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Cowracer
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 10:05am - Edited by: Cowracer
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Is it THAT hard to find trusses anymore? Sheesh!
Situation:
We are building a pavilion at our lake lots. As usual, work gets done in fits and starts. We have the deck all built (and have been using it since last July) and now we are trying to put a roof on it.
All I am trying to do is get me some 20 foot 4:12 common trusses with 2x6 top and bottom chords and 2 foot overhangs. They ought to be as common as mud. HA!
Getting ready to order and when looking online, I see that a local Menards has 8 in stock. Cool Beans! We hitch up the trailer and head south. I should mention that when I said "Local", I meant local to the cabin, not to my house. It was a bit over an hour drive to the Menards. Go to buy them and the guy was like "we don't stock trusses". I protest that their own website (and internal inventory system) shows 8 in stock. Doesn't matter, they don't have any in stock, so that's that.
We decided to order them and I can get 2x4 trusses with the overhangs, or 2x6 trusses without the overhangs, but not 2x6 with overhangs, unless I go custom which is 3 weeks lead and about twice the $$$. Pass.
Stop at another combo "Farm and home"/lumber store (where I bought quite a bit of material for the cabin) to see what they offer in trusses. They had some very young kid (18-19) working the counter who knew absolutely NOTHING about lumber. I tell him what I need and he pulls out a binder and starts flipping thru the pages. He finally finds 20' 2x6 4:12 trusses and gives me a price. I ask "is that with the overhang or not" and the look on his face clearly indicated that he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I told him I wanted a 2 foot overhangs on the trusses, he does some mental math, and flips the page in the binder to 24 foot trusses, saying "oh, you want 24 foot trusses then".
That was it. I told him never mind. I know damn well that if I continued on with him, I wouldn't have a clue what I was going to get till they call me to come pick them up.
So today, we will try place #3. Hopefully we can get our trusses ordered. I never imagined that it would be so hard to get what I thought would be an "off-the-shelf" truss.
Tim
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Atlincabin
Member
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 11:00am
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Why not build your own to your own specifications? Seems like it should be pretty simple construction and then you get exactly what you want.
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Cowracer
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 11:32am
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Custom trusses cost more and have a much longer lead time. It wasn't that long ago that lumber yards (not Home Depot type stores, but actual lumber yards) would have 40-50 of them in stock ready to go. I'm just lamenting the fact that so much has changed.
Tim
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rockies
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 07:40pm
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This is an example of the retail sector moving towards a "just in time" warehousing system. Nobody retailer wants to pay to warehouse product that "may or may not" sell anytime soon so they prefer to order it instead.
The thing with buying generic trusses is that manufacturers prefer to engineer them for a specific building.The retailers also don't want to sell you something generic that might fail someday on the site and then you come back and sue.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 08:09pm
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There is no such thing as an off the shelf truss where we are in NM. Too many variables that go into the design. Of course it helps that we are big enough to have 5 local truss factories to choose from. .
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cspot
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 08:28pm
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It used to be around here that you could buy 24' 4-12 pitch trusses with a 1' overhang at just about any lumber store as they carried them in stock. Never see them anymore though.
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Borrego
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 09:41pm
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Quoting: Atlincabin Why not build your own to your own specifications? Seems like it should be pretty simple construction and then you get exactly what you want.
^^^^^^
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Bexeler
Member
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# Posted: 27 Mar 2017 10:17pm
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You might be able to check your local metal roof supplier they might carry them. The metal roof supplier near my place carries an assortment of pre-built trusses in standard sizes.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:28am
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I always thought they were built to order, didnt realize it was an item some stores had on hand?
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Cowracer
Member
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:55am
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech I always thought they were built to order, didnt realize it was an item some stores had on hand?
Years ago, when most houses were 24' 4:12 commons from one end to the other (Like my house is), they would bang them out literally by the hundreds, knowing there would be a customer for them.
These days, everyone wants a "busy" roof with lots of hips and valleys and dormers and whatnot. Its not uncommon to have a roof where every single truss is unique. The truss manufactures gave up keeping stock because virtually nobody is buying common trusses any more, except in the pole barn segment.
