Recently, I was asked to divert from my normal 3rd party agenda to make a special truss inspection. Although this seemed a little unusual, on occasion I am asked to do this sort of thing, so I didn’t pay it any mind. Normally, it’s a peculiar joint condition or a difficult plate placement where someone might have a question. In this case, I was stunned to see the “special inspection” was a Christmas tree made up of connectors and truss lumber. It was awesome. [See PDF or View in Full Issue] Considering my affection with the Christmas holiday, I was chuckling a hearty Ho! Ho! Ho! the whole time!
Fast forward to a few days later, I was asked an equally unusual question in a strikingly similar way at a totally different truss plant. This time, I was floored. This time it was a Go! Go! Go! The questions flooded my head. What codes should be considered? The National Plumbing Code? What about “load” cases? Seriously, are there any “wind” considerations? Should they be made of non-combustible lumber given the potentially high methane atmosphere? The trusses to be inspected were toilet stall door partitions in a newly remodeled bathroom. [See PDF or View in Full Issue] These trusses were built like a brick HOUSE. I was very impressed, especially because I did not have to look at any unsightly member to member gaps! If you do Truss QC, you will totally understand that last statement.
So even though I’ve seen a lot in my years spent in truss plants, I must admit—I’m sure I still haven’t seen it all. You just never know what you might run into when inspecting trusses!
Glenn Traylor is an independent consultant with almost four decades of experience in the structural building components industry. While he is a TPI 3rd Party In-Plant Quality Assurance Authorized Agent covering the Southeastern United States and performs 3rd party safety auditor services, these articles represent his personal views, knowledge, and experience. Glenn serves as a trainer-evaluator-auditor covering sales, design, PM, QA, customer service, and production elements of the truss industry. He also provides project management specifically pertaining to structural building components, including on-site inspections and ANSI/TPI 1 compliance assessments. Glenn provides new plant and retrofit designs, equipment evaluations, ROI, capacity analysis, and CPM analysis