Market Education

Sloping Floors

Question: 

In our one-year-old home, as you approach the hallway, the floor slopes downward. Our home inspector said that this was most likely due to the fact that the walls were resting on the floor as opposed to being load-bearing walls. What has been your experience with sloping floors in a new home? The floors are very flat elsewhere until the walls start. Do you think this sloping could turn into a structural problem eventually?

Anti Trust Agreements

Question: 

I am looking for a set of guidelines or “rules” for members of the SBCA. Are truss plants really not allowed to speak of business matters? I think that is unfair. I'm not going to call up our competitor and tell them that they aren't charging enough and taking all the business. I just want all the truss plants in my area to get together and decide how we are going to do business. We need to standardize the industry.

Changes In Roof Pitch

Question: 

We are changing plans from a two story home to a one story home. The original roof pitch is 12/12 with three dormer windows, one large one in the center and a smaller one on either side. Can you tell us what pitch would be advisable under this new plan still using the dormers?

Partition Separation

Question: 

I installed roof trusses in my house and dry walled the ceiling to the bottom of the trusses. Now I seem to have a problem with the change of the seasons. Where the ceiling meets the interior wall, a gap opens and closes – in winter it opens, in summer it closes. What did I do wrong, how can I correct it and how should the drywall be installed in the first place?

Truss Design

Question: 

Recently, I was invited to view a newly-constructed 60 ft. by 36 ft. barn, with homemade big timber trusses as follows: 36 ft. span, 12/9 pitch, construction was 26 ft. 2x12 rafters, bracing 2x6, ceiling joists were 36 ft. boxed, 6x12 out of overlapping (6 ft.), 2x12 glued and nailed center, 16 feet of joist doubled as an 8 ft. high loft, floor trusses were on 12 ft. centers atop posts deeply anchored with good footings, roof and wall cross ties were 2x6 on edge every 24 in., floor cross ties in the loft were 2x8 on edge every 16 in., 4 ft. snow load.

Adequate Trusses

Question: 

Where can I find specs for what would be adequate trusses? I have a room with a 24 ft. span and my contractor is using trusses where the bottom plate is composed of 2x4s butted together and fastened with a metal plate. Is this ok?

Size Of A Room In An Attic Truss

Question: 

Does SBCA have any guidelines regarding the size of a room in an attic truss? I have used a formula, length of room in inches divided by the depth of the bottom chord equaling less than 22. I was curious if any extensive studies or published articles giving more exact guidelines are available.

Installation Guidelines

Question: 

What are the requirements on the permanent bracing of bottom chords? Can gypsum board diaphragms be used?

Create A Ceiling Vault In Existing Rafter Roof

Question: 

Is it possible to retrofit a standard rafter/joist style roof to a scissors truss configuration without replacing the existing construction?

Partition Separation Lag Bolting

Question: 

Is lag bolting the bottom chord of a truss to the top plate of a wall a proper fix to correct truss arching, assuming the attic is properly vented?