Build your own attic trusses?

[firstko]

Does anyone have any experience building their own trusses? (good or bad) I have been saving forever for my garage and now that i'm ready i get layed off. Now with more time then money, i wouldn't mind trimming my $3500 in trusses to $800. I want to build a stick 30'x40' garage w/attic trusses 10/12 pitch. Now i have a plan: buy both end trusses and one center attic truss, build the other 17 to the exact dimensions as the store bought one, using the same board material and steel truss gussets. Than i also plan on gluing and nailing small pieces of 1/2 plywood on both sides of every gusset for some over kill. I live out in the boonies with very little building codes so i am hoping my inspector won't mind.

 

[blkhonda1991]

if you build a jig around the truss you do buy and use the same type of lumber i see no reason why this wont work

 

[porschedude996TT]

Problem would be when or if the building department wants to see the load calc's. Also the Truss Company has their name stamped on the truss. Lumber is high quality and the nail plated are rolled onto the lumber rather than beat on with a hammer.

 

[rodnok1]

Skip the metal plates if you are going to put plywood on anyways. Many buildings are built using plwood gussets. Don't buy any, there are plans around the net you can look at. Yu might need to modify for attic requirements.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mwps_dis/mwps_web/ut_plans.html

 

[rwhite692]

Problem would be when or if the building department wants to see the load calc's. Also the Truss Company has their name stamped on the truss. Lumber is high quality and the nail plated are rolled onto the lumber rather than beat on with a hammer.

..............Exactly.

 

[rsanter]

if you 'build' your own trusses, then that is called an on site stick built structure.
these have been done that way for over 100 years.
not only can you do it, its been done...alot

the reason for trusses is that they are pre engineered and are often cheaper than the labor to have someone stick build on site.
replace with your labor and you are back to an on site stick build

someone else mentioned not to deal with the gang nails and to just build your trusses with plywood 'patches' at the joints.
I agree. seen it done and for your project I think you will be fine with that

bob

 

[cyamaha2007]

MY building trades teacher showed us how to do this when the garage trusses were built wrong so we made them on site. Pretty simple really.

 

[Kev442]

Really simple. My inspector stated the following for him to be happy:

Standard W scissor truss, no fancy stuff
Plywood gussets, no OSB
Glued and screwed, I added twist nails too after getting my plans from the Canada.gov freebie site. I prefer Canada snow and wind resistance ratings.

Glued with outdoor rated PL300 or 400, I forget which.

 

[LeadDoggy]

Here's a couple shots of my trusses

 

[kbs2244]

Check out these designs.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mwps_dis/mwps_web/tr_plans.html

They have been pre-approved.

 

[Northstar9126]

I built trusses once. What I did was after getting the first one built I built the second one on top of the first to be sure that it was exactly the same, then moved the second one aside and built the third truss on top of the first and so on. I used plywood gussets as it was hopless trying to hammer in the metal truss plates.

 

[Tman]

Site built trusses in many occasions are better than the slam bam thank you mam factory built ones. Search the Breaktime message board on Finehomebuilding. coms website

 

[94legaleagle]

Glued with outdoor rated PL300 or 400, I forget which.

Better yet, use PL Premium glue - strongest stuff made by the same company - best stuff I've found - just DON'T get it on your hands cause you have to wear your skin out (shed your skin) to get PL Premium off of yourself

 

[superduty59]

Lumber is high quality and the nail plated are rolled onto the lumber rather than beat on with a hammer.

Actually lumber quality is less than #2. Not a premium grade but perfectly fine for truss building. Yes the metal connector plates are rolled or pressed on not hammered on

 

[64dragnwagon]

I built the trusses for the carport addition to my garage. My uncle is a retired union carpenter and he took measurements from the existing 28' trusses in the garage then he built the first one and we cut the patterns for all the pieces we needed and started cutting the pieces and built all of the rest of them on top of the first completed truss. We nailed the metal gussets with a LOT of galvanized roofing nails. My son and his cousin who were about 12 yrs old nailed a good bit of the nails as well as myself and my father in law. It is a lot of labor but as you said you have more time than money. We built 15 trusses and set them in one day.

