Miracle Truss Questions

[punisher660]

I've been lurking on here for years, but this is my first post.

I am currently in the process of building a house (Salt Lake City area) and we are just about to break ground. For the first time ever, I will actually have space to build a shop, so one of the things on my wishlist is a 30 x 36 x 12 shop.

I'm looking at the miracle truss system and have been looking through the reviews. It appears that the reviews were not favorable, and miracle truss eventually went belly up. From what I can find, the company was resurrected in 2015 and is now under new ownership.

I would like to know what peoples experience has been since the company reopened with new ownership -

I like the idea of being able to make the exterior match whats going on the new house, and I am definitely trying to keep cost down as much as possible which is why I'm leaning towards the truss system over conventional stick build.

I plan to do most of the work myself (except for concrete). I'm not in construction myself but would consider myself an advanced DIY guy and I have a lot of friends in various construction fields, so feel like I should be able to tackle one of these kits.

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of these types of structures? Is Miracle Truss a reputable company? Considering they have only been in business for 2 years, I don't hold a lot of value in the 50-year warranty, but I can't imagine there can be much on a steel truss that I couldn't fix with a welder.

I appreciate the input.

 

[Jlbc212]

I've never heard of "Miracle Truss," but trusses engineered and manufactured out of wood with steel gusset plates have been around for years. Most every good lumber yard/supplier that I know of has a source for trusses. Trusses allow for long spans (open spaces) without the need for interior supporting posts or bearing walls. As a firefighter I was taught to always be aware of structures built with trusses because in a fire situation trusses can collapse without warning. The simple reason is that trusses utilize the "triangle principle." Triangles (trusses) are inherently stable, but if any one side or one connection fails, the whole thing is subject to failure. This can easily happen in a fire. From a fire protection perspective truss built structures should have some type of protection from fire. Drywall is commonly used, as well as fire sprinkler systems.

 

[MrSurly]

A quick google shows that Miracle Truss is a metal frame system using Steel web trusses. Essentially a red-iron building method using lighter metal components along with wood purlins and girts.
It would appear to need the same footing slab as red-iron and one would assume it would be less costly



The first question should be to your local authority as to getting approval for the method, determining if it comes with engineered drawings, that sort of thing.

EDIT to add:it looks really good; I would’ve considered it for my build had I known of it.

 

[Tbender78]

I bought a Miricle Truss building in 2006 before they went out of business. I am an average diy’er and it came with easy to follow plans which made it simple to assemble. I did not like their sales technique, but overall I am happy with the building.

 

[lakeroadster]

Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of these types of structures? Is Miracle Truss a reputable company? Considering they have only been in business for 2 years, I don't hold a lot of value in the 50-year warranty, but I can't imagine there can be much on a steel truss that I couldn't fix with a welder.

I appreciate the input.

I like it..interesting concept, thanks for posting.

With them only being in business for 2 years I think I'd be more worried about the warranty on the exterior steel sheathing than I would about the trusses. A steel truss inside a building should last forever.

And with the 2 foot spacing on the purlins.. I'm not sure that would work in high wind and snow loads locations?

 

[jives]

Did not know that Miracle Truss was back in business. Lots of manufacturers of web metal truss buildings -- Perka, Worldwide, and more. Down south are a lot of "chicken house" truss builders, e.g., Adams Truss.

 

[d300]

Up this way we have 'Web-steel' trusses, same deal as Miracle. Just an erector set, lots of bolts, use 'em all...
Can you buy 'extra' snow load in their design? Last Winter we had a number of structures in this area collapse under a unusual heavy snowfall. Yes, they met code when they were built....supermarket, middle school, FedEx warehouse.....

 

[punisher660]

I spoke to the city this morning, and they don't have an issue with the structure type, but they do require engineered drawings (which are available), and they gave me the required snow/wind ratings.

I sent the info back to Miracle Truss to see what they have available. I'm looking to do just the trusses as I want to use a standard shingle roof with plywood, and do plywood/stucco on the exterior walls. I'm hoping they can support those weight ratings. I'll post whatever I find out.

 

[ixlr8]

I have a "Miracle Truss" building I bought in 2004. I thought it was a good value at the time. The kit was complete, I ordered it with 18" overhang on all 4 sides. Instructions were good, except for the overhangs. There were 2 different style overhangs and the instructions for both were poor and inaccurate. A few phone calls to the factory and I got the corrected drawings sent to me. The one I bought was listed as having 8' side walls. It is 8' from the floor to the roof on the inside, but due the roof/wall trusses, only 6'8" is unusable at the wall. Their literature was very misleading in this regard so make sure you are very clear where the side wall measurements are made to and from. I put the building on 3' stem wall so it didn't matter to me. But if I had put the building on the slab, it would have made it unusable for my purposes. I was also told the roof trusses only weighed 125lbs, I figure 2 people could lift that up on some scaffolding. Turns out the trusses actually weighed 150lbs each and you needed to bolt 2 of them together before lifting them. No way 2 people were going to lift 300 lbs of trusses, that were 30 ft long, up on some scaffolding. I made a boom for my tractor bucket and used that to lift them in place.

 

[PWC Repair]

Mine is a "Floyds" steel truss frame. Feel free to click my build thread link and check out the last couple pages. They generally are designed for X amount snow load at X spacing. If you want more just order extra truss sets and space them closer.

 

[toolchaser]

I built a miracle truss building from a kit long before the company folded (I believe they locked in long term steel cost right before steel prices fell dramatically) . I don`t have any advice on the new owners, but I can say the building is fairly easy to construct & uses cheaper conventional insulation.

 

[johninct]

I had a building that had trusses that looked like that. Collapsed because of heavy snow because of bad truss welds.