truss question

[ezover]

I have a 10 foot ceiling in my pole barn and want to raise it to get 12 foot clearance for a lift. the picture below is what i did to install a 10 foot roll up door for track clearance.

i cut the trusses and raised them 1 foot. I feel i,m losing a lot of structural support doing it this way.
any suggestions or thoughts on this?

my thoughts were to add a 2x6 along truss from the ceiling to the wall.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

ezover,

You really should not have done what you did. The bottom chord panel points are now separated, the bottom chord bearing is gone and these trusses are designed to resist certain design loads by the engineer. You need to get one to come out and look at one of your trusses and tell you the proper way to fix them. At the least (IMHO), the vertical and diagonals at the center should meet at a common point and I would think a knee brace from the top of the wall to a work point on the bottom chord would be required.

Either way, get someone to check these trusses. I don't usually say that about the home owner doing the framing as long as it is stick built but that is not the case here.

 

[rodnok1]

I agree, you're not talking about 1 truss here. Trusses are not meant to be modified. I think it would be better and easier to stick build rafters next to the trusses that can hold the weight then cut the trusses. Those modified trusses are not going to hold under a high snow load as is.

 

[bigdav160]

At the minimum, you need to through bolt those connections.

 

[porschedude996TT]

Doohh!

Not good to modify a truss. Agree with the previous replies. You may be able to sister a new truss into the modified ones. Check with a truss comapny.

 

[sunaar]

definately not a good idea. those trusses will fail over time

 

[sreeb]

Do you need to worry about snow loads?

 

[ezover]

yes i do, mid Michigan here. i will put some more bracing up, i really wanted to avoid trying to raise a 32x48 roof 2 feet.
will see what i can do about getting a truss engineer to look at it, and if that don't work
I'll just brace the hell out of everything. wood is still cheap and i will get my 12 foot ceiling.
thanks for the replys

 

[ezover]

At the minimum, you need to through bolt those connections.

i agree, i used lag bolts, will go back and through bolt them

 

[StumpXJ]

Check my thread here. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36703&highlight=stumpxj

I had a contractor raise my ceiling height from 9 feet to 13 feet, in a similar manner. Mine was stick built, not prefab trusses, but you will get the gist of it. I had to add knee walls on both side, and two huge beams to support the changes.

~James

 

[WNYflyer]

Ezover,

Get a structural engineer (try to find some who freelances on the side = cheaper) to look at your situation before the snow flies, as others have said it's ugly (trusses don't take kindly to alteration). Just throwing lumber/lag bolts at the problem without knowing the basic engineering principals/load paths (i.e. engineer) is a waste of time & money in my opinion. FWIW, I am a structural engineer.

Seems if your intent is to stay in that pole barn for awhile it is well worth your money to know how to do it right plus if you ever try to sell you are probably going to have a problem with the roof structure if left as is. An engineer can steer you in the right direction and since it is wood construction you could most likely handle the work yourself with some help. Good luck and enjoy that pole barn and all that's in it for a long time.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

As has been said, you need to sister with rafters, and bolt the connections. If you look at it, the true weak spot is the short run of un trussed rafter connecting to the top of your wall. It cannot hold up your roof. Sistering a 2x10 or 12 to the modified truss would increase the strength to what you need, but it needs to be installed as a full rafter, turning the truss into a reinforced collar tie.

Do not delay.

 

[voetsek]

Speaking as a professional engineer who used to design and build trusses for a living. You pretty much ruined them doing that. If you have any snow loads or wind load at all on that roof you are risking a catastrophic failure which you will have a real problem getting insurance to pay for. Get them inspected by a professional and then fix them.

