, they'll want you to replace the missing section of the top chord and cover both sides with plywood. That means the drain would have to go.
If that's not possible, they'll try to come up with a way to cut off the cut truss and header it off to the adjacent trusses. That will also likely be a mess of lumber and plywood, as the adjacent trusses will have to be reinforced.
Maybe if you have the guy who cut the truss do this repair, he won't do it again.
Truss company will have a fix, whether it's one you want to hear I don't know. Top cord sees compression, bottom cord sees tensile force (pulling apart), so, as noted above, a dutchman to the top cord may work. Then plywood reinforcement on the web which I bet you will be able to drill through properly to put the drain where you need to. Get documentation if possible from truss company or manufactured home company for inspector.
get an engineers certificate for the repair and demand that they will cover any and allexpenses caused by the repair and let THEM repair it. Backcharge the sub.
I would not allow truss repairs
yeah that would be great if it was a sub, unfortunetly it was a dumbass employee who knew better.
his excuse was " there was no choice, sometimes you have to do what you have to do"
apperantly he didn't realize picking up a phone and calling me or the office is "what you have to do"
bummer, you are stuck with this one.
I would line the truss on both sides with at least 3/4" plywood for an 8'length, plus some crossblocking to distribute the load.