U Ever Dealt With POS Scissor Trusses?

IHI

Just mainly venting here but feel fre to chim in with your experiences.

This addition we're building started bad, homie hired some concrete guy that was $50 cheaper than my usual guy for the footing/poured walls...homies was going to use radiant floor heat and tile room addition so was going slab for flooring. Footings were 6" out of square and then when they did poured walls they ended up being 3" out of square with wavey azz walls since they did not brace plywood forms well enough. I was literally put in the spot of doing what we had to to try and get addition as close to square as possible without making it painfully obvious by having btm plate hang over a ton...so in a nutshell room addition is not perfect, I know it and homie knows it...just how it had to be given circumstances.

They dropped materials off and the SO scissor trusses were sooo friggin warped/twisted it's unreal. We've put in blocking like a sun of a gun to help try to twist them back around but they are still not prefect. Had to literally have 4 guys on the roof when sheeting to help bend trusses around along with the use of a ratchet strap....that bad, I cannot begin to explain the bends/crooks/twists and the many different axis the trusses are all tweaked....I can say we had to switch to wood blocking since the metal bridging straps we typically use for 24" spacing after the first night trusses sprung so bad it literally bent these metal ties to look like the letter V...already set back by rain day last week and now calling for 4 days of rain last I checked so still unable (I refuse) to break the seal on existing home to start prepping for roofing. They shorted me one valley truss so we had to hand frame that, but they sent standard valley trusses and the trusses we ordered had an energy heal so that ruined any chance at standard spacing which equated into more plywood needed and more waste due to screwed up layout. we lost 2 hrs prior to setting trusses since when they delivered them 4 were broke....2 gable end trusses were literally snapped down the center at joint so you could fold it into a triangle....never had such a bad experience in my life

On top of that we've had 11 changes made by homie that 2 meant minor labor intensive rework with "new ideas" this is starting to suck moneky ballz LOL!!! and if I never have to use POS scissor trusses again it will be too soon.

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RobertCDF

I would have rejected the trusses. No way would I accept that order. And as it is... I would find a new truss company and make sure you old one knows why you dropped them.

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Robert Shaw
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hjm

I would have rejected them, there strength is compromised by the twisting and warping, I drew trusses for a little while, and I learned a little. Most company's will not even build them until the can measure the framing, get a new company if that's how they sell them.

hatchet

It sounds like you're blaming scissor trusses. A scissor truss is just as good as any other truss - but they need to build them and STORE them correctly. I see more trusses with flexed plates, bends, twists, etc not because they were scissor trusses but because the mfg stored them improperly.. my advice - reject them.

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Rich
WIT Construction Co.
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maj

Sorry to be laughing Josh, but..........
If you would have stick built the roof with a structural ridge beam & I-joists like I suggested when you posted about this project, you'd be done & enclosed by now.

The cabin I'm building now is 28' wide with 10/12 pitch.http://www.contractortalk.com/f31/cabin-progress-12500/ Rafter length is 19' from plate to ridge. The ridge beams are 3 - 1 3/4" X 18" LVL's bolted together. I cut (birdsmouth, top & bottom), set, & secured all 56 rafters in less than 3 hours.

Normally scissor trusses are not a whole lot different than a flat truss. So it wasn't the fault of them being scissored, but rather the company you got them from. In your situation, I would have contacted the supplier immediately (before you unbanded them), so they could have sent someone out to document the problems. Then they could get ahold of the truss maker, to send out a rep. You really CANNOT use busted up trusses. Legally, if you accepted receipt of the trusses upon delivery, you are now responsible for any current or future problems. If in the future anything happens, you will be held liable, since you signed off on them.

I have had problems with trusses (it is actually quite common) and will always inspect them before signing off. I am ALWAYS on site for delivery so I can personally lay down lumber for them to roll off on, ensuring a flat base for them to be stored on untill I'm ready to use them. When problems arise after signing off on, I call them as soon as possible. I am ALWAYS compensated for lost time BY the truss manufacturer. If I have to make field adjustments, they WILL pay me.

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ch0mpie

I don't know if you know this, but the theory behind a truss is that every memeber in the truss is an axial memeber. This means that each member is in tension or compression only! NOT bending. This is theory so of course a truss will have some bending forces on it, but by forcing a bent truss straight you are putting excess bending forces on the truss members dooming the truss to failure. Good luck.

IHI

Well, live and learn I guess. Scheduling was partly to blame, I wish I had the time to reject them, and from the outside looking in I probably should have. I can give excuses up and down all pointing back to us being 2 months out on a tight job line schedule forcing us to do truss repairs that are being compensated for materials and labor, but having to wait another 4-5 weeks to get the new batch in with no guaruntee they'd be what any of us would consider perfect was just not in the cards....wish sceduling would have allowed it, but this entire project has been spinning it's wheels since conception...largly due to dealing with a drunk that changed his mind every beer every day.

I'll stick this under my belt as a learning experience and will make note never to order trusses from the MN company these came from.

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Joe Carola

Was this addition so big that it couldn't have been stick framed?

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Bradracer18

IHI.......hey, I'm not sure.....but I think we used to use trusses from Fort Dodge area??? Not sure.....I was using them in ames though.......good trusses...

