Roof Truss Broken In Six Places

[Bruce Breedlove]

Yesterday I went along with a buddy to do an energy audit at a townhouse in the Atlanta area. While in the attic I could not help but notice a truss beside the pull-down stairs was broken and had been (improperly) repaired. The more I looked at the truss the more problems I found. This one truss was broken in four places and gusset plates were damaged or missing in two locations. This set a new record for me for most number of damages for a single truss.

The adjacent truss (on the other side of the pull-down stairs was also broken (and improperly repaired) but in "only" one place. I suspect the damage occurred during construction (possibly when the trusses were delivered and dropped on the ground) because the "repairs" look like common field repairs made by framers.

Even though we were there to do an energy audit I could not ignore the structural damage and I pointed it out to the owner (plus 8 or 10 roof leaks along the continuous ridge vent).

[Bruce Breedlove]

The first photo in this group shows a broken top chord. The second photo shows the improper repairs to a web member. Notice the broken web is sistered on both sides but with short 2X4s (much too short for a proper repair and haphazardly nailed). The next photos show a couple of the ridge vent leaks.

[wayne soper]

Were there alot of trees, uh, I mean stumps around the house?:D

[Michael Thomas]

Often caused by stacking half a roof's shingles in one spot before installation.

[John Kogel]

I think the townhouse strata council need you to inspect all the attics. :)

Then they need an engineer to design proper repairs, something with big plywood gussets and nails.

Do you think wind is blowing rain up through the ridge vents?

[Rick Hurst]

I see many truss that are damaged as such and most have been done by homeowners installing a pull down attic ladder assembly.

If its in the way, they cut it out.

rick

[Bruce Breedlove]

Often caused by stacking half a roof's shingles in one spot before installation.

True. Overloading the trusses with shingles usually cracks the top chord of a truss. At least that has been my experience. In this case this truss did have a cracked top chord but also had web members that were completely broken. That amount of damage could not have been caused by stocking shingles on the roof without also damaging the roof sheathing. And I seriously doubt stocking shingles caused the damage to the gusset plates.

Again, I think the trusses were broken when the framing package was dropped on the construction site. When I was a home builder several times I watched as the driver dropped off my framing package. It is very common to raise the dump and drive out from under it as fast as possible causing the entire bundle to crash to the ground. More than once I had a truss (or a few trusses) break. I always ordered new trusses when they were broken beyond repair (like this one was).

[Bruce Breedlove]

Do you think wind is blowing rain up through the ridge vents?

I did not go on the roof but from what I could see (and that included seeing daylight around nail holes) it appeared to be improper installation of the ridge vent.