A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
March 2023 #15284 Page #80
Design Connections
Geordie Secord, Senior Recruiter TheJobLine.com – Canada
Is There Ever Just One Right Way?
I
f you have spent your truss career in one region, and even more so with just one company, you will have seen that, generally speaking, your competitors and co-workers tend to frame houses essentially the same way. Only when you are exposed to a different company or region do you start to see the myriad ways that seemingly similar truss roofs are put together. I know that until Thom and I started Component Systems Institute/Component Design Center back in the late 1990s, I certainly had little idea about all of the different approaches that could be taken for solving what seemed to be the same basic roof geometry. Of course, chances are that you can find many alternate solutions to roof framing in your truss design software. It is also very likely that your design manager, your production manager, and your clients don’t want you trying out some unique solution that looks cool in the software. Having said that, here are some of the things I’ve seen that tend to be specific to a company or region. When it comes to pre-fabricated ladders for gable end framing, I worked for one company where it was virtually impossible to sell a truss roof without including gable ladders (outlookers) in part of our sales region. At the same time, we had other market areas where you couldn’t give them away. Of course, the biggest variation I’ve seen is in the way that hip ends are framed. My personal “favorite” is the Atlantic hip, with everything but the corner jack meeting at 90 degree angles. Even then, there are a number of ways to approach the framing. Do you use a fixed setback for your Atlantic or other hip framing solution? I’ve heard many very experienced truss people give me detailed and impassioned arguments as to why 5-11-04, 5-10-08, 6-0-0, or some other fixed increment is the only way to determine the setback for the hip girder. For example, I’ve been told many times that a 5-11-04 (or 7-11-04) setback puts the center of a truss exactly 8 feet from the end wall. But the roof sheathing doesn’t start at the end wall, it starts at the overhang, so why not base your setback at some fixed distance from the fascia?
Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982