 

[Scott65]

Plywood gussets glued and screwed are probably better than metal plates. When I built my house and the truss company messed up the came back and re-engineered the trusses on- site. They used plywood gussets and the guys working on the project said they thought the plywood was stronger than the metal plates. Once you have a jig and a system, it will go quickly. I built a 24x30 with my father inlaw several year ago and we hand built the trusses- turned out great and saved a lot of money.

 

[tlowery04]

If you are doing it inside a municipality, check to be sure engineered trusses are not mandated. I do work all over the place, like in wither oklahoma city or edmond oklahoma you get a 500 fine for installing your own hot water heater now, even if it's electric.

 

[brownbagg]

trusses are so cheap why would you want to, that 3500 is a very high price, go somewhere else. My house was $750 delivered

 

[JimVonBaden]

Jim

 

[Al Bundy]

This is a great idea as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately my town requires engineered trusses so it isn't really feasible.

 

[rieferman]

Regarding the price, he's doing attic style trusses, which means a lot more of them and different engineering, therefore the higher price.

As for "engineered trusses", if you follow an engineered plan (from truss mfctr, or from online resources, or from local architect etc.) then the trusses you are building should meet township requirements. If your township is finnicky and you want to go this route, just makes sure the specs that you follow call out lumber grade, fasteners, acceptable gusset materials etc. And then follow those guidelines.

Should be a neat project, post pics!

 

[jvitez]

Do you really need attic trusses? If not, build it the traditional way: ridge beam and rafters, like JimVonBaden's pic. Everything was built this way prior to truss manufacturer's coming on the scene.

 

[csp]

Thread originally posted 3/2010. Brought back to life to disagree with the statement of lumber quality.

 

[unioncreek]

We've all the trusses for every building that we put up. We once built a 40 by 100 hog confinement barn. the neighbors help and had a lot of experience. This was in the early 70's and nobody had a pneumatic nailer, we did it all by hand.

I would go to the building inspector and tell him what you want to do and see if he will give you the spects for what it would take. then go from there.

Bobg

 

[superduty59]

Thread originally posted 3/2010. Brought back to life to disagree with the statement of lumber quality.

Does it really matter what the date is. Myself and others may be doing something similar. Any help is good help, well almost!

 

[tlowery04]

I have a barn to rebuild, eventually.

 

[nateplumb]

Personally I would use fly rafters as in post #19. That what was in the portion of my house that burn't the worst and the rafters remained solid. However the engineered trusses 10+ ft away had begun to fail. Engineered products are a collapse waiting to happen in a fire situation. I personally hope that engineered products are soon outlawed. In the worst of situations you are inviting the fire department to a collapse when you call them. Most of us firefighters with proper training will not enter a building with engineered trusses once they are exposed to fire. Typically 4-6 minutes to complete failure depending on load. OK rant off! Build your own!

 

[brownbagg]

why not just build a better fireproof house

 

[theoldwizard1]

This is a great idea as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately my town requires engineered trusses so it isn't really feasible.

All that means is that the design has to be done by a certified engineer.

Some places do require that they built be certified builders.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Actually lumber quality is less than #2. Not a premium grade but perfectly fine for truss building.

Not necessarily true !

The engineers may specify a higher quality wood for the top and bottom chords
and lesser quality for the web.

Remember, the stress/strain on the top and bottom chords are mostly inline with the grain and not across.

 

[gandalf23]

Don't have a picture of the garage, but we did the same thing in the house:

ridge beam:

then rafters:

then added storage space about 8 feet up in the house (didn't have the room to do that in the garage attic):

No trusses. Everything was permitted and inspected by the city. Everything was all built onsite by me and my dad and my brother in law. Most of the living room ceiling/attic floor joists in the house were 2x12s we salvaged from a building that was to be torn down.

 

[camarotoolman]

Look into using sawmill lumber and used lumber too, if you want to save money.