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We will be raising 32′, 5/12, trusses soon on a single level ranch home. I’ve raised twenty footers before but this size is a little scary. Your input on equipment needed, safety, and pointers would be much appreciated.
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Ken, We used a cherry picker from a local tree surgeon and set 38 footers with no problem. They charged $300 for a half day. Well worth it! Make sure you use plenty of bracing, this is not an area to be careless. Ask your truss fabricator if he has a copy of a video put out by TPI on the proper handling and erection of trusses. Good Luck
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$300 sounds a little steep to me. The last truss company I worked for charged $75 per hour, with only a one hour minimum. The crane was tractor mounted, so it was on the truck the trusses were delivered with. Ask your truss company about it.
Some builders would only "top plate" their trusses, or lay them down in bundles on top of some interior walls. This might save you some bucks.
Keith gives good advice about bracing. It might seem silly to put extra braces on, but think of the possible consequences if you don't. It's not woth getting a friend hurt over, or the mess you'll have to deal with if they topple on you.
Make sure you brace your bracing, too. I once saw a job where they put up ground braces to hold the gables up. Then they set all the trusses, and braced them off to the gables. They didn't use any diagonal bracing in the building anywhere. As the driver was folding up the crane and preparing to leave, he was amazed to see the framer going around knocking out the stakes for the ground braces. Pretty soon the trusses all simply fell over. Made a mess of his walls, and broke a bunch of trusses.
Best of luck with your project, and be careful.
*We use a cherry picker on occasion,usually for girder trusses or steep pitch trusses.With 32' trusses,I usually gather up a couple extra men,2 for carrying into the house,one on each wall,one at the ridge.We hand up one end of the truss first,then the other end.Now the truss is upside down,with each end up on the plate.One guy on the ground tips the peak up to the ridge man with a long 2x4 with nails in the end,so as to "grab" the truss so it does'nt slide off.A little safety note:Do not stand under the truss when tipping it up.Sometimes a rope could be tied around the truss at the peak so the ridge man can help pull it up.
*Ken, your query made me sigh thinking about the good old days! I haven't had the pleasure of working with 5/12's in 15 years or more!Anyways, it brings up a good story.I was a young apprentice in 1977. My boss had made me foreman, and I was framing a two story, gabled house with two other apprentices, and one journeyman. We had already framed this model before, and were familiar with it.We were just getting ready to start setting the trusses (also 32 footers and 5/12). There were about 16 or 17 (possibly 18) of them staged out front, near the double wide, front door. The boss checked in with us at 3:00 pm. As he left, we started humping them up. Two guys down, handing them up to a guy on the landing, who was handing them up to me on the top plate. I piled them into one pile, and then we all got up top and walked them across and set them. Back then, we used to use a 1x6 lacer and tack it near the peak.Later that night, the boss called me at home and questioned me: "well jim, how far'd ya' get with them trusses?" I replied; "we got them all set and laced". He continued: "what time did you stay till?" I replied: "oh, we left at our normal time, 3:30."I din't think anything of it.And that was hand pounding!Oh, how I long for 5/12's!Blue"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine."
*blue eyed Speedy devil!You be one flyin devil.Jack : )
*I don't understand what your problem is. You have a 32' truss at 5/12. That is less than a 7' ridge, what is scary about that? You don't need any special equipment or anything. Just do them like any other truss. They shouldn't even be very heavy. Start at a gable end, brace the first truss. Then roll each successive truss and block or fasten it to the one before. Stand on the bottom chord. If you had a 12/12 pitch and were 16' above the bottom of the truss that might be scary.
*Ken,Check out the December 1998 issue of The Journal of Light Construction. There is a good article on setting trusses, with some time-saving tips and good ideas on bracing.
*have worked on quite a few large auditoriums that had to be trussed. Procedure as follows. Truss span 15m ( 45'?) pitch 27 degrees. Trusses were stood on the ground( on a ribbon plate) in banks of 6, braced off and partly battened. Crane then lifts the whole bank into place. 4 banks of 6 and the whole roof is up with just the hips to place.
