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Truss load ?

jaker10

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Bartonvillle Illinois
Any way to add to the Bottom cord load rating on a truss? Had a building put up and the builder told me I could put a ceiling up. Bottom cord dead load on my trusses is 1 PSF. Best I can come up with is 1.55 PSF and that's not including insulation.
 
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Maybe it's possible to have an engineer prepare drawings to modify your existing trusses? It could be as simple as adding some well placed 2x4's and cost a few hundred bucks in having stamped plans.
 

6768rogues

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I never saw a truss with that low a bottom chord dead load. Did you actually see the truss specs from the truss manufacturer? I would call the truss manufacturer.
 

bczygan

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Dead load is the weight of the truss bottom chord itself.

Live load is what load you can add to it, and that is zero according to your list.

You seriously need engineering to redesign those trusses to support more than their own weight and the live load of the sheathing and roofing on the top chord.
 

strutaeng

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Are you under the IBC code? If so, there's a distinction between habitable and uninhabitable. Even so, I think uninhabitable still requires 5psf.

Perhaps your municipality does not have a building code. In that case the truss manufacturer designed for the truss' self weight only.
 
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bczygan

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Buildings been up for 3 years. I'll call the engineer that's on the plans. I hope I'm not screwed.

If you want to hang ANYTHING from those trusses without changing them, then yes, you are screwed. They are designed to only hold up their own weight and the roofing above them. That is what your numbers say.

You have a typical pole barn, designed to enclose a space and nothing else.

That said, you can always find ways to accomplish what you desire.

The difficulty, and thus the cost, will be the question.

What is the spacing of the trusses?
 

wssix99

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Chicago, IL
Any way to add to the Bottom cord load rating on a truss? Had a building put up and the builder told me I could put a ceiling up. Bottom cord dead load on my trusses is 1 PSF. Best I can come up with is 1.55 PSF and that's not including insulation.

You are missing a very important detail... How close are the trusses spaced? On the surface, this sounds weak but if the trusses are spaced close together, it isn't. Given the specs you listed, I'm guessing that these are pretty close together?

For example, a 1PSF truss will hold 1 lb per linear foot if they are spaced 12" apart. If 6" apart, it will hold 2 lb per linear foot. Etc.
 

David C

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Mar 10, 2014
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Northern California
Solely increasing the capacity of the truss bottom chord may not provide much, if any, additional ceiling support capacity.

Adding load to the bottom chord of any truss increases loads to the panel point connections and to all other members of the truss.

Most prefab trusses are designed to minimize cost. They use the minimum framing size and gang plate that is required to support the loads. This means that there often is little aditional capacity at the connections or members.

With that said truss mfgs use standard connectors and framing members; they don't fabricate a gang nail plate for each truss design so there may be some additional capacity. For example if a truss design required a 2x3 wood member they would use a 2x4, they don't cut the 2x4 to fit the minimum size requirement. Your truss might be able to carry some additional load without repair. Additionally, with analysis, you might need only repair one or two framing members or panel point connections, per truss.

If you know who mfg your truss you could go back to them with your required new loading and see what happens. If the trusses are not too old the fabricator may have saved your orignal design making it possible to do a very quick analysis.

If your truss CC spacing is 8' remember to add in the load for intermediate framing members required to support your gyp-bd.

If you have steel trusses there are some simple ways to add strength the members and connections in situ. It is not so hard in wood either.
 

David C

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A second thought.

Would a suspended ceiling work for you. They weigh very little and are not expensive to install. You can get a variety of tiles with varying capabilities, washable, fire rated, sealed etc.
 
OP
J

jaker10

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Bartonvillle Illinois
I talked to the engineer that signed off on the building plans. He said I'm good to go on a ceiling. He said the truss's are very beefy and are built for 30 lbs. snow load. In my area code for load is 20 lbs. He said he was very confident that it would be fine. He said just don't go crazy on the weight of ceiling. He tried to explain load is from top to bottom but also works the other way. It can still have load from bottom just don't go over board. I sat down and figured what my ceiling will weight and it's 1.66 PSF. He said he didn't know why TC LL is 0 on plan, it still has to support everything above it.
 
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