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Question of the Day
April 1st, 2016 #09201 Page #4
FLBOA 2016 Education Conference Stan Sias
Question: Do Building Officials really want education on the trusses we produce? On Monday, March 14, I had the honor and privilege of presenting to a group of Building Officials (BOs) and Building Designers (BDs) [over 350 individuals live and in-person!] at the Finger Lakes Building Officials Association (FLBOA) 2016 Education Conference at the RIT Inn & Conference Center in Henrietta, NY just outside Rochester. To make this experience even better, I was able to team with the esteemed Professor (Ret.) Frank Woeste of VA Tech to address this tremendous group with a presentation on Metal Plate Connected Wood Truss Design Responsibilities and Permanent Bracing.
Over 350 attendees listen to a presenter from the NY Department of State, Division of Building Standards and Codes at the FLBOA 2016 Education Conference in Henrietta, NY. The invitation to speak, which arrived late last year, asked for a presentation on truss permanent bracing. My initial reaction was two-fold: first, why the sudden interest in Permanent Bracing, and second, what version of the building code were they using. Asking these questions, it came to light that they were currently working under the NY State version of the 2006 I-Codes and secondly, with recent winters of near record snow falls, the need for accurate placement of permanent lateral restraint and diagonal bracing had been exposed. Discussions with Dr. Woeste and the conference organizers quickly confirmed my long-held assumption that no discussion on wood truss restraint and bracing should proceed without first laying the groundwork of the division of design responsibilities assumed in the application of metal-plate connected wood trusses in the construction environment. For most BOs and a vast majority of BDs, they are surprised the first time they read the second chapter of the document they specify when utilizing wood trusses. By simply specifying compliance to some version of the IBC/IRC, they are by reference also specifying some version of ANSI/TPI 1, the industry design standard which we have discussed at length in this column previously. In the case of my friends up in NY, they are in the process of moving from references to TPI 1 – 2002 to the most recent edition, ANSI/TPI 1 – 2014, which is referenced in the 2015 I-Codes currently under consideration. Chapter Two of TPI 1 deals with Design Responsibilities. This was the perfect tie for the creation of our two-hour presentation for FLBOA. We started the presentation with a brief history of trusses (no, they are not new construction) and went on to discuss codes and references (not only TPI 1 but also NDS, ASCE and others) and, like the building codes themselves, the fact that the TPI 1 truss design standard had been under periodic review and updating since its inaugural publication in 1960. PHONE: 800-289-5627
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