 

[IHI]

Speaking as a professional engineer who used to design and build trusses for a living. You pretty much ruined them doing that. If you have any snow loads or wind load at all on that roof you are risking a catastrophic failure which you will have a real problem getting insurance to pay for. Get them inspected by a professional and then fix them.

i'm impressed with this post, typically when something like this gets posted all the backwoods handymen pop out and start saying all the cheap and easy fixes they've done to remedy the situation or manipulate items for their need and think it's fine "cuz it's still there today/we did it like this and have'nt had any problems"

kudoo's to all of you putting for your foot down for how assinine this situation is, this was definately a jump in with both feet before ever knowing what the heck was going on...luckily nobody's gotten hurt, nothing's gotten broken..yet..just hope he gets this remedied correctly and soon!!!! Bare minimum i'd have a truss rep come over and spec out sister trusses that would net you more ceiling heigth...that is the quick and easy method...everything else will be labor/material intensive.

 

[tcianci]

I'm not sure of what you guys mean by a "truss rep" as has been mentioned in several of the posts. This fellow needs a structural engineer, someone who's job it is to evaluate the current condition of a structure and design a remedy. Now you may remember me as the guy who has posted his comments on some of the structures here and saying, you got no major problems. Those structures were of conventional stick frame design and my experience in the carpentry business has given me plenty of anecdotal data to base my observations on. This case is different: Roof trusses are engineered framing components that utilize the distribution of forces throughout the truss to satisfy the load requirement. They optimize the strength of light, small cross section framing members, you don't mess with them without an engineered solution that shows the design will function as intended. My concern here is that the OP will attempt to reinforce the compromised trusses with a remedy that may be equally suspect. Please get the structure looked at by a structural engineer.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

I'm not sure of what you guys mean by a "truss rep" as has been mentioned in several of the posts. This fellow needs a structural engineer, someone who's job it is to evaluate the current condition of a structure and design a remedy. Now you may remember me as the guy who has posted his comments on some of the structures here and saying, you got no major problems. Those structures were of conventional stick frame design and my experience in the carpentry business has given me plenty of anecdotal data to base my observations on. This case is different: Roof trusses are engineered framing components that utilize the distribution of forces throughout the truss to satisfy the load requirement. They optimize the strength of light, small cross section framing members, you don't mess with them without an engineered solution that shows the design will function as intended. My concern here is that the OP will attempt to reinforce the compromised trusses with a remedy that may be equally suspect. Please get the structure looked at by a structural engineer.

Unless you create a solution where the truss is no longer a being used as a truss, that is the correct answer. This is a problem for an engineer, or someone who understands loads and structure. I have seen undersized rafters in pole barns split and break. Your truss has become a very undersized rafter.

Everyone who is telling you to get an engineered solution is correct. Everyone who is telling you to do it before you get a snow load is correct. Those look like they will hold very well, until they experience total failure.

 

[kwb]

This will sound harsh but seeing what you did shows that you have no understanding of building structures.

Get an engineer pronto.

For others - normal trusses have all members forming triangles and members within the truss are pure tension or compression members. Don't mess with trusses, don't drill them for running power, pay attention to the install instructions on where bracing should be added both during construction and final detail.

 

[ovilla]

I have a 10 foot ceiling in my pole barn and want to raise it to get 12 foot clearance for a lift. the picture below is what i did to install a 10 foot roll up door for track clearance.

i cut the trusses and raised them 1 foot. I feel i,m losing a lot of structural support doing it this way.
any suggestions or thoughts on this?

my thoughts were to add a 2x6 along truss from the ceiling to the wall.

We all live and learn from our mistakes. Just call a structural engineer as soon as you can to get this addressed. I bet he/she might be able to just get new scissor trusses sistered up against your existing ones. I had a friend that was able to retrofit scissor trusses (halves) into a garage attic to get more height out of his ceilings. Anyway, let us know what they tell you to do here, so that others can also learn from this. Best of luck to you!

 

[Zen]

If possible contact the original manufacturer of the trusses and have one of thier reps take a look at what you have done. They should/will contact thier engineer for a solution (repair drawing). It will most likely consist of an additional 2 piece truss scabbed to the trusses you have cut. The repair drawing may cost you $60 plus the additional cost for the repair trusses. Good luck.

Where in MI are you located?