IHI

Not at all, the main addition is only 27x16 with a 20x10 roof extension to cover a deck we're installing under it, but the deck roof were just standard trusses. Customer wanted the highest cathedral ceiling possible and did not want to pay to have a engineer draw plans to stick frame ceiling/rafters that would allow not using collar ties so trusses were the other option since I did'nt want to just frame it up on the fly and wonder if ridge board was enough to prevent sidewall blow out down the road.

I talked to a few other's locally who got their scissor trusses from 2 other manufacturers in state that said theirs did not have this trouble with looking like a snake plus cupping so I guessmost of the problem was manufacturer storage/staking even though these came right off the jig and onto a truck. Then the delivery company was partly to blame since they loaded the truck the night before with the smallest trusses (valley trusses) on the bottom and then the larger stagered trusses on top of those. When the driver unloaded them the homies drive was actually very flat so we used 3x4 blocking every 6' to keep them off the ground and then they only sat 2 days before setting due to weather the 1st day of build and rain.

I do know after setting first truss (scissor truss) we tried one attempt to flip up like normal but was painfully obvious that would'nt work even with 2 sticks in the center due to deflection so we nailed strong backs to every scissor truss prior to re raising. a sky lift would've been the best answer and after the first one I was trying to figure out how I could get one in the area, but due to limited space and building positions a crane would've been the only option since it would've been set back awys and had to pick it up and over...driveway set-up next to neighbors privacey fence made it to tight to manuever a lift

It's done, just waiting for rain to pass so we can finish shingling everything then all we have is siding and deck....until yesterday when he added garage he wanted roofed and some other insurance work...never ending job LOL!!

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IHI

Brad, 99% of the time for our standard trusses they do come from Ames, but this time they were built/shipped from MN. so now I know even if cost is higher I'll pay to keep it in state since I've never fought trusses this bad in my life...30 minute job turned into an all day affair that had a rippling effect later when sheeting it all.

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mdshunk

I think that many of us have gotten a bad shipment of X (fill in with whatever) at least once, and thought we could go ahead and use it. When you frustrate yourself for a certain period of time, that is a valuable lesson learned. Next time, you'll know exactly what to reject and what to accept. I recently got a shipment of EMT fittings that had lots of burrs from the galvanizing process on the threads. I mistkenly thought it wouldn't be a problem, but it sure was. Next time, if I get a shipment of fittings like that, they'll go back from whence they came.

IHI

I agree. The bad part is this is a buddy deal anyways since this guy has painted my race car, and 4 other cars for me as well as 5 for my family over the years so I had to touche with a buddy price...I just never imagined this job would take the twists and turns it did fighting all the way I'm still making money, but obviously not near as much as a standard customer. He seen the trusses, knew exactly what was going on and I've beat it into his head how fun drywalling the inside will be (he's doing all inside work) so to forewarn me before he starts so I can install ice filled ear muffs I needed to move forward, he did not want to wait another month, etc...so we did what we had to. Next time with this experience under my belt, getting a rep on site and then rejection will be the course of action.

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Joe Carola

That's okay if your stick framing something and some of the lumber is bad, then you can go and get some good stuff if you’re short

I a case like trusses. You’re screwed. So you reject the bad ones and send them back but what does that do for your frame? You can't frame. You have to wait 4-5 weeks for trusses to be made? That’s ridiculous. At least stick framing you have control.

Tha't a scary thought for me. Or you have to rebuild them yourself if it's even possible. If they're to damaged to be rebuilt, you have to call back the Architect and tell him to speck out a stick frame roof, so that the job can continue and then you can have a true cathedral ceiling with a structural ridge beam instead of having a higher pitch outside and a lower cathedral inside.

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Joe Carola

Joe Carola

Why would they have to have an Engineer draw the plans? Wasn't there a set of plans drawn by an Architect that they could tell to just draw a stick framed roof with a structural beam, or did they draw them themselves?

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Joe Carola

IHI

99% of our remodels/garages/additons etc...are just drawings sketched on paper by homeowner of how they want the layout, design ideas, etc...that I take back to my computer and fine tune final layout. Nobody here wants to pay the $1500 inital consult fee and then add the extra $1500-2K for final deisgn. These are typically just small additions, nothing fancy by any means.

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hatchet

If you want to double check beams, floors, headers, roofs, etc without spending any money download TJ-Beam from TrusJoistMcMillan. It does solid sawn beams also. Even if the drawings have header and beam sizes on them I double check through the software. It's a great timesaver out here in the sticks where nobody has ever heard of an architect

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Bradracer18

On his side here guys, first you set trusses for time reasons.......they go up in about an hr or so, from what I've done(crane)......Also.....most trusses are all banded together....so, how would you know if they were bad, unless you opened them up right there before the delivery man left???? And.....sometimes, we weren't even there when they came.....

maj

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joasis

I have recieved some pretty crappy trusses, and never rejected any, simply due to time...but I have changed suppliers, and the ones I get now are pretty decent. I have had them "jump" when we cut the bands due to the twist and warp, and ended up blocking them to get them to level out.....adds lots of time to a simple task.

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