Random saw cut and nail plates popped on a few trusses
Octopus42
| Posted in General Discussion on
When looking around the attic for ideas on running wires; I discovered one truss with a random saw cut almost through it and 3 nail plates have popped/bent. The 3 trusses in question arent directly in arow; it’s a (good, bad, good, bad, good, bad) order. No other plates have popped or bent on these trusses. Also the racketeering, is that the right word?, bracing shows no sign of movement.
Structure is 13 years old. New roof installed a few weeks ago. I’m guessing this has been there since construction and as the wood dried it twisted and lost its connection?
What’s a fix for this? Do I reach out to a structural engineer?
Saw cut:
https://ibb.co/GxYGKzZ
Truss 1:
https://ibb.co/4WD26ZS
Truss 2:
https://ibb.co/gJ0ShbL
Truss 3:
https://ibb.co/CMMTZpf
Wide angle:
https://ibb.co/M5XxRJn
Replies
I discovered worse damage on a bigger set of trusses (our neighborhood pool clubhouse) when I was running garden sprinkler control wire through the attic.
I called the architect, who got me the truss manufacturer contact info. I spoke to their engineer, sent photos and marked on the plans the location of the trusses, and they sent me details of how to fix each problem. In our situation, the long trusses, explicitly marked as needing to be raised with a spreader bar, were strapped at the peak in one spot and we had five trusses in a row all with pretty significant issues. But the fixes were all pretty easy, either 2x material on either side with the length and nailing pattern carefully specified, or plywood gussets. Took a contractor half a day to install, mostly because the electrician had made spaghetti up in the attic and navigating that was a challenge. In your case, this is probably a lot easier. Good luck.