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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
By Glenn Traylor
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
August 2022 #14277 Page #29
What is the Value of a Floating Chase?
he development of the 4 x 2 floor truss system revolutionized the truss industry. Plating to the narrow edge of the chord members presented some issues, but all in all it allowed component fabricators another product offering, expanding their potential business. In the original designs, it was intended that the center of the floor truss be designed as a floating chase – the definition being a space or area that could adjust to the variation of lumber thickness and web lengths. As equipment improved and created repeatable accuracy in cutting, the need for a “floating or self-adjusting” opening became less important but still valuable as lumber thickness still varied and required adjustment. The builder demand for the open web system lent itself to plumbing and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and naturally these trades started to utilize the openings more and more. In fact, it wasn’t long before plumbing and HVAC started dictating where the chases needed to be, often requesting difficult locations or expensive configurations that required higher-grade lumber and multiple chord segments.
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The interesting thing about our industry is that, as the capabilities evolved, often the component manufacturers did not recoup the additional manufacturing cost associated with special or specific designs. Recently, while dealing with a client’s customer, I realized my client was holding chases and increasing labor cost for projects the end user did not need. Worst yet was that the fabricator was not getting paid for the features his design group was implementing “because the software could do it.”
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