BIG SERIOUS question> I was recently hired by an outside contractor to REPAIR more than 20 roof trusses spanning a catering facility that had an overall span from bearing wall to bearing wall of approximately 40 feet. The circumstances were such that the king posts of the trusses had detached from roof cord, the nailing plated had ripped out and fallen a minimum of 8 inches for at least 15 of the trusses. Also some of the roof truss chords had split over a distance of at least 18 to 24 inches where the intermediary diagonal chords were anchored to them. Really very bad stuff to see. A structural engineer was called in and he specified large 3/4 inch plywood gussets on both side of all the failures with multiple screw patterns on both sides to repair the failures. The ceiling had been jacked up to it’s original height. I was distressed to have to complete this task with the rest of the hired crew and still am very concerned over this repair. The catering facility is in the northeast and snow loads are significant. I was of the opinion that factory manufactured roof trusses are NOT REPAIRABLE. Am I right or wrong and if I am right what should I do to protect the public who will be using this facility? HELP.
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If an engineer specified the repairs
and you made them as specified, and they were then inspected and approved by the AHJ, and you saved copies of all the project documents, and you took a bunch of photos of the whole thing... then you're good to go.
If you suspect this was done incorrectly, ask the AHJ if a permit was pulled and if it was final'd.
Trusses are repairable - up to a point.
And that point is determined by a structural engineer.
It is real common for trusses to be damaged in delivery and the truss factory will send out a couple of men with a portable power clamp to fasten new metal gussets as needed.
Sometimes a factory specified repair will be little more then a 2x sistered to a damaged member.
Usually, truss repairs are specified by the manufacturer, but if an independent engineer was called in and the specified repairs were documented, I would not be the least concerned. The building inspector will see your repairs and how they compare to the specifications. He is the one hired to protect the public.
Terry
If you know the manufacturer of the trusses, you might want to send the engineers plans to them and have them double check.
Essentially, you are just doing due dillagence, and getting a second opinion, right?
Of course, the manufacture's the people who undersized the trusses in the first place.
I think trusses can be both repaired an altered.
Not your job to 'protect the public'. That is the job of the engineer. Assuming the engineer is reputable/reliable, then you got NO worries other than doing the stuff the way he specifies it. That is the only thing you should have to worry about.
Unless you have good reason to second guess the engineer, don't make yourself neurotic over it. Generally sounds like a reasonable fix. I would assume the engineer did a bit of a reality check w/ the original truss design and/or configuration of the structure.
It would appear
that the original poster is not anwering the telephone.