{"id":489,"date":"2015-08-16T13:17:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T13:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixthelement.org\/wordpress1\/?p=489"},"modified":"2019-07-29T12:42:25","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T12:42:25","slug":"construction-update-roof-trusses-arrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sixthelement.org\/wordpress1\/2015\/08\/16\/construction-update-roof-trusses-arrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction update – roof trusses arrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brief gap in the updates on the construction front while I had some business travel to California and Paul awaited delivery of some of the roof trusses. \u00a0Paul however made progress with getting NStar\/Eversource rolling\u00a0for running electrical power to the house – that should be happening “soon”. \u00a0The contact and initial jousting over schedules has happened – so hopefully not too long for that.<\/p>\n

The trusses arrived and they are very interesting. \u00a0Part of the plan for this house was to not do a Deck roof throughout the entire space of the house and garage. \u00a0A Deck roof is a very specialized structure – adapted as the name implies – from house decks, and performed by only some special roofers newcastle<\/a>.\u00a0 Without going deeply into the details, most of which I am not expert in, what you see from the inside is a cathedral ceiling with massive beams and tongue and groove cedar planking. \u00a0This allows for really open spaces and lots of wood to be shown. \u00a0For a different feel (and lower cost) Deck also has a truss based roof system. \u00a0I chose to utilize that for the mechanical and private areas of the house – I am hoping that this will give the public and private parts of the house two very different feelings or vibe. \u00a0(note – there is also a different truss system for the floor shown in some of the earlier photos here<\/a> – allowing for very easy wiring.)<\/p>\n

The construction of the trusses themselves is interesting. \u00a0They are nailed together with standard carpentry nails through galvanized metal plates – gang nail systems. \u00a0I had not seen these before and I did a little digging – they seem VERY strong and apparently houses in south Florida that were constructed with them survived hurricane Andrew much better than those which were not.<\/p>\n

\"Truss<\/a>

Truss connector plate close up – from Simpson Strong Tie website<\/p><\/div>\n

The plates are pierced and form lots and lots of “nails” – so you get a flat surface that has connection to the wood below – across its whole face. \u00a0Then you use a half dozen carpentry nails for that deep connection. \u00a0It seems like both a very strong and fast way to build a truss<\/p>\n

\"Trusses<\/a>

Trusses have arrived and are unpacked. These cover the mechanical space and the bedrooms. A complex and interesting design while still being cost effective. Note the flat plates – these are the connector plates that make the trusses much more affordable AND strong. According to the wiki page on the inventor of this technology, houses built in Florida with these connectors were much more likely to have survived Hurricane Andrew. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Calvin_Jureit<\/p><\/div>\n

In some of the earlier photos, you may have noticed the big orange machine in the background – that is Paul Heberts’ Lull Telescopic Lift machine – a key piece of equipment on a Deck House building project from the looks of it. \u00a0It handles the majority of the heavy work related to taking the flat pack materials from the factory and placing them around the site and for final assembly. \u00a0My dad happened to capture a series of shots placing a truss.<\/p>\n\n\t\t