Most cost effective way to set trusses

[ITSWILL]

I am planning out my build and I have realized that this is a game of hundreds, a hundred here and there really adds up in the end.

I will have 3 guys to put the trusses in. By building is going to have 14ft side walls and gambrel trusses spanning 40 ft. The peak of the trusses once in place will be about 26 ft.

Also this is pole barn cnstruction and I will have a dirt floor when installing the trusses.

Right off the bat, I was planning to rent a telehandler (Lull), which I'm pretty confident would do the trick.

Is there a better way or a less expensive way?

 

[Highbeam]

I did a funny thing. I used normal pole barn construction with trusses sandwiching each post. Posts on 12 foot centers for my 30x60 barn so I only had 10 trusses. Set the posts first of course. Then put up the bottom row of girts, girts are the flat lumber that you will use to attach the siding. Walk the trusses in and set them on the girts near the bottom of the posts. A single duplex nail will hold the truss to the post. Then you lift one end of the truss 2 feet and reattach it to the post. Put in another row of girts. Then raise the trusses again. Repeat until you've got the building wrapped in girts with the trusses on top. You can stand on the girts and easily lift the truss two feet.

My trusses slowly walked up to the 14 foot height.

 

[rburke65]

Hey....that's not a bad idea!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You are dealing with large, heavy trusses. 40 ft wide and 12 ft high. Do it right, don't get anything damaged or anyone hurt. This is one place where skimping is not a good idea.

Charles

 

[Blk88GT]

We used a zoom boom for my shop. 40ft span plus overhangs. Quick and safe.

 

[mtwaterguy]

I did a funny thing. I used normal pole barn construction with trusses sandwiching each post. Posts on 12 foot centers for my 30x60 barn so I only had 10 trusses. Set the posts first of course. Then put up the bottom row of girts, girts are the flat lumber that you will use to attach the siding. Walk the trusses in and set them on the girts near the bottom of the posts. A single duplex nail will hold the truss to the post. Then you lift one end of the truss 2 feet and reattach it to the post. Put in another row of girts. Then raise the trusses again. Repeat until you've got the building wrapped in girts with the trusses on top. You can stand on the girts and easily lift the truss two feet.

My trusses slowly walked up to the 14 foot height.

on one of my buildings they just used a come a long and puled the trusses up the post.

 

[justanengineer]

Put up a ladder on each side and have a person on the ground keeping the truss upright while you carry your end up the ladder. You then hold your end in place while they carry theirs up the ladder. Easy peezy. Its not difficult, you just need two people comfortable working on ladders. I did this many times when I was the "hired kid" labor and never dropped a truss.

 

[mtwaterguy]

I am planning out my build and I have realized that this is a game of hundreds, a hundred here and there really adds up in the end.

I will have 3 guys to put the trusses in. By building is going to have 14ft side walls and gambrel trusses spanning 40 ft. The peak of the trusses once in place will be about 26 ft.

Also this is pole barn cnstruction and I will have a dirt floor when installing the trusses.

Right off the bat, I was planning to rent a telehandler (Lull), which I'm pretty confident would do the trick.

Is there a better way or a less expensive way?

How about having the truss builder set them on delivery day?

 

[KEH]

Years ago i built a pole barn with trusses 12 feet apart. It has a tin roof. For sheeting I used 2 x 4s set on edge. It's still standing, but if I had it to do over I would space the posts 10 feet apart. The 2 x 4s have sagged a little.

KEH

 

[mtwaterguy]

Years ago i built a pole barn with trusses 12 feet apart. It has a tin roof. For sheeting I used 2 x 4s set on edge. It's still standing, but if I had it to do over I would space the posts 10 feet apart. The 2 x 4s have sagged a little.

KEH

I usually use 2x6's with osb. Wider doors are nice.

 

[woodrail]

I did a funny thing. I used normal pole barn construction with trusses sandwiching each post. Posts on 12 foot centers for my 30x60 barn so I only had 10 trusses. Set the posts first of course. Then put up the bottom row of girts, girts are the flat lumber that you will use to attach the siding. Walk the trusses in and set them on the girts near the bottom of the posts. A single duplex nail will hold the truss to the post. Then you lift one end of the truss 2 feet and reattach it to the post. Put in another row of girts. Then raise the trusses again. Repeat until you've got the building wrapped in girts with the trusses on top. You can stand on the girts and easily lift the truss two feet.

My trusses slowly walked up to the 14 foot height.

I would love to try this sometime!

If you amish, go for it!

 

[readhead]

Crane. Fast and safe. Two hour minimum here is $256.00.

 

[stingry]

Crane. Fast and safe. Two hour minimum here is $256.00.

Best way! 40 footers are too heavy to handle by hand. The Lull will have to pick up a truss and then transport into position to set it where the crane can pick it up and swing into position.


