How do I finish this?

[bjochman]

Upstairs of my shop is a "bonus" room that my wife would like to turn into her art studio. I'm getting ready to insulate, but noticed that the nail plates (I believe that is the name) for the trusses, extend past the area of the wall that would be finished to make a square corner for the ceiling (see pictures). Do I cut these with a sawzall? Will this weaken the structure? Anyone that deals with this have any ideas for me? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[irishtom]

I would not cut the corners.
I'd finish it with a chamfered corner and consider a built-up crown mold to hide it. You could add a picture hanger detail to crown mold for your wife's art studio.

 

[stafford]

you could cut some some blocks that would just fit in there and tack them in. then you'd have a nailer for whatever you wanted to do.

 

[D.J.]

I agree to not cut the metal plates, although I'm no engineer.

 

[rsanter]

I would not cut the corners.
I'd finish it with a chamfered corner and consider a built-up crown mold to hide it. You could add a picture hanger detail to crown mold for your wife's art studio.

this was my first thought
put the drywall up letting these poke through
then use trim or crown molding around the top of the room to conceal them.
this will also make life easy on you in that you dont have to worry about getting the top edge straight in the finish work

bob

 

[GT_Rich]

Call the company that provided your trusses and ask if the plates can be trimmed. I bet they can be. That would be your easiest and cheapest solution.

 

[RobSmith]

cut each plate up the centre (diagonally) then fold the bits in onto the beam. It won't affect the strength at all and the folded bits will bight into the wood as well

 

[mmhouse]

I'm not sure and am no expert on the subject so take my comments accordingly.

Your question is an interesting one. I definitely wouldn't cut the truss plates without getting an authoritative answer first. On the other hand, the purpose of a truss plate in my understanding is to hold the wood together and I can't see where the portion not attached to the wood is doing this, but it could be providing some additional resistance to shear forces. As I said, I'm no expert.

There are a few places you could go to get a good answer:

The first would be the manufacturer of the trusses if you can find out who that was or can find any indication of that on the trusses themselves. Trusses are usually manufactured fairly close to the job site so the manufacturer shouldn't be too far away providing they are still in business. If you know the builder of the home they may know who made the trusses.

The second would be the Truss Plate Institute, here is a link to their website... http://www.tpinst.org/

The third would be the truss plate manufacturer. There is probably a marking on the plate indicating who that was. There are only a few major truss plate manufacturers in the U.S. The list of those belonging to the TPI are listed here...
http://www.tpinst.org/platemembers.html

 

[jdaallen]

If you cut the plates and there were any deflection movement in the building, the plates could tear at your cut. The chances of movement are slim to none but in the engineering world, they have to account for any and everything. At least that is what my local building inspector told me when I asked him.
I just notched my drywall for the plates and by the time you do the ceiling and wall there was not much showing at all.

 

[MN4x4]

The fastest and simplest answer is leave them alone and work around them.

There are several reasons not to cut the plates. First, the truss will lose any certification that it had since it was designed with the rectangular plates.

Second, cutting the plate (especially at that point) might create a condition where a load can cause it to tear the plate in half and your truss to fail.

Seeing how little the plates intrude into your space, the crown molding idea is a perfect answer, but not the only one. The question you need to ask right now is this - Is it worth the effort to find the truss or plate manufacturer, explain what you want to do, pay for an engineering analysis - and maybe STILL not get the answer you want - or just build it out as is? I know what I'd do...

 

[Zengineer]

"Don't cut corners" seems to be apt here.

Cut a couple dozen 2x4's on 45° angles, and brace all the corners with those, then you can drywall to the 2x4's.

Won't be a box of a room, but given the shape of your shop a 45° transition at the joint where the wall meets the ceiling won't look at all out of place.

 

[bjochman]

Thanks for all the replies, looks like I'll leave them and lean to the suggestion of the crown molding. Cutting all of them would of been a lot of work, so I guess leaving them will be the safest option and probably the easiest.

 

[JeremyManning]

Don't cut, In my house I put a 2by6 or 2by8 on the flat over top of the plates and then use that as a drywall corner, hope that makes sense

 

[Steve V.]

Leave them and sheetrock up to them and then put some indirect lighting in there with some sort of trough hiding them/lights.

Steve

 

[wssix99]

Studied these connections in engineering school. Cutting the plates will weaken the structure.

I would just run the ceiling and walls short and put up some crown molding. It will look great and you don't have to deal with taping the corners at the ceiling.

Or you could fir out the walls and/or ceiling until the surfaces meet at a right angle.

 

[REAL HOT SCHITT]

upstairs of my shop is a "bonus" room that my wife would like to turn into her art studio. I'm getting ready to insulate, but noticed that the nail plates (i believe that is the name) for the trusses, extend past the area of the wall that would be finished to make a square corner for the ceiling (see pictures). Do i cut these with a sawzall? Will this weaken the structure? Anyone that deals with this have any ideas for me? Thanks in advance for your help!

hi, yeah don t cut just hide with crown molding.

I see u got a lot of waste area behind studs.
Just put some xtra nogs in etc and do install some recessed / in wall shelves or cupboards and recessed liting if any takes your fancy.

Jj

 

[NUTTSGT]

"Don't cut corners" seems to be apt here.

Cut a couple dozen 2x4's on 45° angles, and brace all the corners with those, then you can drywall to the 2x4's.

Won't be a box of a room, but given the shape of your shop a 45° transition at the joint where the wall meets the ceiling won't look at all out of place.

This is what I would suggest. Since the roof is right above those plates, doing this also give plenty of room for some insulation and ventilation.