Attic truss altered? - InspectionNews

mathew stouffer · #1 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 04:29 PM

It appears these trusses may have been altered but I was not sure. The pics are the best I could do

Nick Ostrowski · #2 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 04:43 PM

Hard to tell from the pics. Those nail plates are huge.

mathew stouffer · #3 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 04:48 PM

That's what I was looking at as well. First time i have seen plates like that.

Erby Crofutt · #4 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 06:25 PM

I doubt they've been field modified. Just ain't that easy to press the plates in the field. But they sure are HUGE plates for the purpose.

Jack Feldmann · #5 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 07:00 PM

Maybe they were all they had at the factory that day.

Steve Frederickson · #6 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 07:14 PM

Very strange to see trusses with a ridge board (at least, it looks like a ridge board, with the truss plates bent around the ridge). How would they ship something like that

mathew stouffer · #7 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 07:24 PM

Here is another pic. There are two ridge boards with ridge venting between.

Steve Frederickson · #8 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 07:42 PM

That makes a little more sense. Is this a modular house?

mathew stouffer · #9 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 09:17 PM

No it is a large 4 story condo complex

mathew stouffer · #10 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 09:19 PM

Opps, I meant three story

Matt Fellman · #11 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 09:40 PM

They do look odd but I doubt I'd mention it. If I were inspecting the whole building I may recommend that someone chase down the plans or ask the builder about it.

It's extremely unlikely a building like that wasn't overseen very closely during contruction. As an HI you can very quickly start to poke your nose where it doesn't belong and lose a lot of credibility if/when you're wrong..... IMO

Snow in Utah already?

Bruce Breedlove · #12 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 11:31 PM

Colorado got snow Wednesday. We only got a couple inches but Denver got much more and some places in the mountains got dumped on.

mathew stouffer · #13 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 09:00 AM

The mountains got about 5 inches on Aug 14th and it melted in about 8 mins

Over the past 48 hrs Park City received about 4 but like Bruce said, some Mt locations received two feet. Winter comes early here.
Alta Ski Area Welcomes You

John Kogel · #14 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathew stouffer

Here is another pic. There are two ridge boards with ridge venting between.

Those look to me like short blocks between the trusses. I would not say the trusses have been altered, based only on these pics.

You could recommend having a builder check the trusses, but i don't see the problem from here.

archivoyeur · #15 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Those look to me like short blocks between the trusses. I would not say the trusses have been altered, based only on these pics.

You could recommend having a builder check the trusses, but i don't see the problem from here.

That's what I see too.

mathew stouffer · #16 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 10:05 AM

Thanks guys. Have a great weekend, and extra adult beverages for Halloween

Jack Feldmann · #17 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 04:30 PM

First of all, I was in an attic today and the trusses had some oversize plates on them too. I am positive they were not altered - just big plates.

Second, that condo complex could very well be modular buildings. I have inspected many threes story modular buildings. The clues are in the attics, under, and some interior walls. Notice any door frames where the wall is like 8" wide? Looking at the photo again, it could easily be a modular building.

There will sometimes be a data plate somewhere inside.
Electrical connections in the attics can also be a clue.
The underside is the real give away, but you may not be able to see it on this one.

Linda Swearingen · #18 (**permalink**) 10-30-2009, 07:51 AM

The 2x4's look newer or fresher than the rafters; could this be a retrofit fix for a sagging ridge? Would you see whether the lower ends of the larger rafters were nailed or had gusset plates too?

Dan Cullen · #19 (**permalink**) 10-31-2009, 06:10 AM

I agree with Linda. It almost looks like a stick built roof that has some chords added to beef it up at mid-span on the left side. Erby's right also on the difficulty of pressing the gussets on-site. It's a head scratcher fer-sher. Why not just ask the seller to provide the engineering drawings and the bill of sale from the truss mfr. if there was one?

Stacey Van Houtan · #20 (**permalink**) 10-31-2009, 06:07 PM

Overside plate are not unusual. Yes the 2 bys would look differet. They were shiped, stacke and may come form a local lumber yard. Go out and follow some construction projects.

Stacey Van Houtan · #21 (**permalink**) 10-31-2009, 06:07 PM

Overside plate are not unusual. Yes the 2 bys would look differet. They were shiped, stacke and may come form a local lumber yard. Go out and follow some construction projects.

John Kogel · #22 (**permalink**) 10-31-2009, 10:14 PM

The top chords look like 2 X 6. Generally better quality, larger diameter logs are used to make them. There is more of the heartwood showing, so they look darker. They are manufactured trusses, built to strict standards.

Jack Feldmann · #23 (**permalink**) 11-01-2009, 04:51 AM

Ask the seller to provide engineering drawings and bill of sale from truss manf??????
I don't know of many (if any) condo owners that have a copy or access to the original construction documents or engineering documents.

The other thing is outside of the inspector questioning the large metal plates, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong here.