Cheers
Steve

 

[Gary S]

When we did my Brother's shop, my other Brother who farms 50 miles away drove in with his John Deere diesel farm tractor with a loader. He had to leave home at 3am to be there to start at 6:30am, but we put up all the trusses in a few hours using the tractor before noon. Then, the farmer Brother had the 50 mile drive home in the afternoon, but the job was done easily.

Got a farmer Brother????????????????

 

[ITSWILL]

I have a farmer neighbor.

My back yard butts up against a dairy farm. They have a huge John Deere tractor, funny I was just thinking about the different ways they could help me out with that thing. Maybe I could offer them a couple bucks to help me put the trusses in?

If not I am thinking to rent a Lull. These are going to be pretty big trusses.

I like all the creative ways you guys came up with but I can't always count on good help and with a machine I could do this on my own in theory.

I have a variance meeting in an hour for square footage, wish me luck or might be using 30ft trusses and will have to reconsider doing it by hand!

 

[mechanic217]

Go with a Lull, I have used cranes , strong backs, come alongs, block and tackle, Lull was the best and safest with wind or a small crew, YMMV.

 

[volaredon]

best way to set trusses? DON'T!! Stick build instead.

 

[IHI]

Whatever you do, and I cant stress this enough, when you get the engineer specs on the trusses with the package they will have a sheet stating maximum deflection...or how much your allowed to let them bow as they are laying flat. Let them sag too much in the lying flat position as you try to carry, drag, flip, whatever and it seriously degrades the strength of the trusses since the spike plates that hold them together pull out/come loose due to the excessive bowage.

40' is a heck of a truss and you should be using a lifting device which will attach at the top to the forks on the lull and then have two attachment points on the truss on each side of the peak.

When we'd set large trusses like this we would brace the heck out of the side walls and leave the front wall wide open so we could drive the lull into the building and start setting trusses back to front. What can also make your job alot easier, we built a 3 truss set on the ground for both ends if it was a gable style roof. Sheet the end truss on the ground, install your cantalevered overhang boards that tied into the second truss and set ontop of the gable end truss which will be a dropped end truss, and then stand up and nail/brace and install the angled brace inside the webbing from the gable end truss, nailed to second truss, nailed into 3rd truss per spec and per code....then lift that entire assembly into place.

Sounds more complicated than it really is and makes a drastic dent in time reduction since the "hard part" is done on the ground where it's easily accessible vs doing all of that work off a ladder.

 

[Rookie2]

Lull & 3 more guys !

 

[theoldwizard1]

Are these 3 experienced rough carpenters ?

Check into renting a crane. It will be faster.

 

[ed_v]

best way to set trusses? DON'T!! Stick build instead.

Uhhh.... You still need trusses unless you are doing rafters and a ridge board, but why in the hell would you do that in a garage?

If you can get a crane, do that. 40' wide gambrel trusses are going to be heavy. If you think two guys are going to haul those up ladders very easy, then you all are much stronger than I am these days.

Ed

 

[onewaydave]

When we did my Brother's shop, my other Brother who farms 50 miles away drove in with his John Deere diesel farm tractor with a loader. He had to leave home at 3am to be there to start at 6:30am, but we put up all the trusses in a few hours using the tractor before noon. Then, the farmer Brother had the 50 mile drive home in the afternoon, but the job was done easily.

Got a farmer Brother????????????????

Might wanna get that brother a lowboy for his birthday or something.

Dave.

 

[cyamaha2007]

My girlfriend and I handset most of my trusses. They were 38ft wide and my ceiling height is 14ft. We got 7 out of 10 up but we were dead tiered. I called a favor in and had a crane set the last 3. It took less than 20 minutes. I will never handset trusses again unless its a garden shed. It helps that my crane cost me a case of beer.

 

[volaredon]

Uhhh.... You still need trusses unless you are doing rafters and a ridge board, but why in the hell would you do that in a garage?

If you can get a crane, do that. 40' wide gambrel trusses are going to be heavy. If you think two guys are going to haul those up ladders very easy, then you all are much stronger than I am these days.

Ed

that's the way I did mine; cut every birdmouth along the way, LOL
I didn't want trusses b/c all that I could find at the time, interfered with attic/storage space too much

 

[Cemoto]

Here is a helpful page on handling trusses.

http://www.trussec.com/handling.html

Regards

.

 

[ITSWILL]

Well im back from the variance meeting, got shot down for the 40 x 50 but convinced them to let me do a 40 x 40. So a few less trusses...

Thanks for sharing all the info and experiences.

 

[Deltarat]

My trusses were metal but, we stood up 2 and attached the lathes to them and set them with a crane 2 at a time. It saved crane hours. I don't remember exactly but, I know it was less than an hour.

 

[holdover]

try this, worked for me...

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=107589