How to Use Trusses

Engineered roof trusses come in many different styles: gable, saltbox, fink, queen, howe, hip, and gambrel, to name but a few. Prefabricated trusses are used in 75 percent of all new construction in the United States. Trusses have simplified roof construction, and are built faster with no required specialized skills. Trusses span longer distances without interior bearing wall support, and also use less lumber than a conventionally framed roof. If you want to learn a little about using trusses, read through the following steps.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Use trusses instead of a stick-framed roof. They are stronger and more difficult to distort under heavy pressure.
   • 2
     Create a complex roof shape with trusses by combining different styles. Each truss has a specific web design created for different loads and roof spans.
   • 3
     Use a piggyback truss if your roof pitch is high. These tall trusses are made as two to avoid hitting any power poles on the way to the job site. Once delivered, they are joined by plywood or gussets.
   • 4
     Install girder trusses to eliminate partitions between the house and the ell, mainly in homes that have shapes like "L," "T," "H" or "U."
   • 5
     Attach two or three trusses together, side-by-side, and span the opening where the two parts of the house connect.
   • 6
     Clip the common trusses on the main house at one end, and then hang it from metal hangers on the girder truss.
   • 7
     Install a series of step-down valley trusses to the top of the common truss on the main roof to extend the ell roof back to the main roof.
   • 8
     Build a cathedral ceiling by installing scissor trusses and vaulted scissor trusses.
   • 9
     Create a porch, a wide overhang or an entrance roof by simply extending your single or double-cantilever trusses.
   • 10
     Hoist any truss longer than 30 feet up onto the house using a crane. Also crane all trusses onto houses taller than one story.
   • 11
     Brace jack trusses up against the trusses you are installing to hold them up while the remaining trusses are being installed.