Roof trusses, just like the ones to be installed in your home, are manufactured to engineering standards. To ensure that the trusses perform as designed it is essential that they be handled, erected and braced correctly.
Important Roof Truss Infomation
7 Things to keep in mind when using roof trusses are:
It is the Builder’s responsibility to ensure that all relevant information required for design is provided to the fabricator at time of ordering trusses, including spans, pitches, profiles, quantities and loadings. Final confirmation of details by the fabricator with the builder is recommended prior to manufacture.
Roof Trusses are designed to be part of a structural system, which includes battens/purlins, bracing, binders, fascias and the connection of these components. The full strength of Roof trusses is not achieved until all components are installed correctly. All Roof trusses must be braced (temporary and permanently) and stabilised throughout installation of the roof truss system. No Roof truss should be loaded until all permanent bracing is fixed and battens/purlins are installed. Installers should not stand on any Roof truss until all temporary bracing is fixed in place and the Roof truss is stabilised.
As Roof Truss installation invariably involves working at heights, a risk assessment should be undertaken for each site and all relevant workplace safety practices followed. With every roof structure and job site, conditions are different. It is the builder’s responsibility to consider these conditions when determining the procedures to be adopted in lifting and fixing roof components. The procedures should be discussed with all sub-contractors and employees on site and the agreed methods documented.
Roof Trusses are designed for specific loading, geometry and support conditions. Under no circumstances should truss timber be cut, removed, or modified in any way without prior approval from the truss fabricator
Make sure all bracing is permanently fixed and all bolts and brackets are tightened prior to the loading of the roof.
Roof Trusses should not be used or stored where they are subjected to repeated wetting and drying as this has a detrimental effect on the strength of both timber and connections
If Roof trusses have been designed for timber fascias do not replace with steel fascia without asking your truss supplier to check the overhand design.