*Ken,Check out FHB #99 and #100 for truss prep and lifting procedures I use on 2 story homes.I've also done plenty of jobs similar to your's w/out craning. If you decide to install by hand be careful when moving trusses in flat position. Truss plates can pop or become loose. That can ruin the structural integrity of the truss.Extra hands always help.If you haven't already lifted the walls consider framing the gable end walls first with the gable trusses in place. Sheathe the whole mess and lag bolt a couple of 2x4 'strongbacks' to give the truss / wall connection some ridgity during lift.you can even trim off your rakes before lifting.Mike
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I have one experience with raising trusses. I hired two carpenters (they were a team) and one neighbor. We set 15 in all, 39 feet long, 6 in 12 pitch, room-in-attic trusses, on 10 foot walls, with just the four of us. They were 2x8 all around, webbing (what there was of it) was 2x4. Did it in about two hours.
The carpenters were well worth the money. Had strong backs, and knowledge. Cheaper than cranes, too! I'm a do-it-yourselfer, and real cheap too, but highly recommend hiring someone who has done this before. They won't mind you helping grunt the trusses up there!
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Dave,
In reply to your e-mail.The trusses are set up on a ribbon plate on the ground. This plate stays with the lift when it takes place. The stud wall is framed as per normal but the ribbon plate effectively gives you 2 top plates once the trusses are placed in position.i.e. you have one top plate in place on your framed wall and you have another on the ground that your trusses are being fixed to. Attention must be paid to sufficient bracing for the lift ( we use a combination of 2x1 and metal speed brace ). The lift needs a crane with a decent amount of reach for although there is very little weight involved you do need a fair amount of manouvering room. As far as slings we had a spreader bar made up the lenght of the truss bank ( say 6 trusses 4.5 mts ( 14'?)) with steel rods as hooks dropping off the spreader bar and hooking under the truss webs.All you need then is a rope on the trusses to a person on the ground to prevent swaying and help guide them into place and a very good crane operator. Have some photos somewhere that I'll post when I get the time to figure out how to do so. L.O.L.
*Truss gore stories,We usually set trusses with three or four people but the smaller ones are just as easy with two people. Walk them into the house, put the ends up on the walls upside down, then rotate them up and nail in place as per other posts here.To the gore...We had two front pagers here a couple years ago where huge span trusses came down killing or injuring some of the workers with poor jumping skills of soft skulls. On one of them I remember the cause being a not well thought out "speed up" idea of lifting all the plywood up onto the roof and setting in one place, in order to get the roof sheathed before nightfall or whatever. How much does a bundle of ply weigh?...And all came down...more than a dozen men involved, thank God only one never to return to a construction site as I remember...Jack : )
*Jack - Your story is an all too familiar one with me. Unfortunately, I've been involved with several truss collapses over the years. When I've tried to tell contractors that they needed to be careful(before they set the trusses), they get defensive, as if I'm insulting their intelligence. But, as soon as they have a collapse, they want to know what was wrong with the truses, and how much insurance you have. I even had one job where the trusses collapsed *twice*, and they still didn't think they were doing anything wrong. Fortunately, I've never had to deal with a fatality. Setting bundles of plywood on trusses is a bad idea, as you pointed out. They're just not designed for that kind of concetrated load. As for "How much does a bundle of ply weigh?" - A sheet of 1/2" plywood is roughly 50#. There are about 80 pieces in a full bunk, so that works out to about 4,000#.
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On ranches lay the gables up on top first then sheath them and stand them up (braced) this makes for light and safer work. We run a string from peak to peak, then stack all the rest of the trusses up on top(usually interior walls keep the trusses in the horizontal position) One carpenter on each end and one walking the walls in the center to roll them up, make sure they are on the string line, and nail them to the brace that runs just down from the peak. 3 of us can usually truss and sheet a 30 x 44 ranch(5/12 or 6/12) before lunch. KC
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Ken, if you have any doubts about handling these trusses then by all means, get a boom truck or similar, set up scaffolds at the starting end. Have the boom truck sling the trusses onto the top of the walls at the end of the house with the top resting on the end wall, nice and flat. Then send the truck away. In your own sweet time, take the truss one at time and slide them to the other end and start the assembly the same as you did with the smaller trusses.
Take your time and all will be well and no one will get hurt and let us know how you made out partner.
Best wishes
*email those pics to joe. I'm interested in the bracing. Blue
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We will be raising 32', 5/12, trusses soon on a single level ranch home. I've raised twenty footers before but this size is a little scary. Your input on equipment needed, safety, and pointers would be much appreciated.