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Truss Question

SI86

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I just built a Pole Building and I just now find out the truss' that they gave me has a rating of 5# ceiling load? I asked what a standard truss rating is and they said 10#

Im not quiet sure what that means but they told me I would not be able to insulate my ceiling and I cannot hang drywall off them.... so now im worried I wont be able to hang my ceiling fans Light fixtures and garage doors off these...

Can anyone help me out here? What should or can I do?
 
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SI86

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Ok Apparently its called a ceiling dead load... but I still don't know what I can get away with.
 

jeremy v

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I am not sure of all the factors involved in your pole building, but truss ratings are usually measured in pounds per square foot of area. It does not mean that you can't hang anything that weighs more than 5 pounds from the trusses, if that is what you are thinking. You just need to make sure that you don't hang anything too heavy from a single point without possibly bracing it some to spread the load out. Ceiling fans, regular tube style fluorescent lights etc. would be just fine as they all actually weigh very little. Most garage doors weigh several hundred pounds, but their weight would be spread out over 100 square feet of ceiling or so when the door is in the up position, so even a 500 pound door could be fine with your truss structure. In many ways a garage door can almost be thought of as more of a live load than a dead load, because most garage doors spend very little time in the up position adding weight to the roof structure. Also some of the garage door weight even in the up position transfers to the wall instead of the ceiling if you are planning on having a standard rail type door. If you have space above the top of the garage door opening to run the door vertically for a few feet before it bends and runs along the ceiling that even helps to take more weight off of the roof structure.

Insulation weighs almost nothing, so the blanket comment that you can't insulate is boggling to me. Even if the structure can't handle the weight of sheetrock, you can still possibly lightly insulate and then cover the ceiling in plastic and then really thin plywood (or something else lighter than sheetrock) just for the purpose of creating an air/vapor barrier, to make it all look more finished, and to help hold the insulation in place.

As an extra side note, sheetrock is heavy when you pick up a full sheet and try to carry it, but 5/8 sheetrock is only about 2.3 pounds per square foot of area in actual weight. I would be surprised if sheetrocking and lightly insulating the ceiling with something light like fiberglass or rigid foam would add more than 3 pounds per square foot to the truss' ceiling dead load. You will just have to do some quick calculations based on what your specific roof type is to see what options are available to you.
 
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mudflap

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Are they on 2ft, or 4ft center. The only trusses i have seen with that light of a CDL are on 4ft centers, and meant to be left open. I went thru all of that when i built my last barn. Standard loading is 25/10/10. Seems like they would have asked you how you wanted to finish the barn out, and designed the trusses accordingly.
 

andywander

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I used the cheapest paneling I could find for the ceiling of my shop, after putting up fiberglass insulation.
 

383

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We install trusses with a 5# dead load bottom cord in most buildings we do with trusses 4' OC. Additional framing is required anyway if you want sheetrock or plywood since it can't span 4', so we usually install 29 ga. metal if a ceiling is added. It weighs less than .75 lb per sq ft, so there is no restriction on the type of insulation used.
l
 
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SI86

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Are they on 2ft, or 4ft center. The only trusses i have seen with that light of a CDL are on 4ft centers, and meant to be left open. I went thru all of that when i built my last barn. Standard loading is 25/10/10. Seems like they would have asked you how you wanted to finish the barn out, and designed the trusses accordingly.

They are 4' oc they knew what I was planning on doing with the place knew it was going to be a finished shop... They never mentioned what the ratings were just told me they used "Pole Building" truss which on the pitch is made out of 2x6 and the rest is 2x4s So I assumed that was the design for going 4 oc
 
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SI86

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We install trusses with a 5# dead load bottom cord in most buildings we do with trusses 4' OC. Additional framing is required anyway if you want sheetrock or plywood since it can't span 4', so we usually install 29 ga. metal if a ceiling is added. It weighs less than .75 lb per sq ft, so there is no restriction on the type of insulation used.
l



What type of additional framing do you do to them?? I would like to feel comfortable with everything before I put up my ceiling.
 

Mohawk Dave

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What type of additional framing do you do to them?? I would like to feel comfortable with everything before I put up my ceiling.

Strongback! nail/screw another 2x4 or 2x6 90* on the rafter/truss/joist. Notch to sit on top plate as well. Uber strong.

EDIT: and if you don't have the load cap for snow or whatever throw some struts/purlins in.
 
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jeremy v

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What type of additional framing do you do to them?? I would like to feel comfortable with everything before I put up my ceiling.

You usually do something like what is shown in the picture attached. Just a simple way to split the distance between trusses so that the sheetrock can attach to something every 2 feet instead of every 4.
 

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383

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What type of additional framing do you do to them?? I would like to feel comfortable with everything before I put up my ceiling.

You usually do something like what is shown in the picture attached. Just a simple way to split the distance between trusses so that the sheetrock can attach to something every 2 feet instead of every 4.

Another way is to nail 2x4's perpendicular to the bottom cord of the truss 2' on center.
 
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SI86

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I went thru all of that when i built my last barn.
6h.jpg

What did u end up doing??
 
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SI86

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Anyone else have any suggestions?? Im still working with the lumber yard to make this right. but im not convinced yet
 
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