A recent truss and EWP project had so many site-related problems, it must go down on my list of most memorable for all the wrong reasons. Like many of you, I’ve certainly experienced challenging jobs in the past, but it seemed like the stream of problems just never ended.
As is often the case, the homeowner felt that they could save themselves a considerable amount of money by avoiding hiring a qualified general contractor to manage the construction project. By looking after all the purchasing and hiring the various sub-trades directly, there was potentially a couple hundred thousand dollars to be saved. This custom house was large – about 5,000 square feet – but not ridiculously so, and although there were a few complications such as some cathedral ceilings, and multiple hip roofs over other hip roofs, the construction drawings were reasonably clear and well drawn. The low slope of the roof and high snow load for the area did create some additional design challenges, but eventually I was able to find a solution that met all of the important objectives:
- The exterior elevation of the finished house would match the architectural drawings.
- There would be no need to introduce support for the roof in the interior of the house. All loads were transferred to the exterior walls. This avoided any compromise to the interior layout resulting from additional columns or load bearing walls.
- All the roof framing was accomplished using trusses, with no need for on-site framing.
Several months after we delivered the truss and EWP package, the questions started:
- They claimed there were no truss hangers provided, and although our staff had proof that they had been shipped we sent additional hardware to the site.
- While investigating that, it became apparent that while framing the EWP floor system the framer had left out dozens of EWP hangers.
- The bargain-priced framer claimed that the trusses did not fit the roof profile and that some trusses were sticking through the roof. When questioned about what area of the truss layout this was on, he confessed that he not only didn’t have a copy of the truss layout while doing the install, but he had also only briefly looked at it and decided he could “figure it out on his own”!
When it came time for the framing inspection, it wasn’t a surprise to find that the building inspector had multiple concerns about the truss installation, and probably other issues as well. Despite the assurances we had been given that no trusses had been cut or altered, the inspector noted numerous locations where trusses installed in the wrong location had been cut (apparently with a chainsaw) to fit the roof profile, and other neighboring trusses had extra framing added on top. A 4-ply girder, supporting approximately 1,200 square feet of the house and with a reaction of over 40,000 pounds, was not only improperly and woefully inadequately laminated, but it was also being supported on a couple of wall studs, not the HSS column we had suggested the owner have the engineer design.
Could a qualified general contractor have kept this project on course better? I tend to think so, since they would have recognized early on that the framer, if he was even allowed on the site in the first place, was in way over his head on this project. The last communication we received regarding this project was that it is at a stand still. The inspector won’t sign off on the framing without a report from a qualified engineer and repairs as needed, the framing company has disappeared, the owner is yelling at everyone that they have to “fix” this and threatening legal action. Of course, we are only involved in a small portion of the project, but I can well imagine that there have been similar problems with other aspects of the project as well.
Absolutely no one in our industry likes to be involved in projects like this, but inevitably we will be at some point and to some degree. I’ve certainly wondered if we could have done things differently to prevent some of the debacle, but at least I know that the numerous notes, correspondence, and details we provided should have been more than sufficient for a qualified crew to install our products. Instead of hiring enough qualified professionals, in his effort to save a relatively small portion of the overall project cost, the owner will be spending many times that in delays, and rework, and still isn’t living in his new home.
Have you had projects go off the rails like this? Do you wonder if there was something that you could or should have done differently to prevent it? If so, please reach out, I’d love to hear from you.