Setting Trusses

[peterjcb]

I'll be setting my roof/room trusses soon, as they are being delivered this coming Tuesday. My Room trusses are about 32' wide including the overhangs and about 12' high. I've got a 9/12 roof pitch. My interior loft will be the legnth of my garage which is 36' by 16' wide inside.
Any tips would be appreciated. I'm getting a crane scheduled and I've been told to mark & nail blocks to the top plate exactly where my trusses are going so I won't even have to think about the layout.
What's the best way of getting everything plumb and lined up together?
I also want to make sure that they don't domino over against each other and would like some suggestions on bracing.
Thanks,
Peter

[Rich]

It's definately a good idea to layout the tops of the wall before you begin setting trusses. I've never put blocks in beforehand though - I think it would be more of a pain and one of 2 things I can see could happen.
1. The blocks won't be tight enough to do what's intended.. or
2. They will be too tight and you'll be fighting them as you're installing the trusses.
I would suggesting cutting the blocks before hand so they are ready to go in right after the truss goes in.
For setting your barge truss (end truss) I typically nail 3 - 2x's to the outside face .. one in the middle and one at each outside 3rd or so. They should be 12-16' so they go at least midway up the truss in the middle and still have a good base on the wall. Nail them off.
Now as you begin setting you will put a block in and nail it down then install the truss. Nail the truss to the block and keep on going. Once you get a few of them up you'll want to run some temporary bracing or purlin on top. I typically use 1x4's economy grade. They aren't staying.
Now as far as making suring everything is plumb and straight I typically run a stringline on the outside of the wall and use it as my reference. Use a 2x anything to hold the string out 1.5" - then measure back to the wall from the string all along it to make sure it's straight. Of course at the same time you are checking for plumb. Use bracing interior and exterior as needed.
As I said use that as a reference and use it to keep the other wall straight with the trusses. Pulling tape and plumbing is a constant thing during this whole operation.
Hope that helps.. and good luck.

[peterjcb]

My Trusses were delivered today without any problems 8)
I've got the crane scheduled for next Saturday. I'll be marking the top plate layout. It's a litle tricky for a first timer like myself. My layout calls for 16" O.C. for the trusses and in addition I'm putting three dormers in the roof and a staircase on the side of the building so I've got to figure those double trusses in the layout.
Why couldn't I have started with something a little simpler.....? :roll:

[peterjcb]

Seventeen Inches of snow here in the Charlotte NC area today....
No chance of doing roof trusses tomorrow. :(
This isn't supposed to happen here in the south.

[Rich]

:shock: yeah I think I would be waiting also. That's a bummer... get all psyched up to get a roof on.. and weather holds it up.

[peterjcb]

Well I don't mind waiting, it's just it would have worked out perfectly today had the weather been agreeable. Everyone that I needed was "available" and ready to show up. Now it's back to finding a day that everyone can make it again. :(

[roger g]

That's one mean pitch! I hope you have lots of guys to give you a hand because crane time is expensive. Hire a carpenter for a day just to get you started in the right direction and to give you and your helpers some direction. Trusses are really floppy until they are secured and by the sounds of it yours will be extremely high which makes it even trickier. You will need at least one guy always at the peak with enough nails, scabbing lumber and balls to stay up there.

Roger

[peterjcb]

It's a 9/12 pitch. My trusses are 12 1/2' high X 33' wide. That will give me a 16' wide loft upstairs by the legnth of my building - 35'. They aren't that bad, maybe the picture is a little deceiving. My buddy built a plane hanger last year and his trusses were somewhere around 43' wide. Three guys easily did those in 4 hours.
Three guys should be able to get them all up and braced easily with a crane. The crane is $85 per hour and $100 on saturdays. I'm figuring on about a half a day but if it takes longer, I'm not rushing anything.
I didn't want to do anything over a 9/12 pitch because then it gets really hairy for anyone but a professional roofer....and even those guys don't like working on an 11/12 , 12/12 pitch.

[roger g]

You must have more adaptive friends than I ever had. Good luck.

roger

[peterjcb]

My trusses are up! :D Once we got the first gable end truss up and braced and a couple of additional trusses, everything went really well. It really wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. All in all it still took us four hours of crane service to set the 31 trusses up there but well worth the money. Now the fun begins..sheathing the roof with the OSB.

[roger g]

congratulations. Now you really need the friends to lift all that lumber onto the roof. Unless you scab together a shelf on the trusses and get the local supplier to set everything up there.


Roger

[peterjcb]

I built a 4 foot high 4'X8' table in the center of my garage and lifted about 24 sheets of OSB right through the trusses and onto the 2nd floor. That's about half of all the OSB I'm going to need up there. It really wasn't that hard to do.
Once I start putting down the OSB and I have some working space up there, I'll bring up the balance of what I need ( about another 28 sheets) and distribute them evenly at four corners. That's only 7 sheets per corner. I'll work from each corner to complete the roof at that point.

[Rich]

Right on.. I wanted to let you know that the picture you uploaded didn't work. I hadn't changed the permissions on the upload folder. It's all fixed now though.

[Rich]

Oh.. it looks like you already uploaded it.. looks great.

[peterjcb]

Thanks. The dormers are going to be fun.
.....I look at it this way. Once my dormers are completed then most of the hard stuff will be finished. Then I won't have any more EXCUSES not to do all the stuff my wife has lined up for me like hanging pictures, painting rooms etc..... :roll:

[roger g]

You have now discovered the down side of being able to do anything. The wife now expects it. Fall off the roof a couple of times or cut yourself it sort of dampens her enthusiasm. It makes her feel guilty. Guilt is good!

Roger

[peterjcb]

You can tell that this is the first time I'm doing this. I found out the hard way that having the OSB sitting on the truss floor joists won't do me any good getting them onto the roof... :( It's too difficult trying to get a 4X8' board through all the temporary bracing and onto the roof.
I ended up just pushing them up from the ground on the ladder and onto the roof. The first row of boards took a while to do but the rest should go a lot smoother after I put a 2X4 stop on the sheathing for some footing.

[Rich]

That is a pain - even for a few sheets. Best way is to build a couple jacks to set some of it on - then you have a nice place to cut pieces for valleys and have a place to eat lunch :) (not sure if you have any valleys. It didn't look like it).

[peterjcb]

I don't mind pushing them up because it's not too far from the ground. It really sounds a lot worse than it is.
I've got three dormers and staircase that have to be framed. The worst part is that I have to install ladder bracing between all 4 double truss sections- 24"O.C. and my OSB has to be cut because of all the dormers & the staircase. It's not a simple "slap 'em down one after the other" type of install but it's going to look really nice when it's finished. 8)

[roger g]

And then comes the shingles. Even more fun at 70 pounds a bundle with 3 bundles to the square. Building is such a piece of cake.

Roger

[peterjcb]

And then comes the shingles. Even more fun at 70 pounds a bundle with 3 bundles to the square. Building is such a piece of cake.

Roger

I'm paying to get that done. 8)

[Rich]

If it was easy everyone would do it. :)