Tim
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Steve_S
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 09:38am - Edited by: Steve_S
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Cowracer, I have to ask considering this is a pretty straight forward roof with no fancy requirements, why not just setup a ridge board + rafter's with cross braces ? I know the prebuilt trusses would be a lift & attach solution and maybe easier in some ways but how much of a savi9ng would it be ? Labour or Dollar wise that is... Maybe I'm missing something here...
Measurements, cuts etc can all be obtained from here:
http://www.blocklayer.com/roof/gableeng.aspx
PS: Blocklayer keeps adding new tools & functions to help the aspiring builder.
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RiverCabin
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:21am
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Cowracer,
I know exactly the Menards you are talking about. Although Menards is a great place to get some things, they are not the best lumber yard.
Where you are, you should try:
Farmington Building Supply (my recommendation) or
Giffords Lumber
Both are located in Farmington and I have been pleased with both.
ABC Building Supply is north of Farmington
Flat River Building Center is in Park Hills
I haven't used the two above businesses but I haven't heard anything negative.
Hope this helps.
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Cowracer
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:42am
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Quoting: Steve_S Cowracer, I have to ask considering this is a pretty straight forward roof with no fancy requirements, why not just setup a ridge board + rafter's with cross braces ?
To answer that question, I will defer to my carpenter. We set the thing up to use trusses, with the expectation that we could get what we wanted. I have not had a chance to speak with him yet on just stick-framing the roof, or if its even possible.
I do know we are time limited (only able to work on weekends) and that trusses would go a lot faster.
Tim
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NorthRick
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 01:49pm
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What's wrong with the 2x4 trusses? You said they could get those with the overhangs you want.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:23pm
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Cowracer, take a peek at Larry Haun, without a doubt, one of the finest carpenters out there (rest his soul)
Watch how he does it. I used his method, ie using 2 perfect rafters (he cuts them all at once) and then letting them find center, then if the walls were square, all are the exact same size.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oIq-asaOEk
He wrote a book called the efficient carpenter, I bought it.
This video is the roofing system, but watch his video where he and his brother build a house from foundation to finished framed in. I'd use Larry Haun in a youtube search and watch everything he has done. First class guy. and he hand bangs all his nails too.
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Cowracer
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# Posted: 30 Mar 2017 09:22am
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech Cowracer, take a peek at Larry Haun, without a doubt, one of the finest carpenters out there (rest his soul)
I watched it, but I got kinda lost at one point. Pretty much everything after "Hi. I'm Larry Haun..." 
My buddy says that the only difference between me and a termite is you expect the termite to f*** up the wood.
Tim
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 30 Mar 2017 10:34am
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Quoting: Cowracer My buddy says that the only difference between me and a termite is you expect the termite to f*** up the wood.
Tim, that was funny...
Well, at least you are honest. As a dealer tech by trade, the worst repairs are those started by the guy who thought he could do it, (knew just enough to be dangerous) and its so much more expensive when it gets towed in all disassembled (basket case) and we have even turned plenty of the DIY''rs tow ins away...
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Cowracer
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# Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:47pm
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I still don't know how I worked on things before Youtube. Case in point. Replaced ball joints on my Ford Excursion a couple weeks ago. Not a terrible job, just some heavy duty wrenching, but I would have NEVER attempted it without watching 2 or 3 go-arounds of a video showing how to do it. I even stopped and referred to the video mid-job because I forgot what to do at one point.
If you held a gun to my head, and if I had a video like that one to watch, I probably could do a somewhat decent job on carpentry. But I wouldn't bet money on it. In fact, my facebook profile picture was this for a long time.
Tim
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Cowracer
Member
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# Posted: 3 Apr 2017 09:35am - Edited by: Cowracer
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So I asked my carpenter buddy why we couldn't stick-build rafters for our pavilion. The answer was (if I understood him correctly) that we didn't set it up for that. The middle posts that would support the ridge beam is way to short on the back end, and totally missing on the front. He said for a roof with this big of a span in both directions, he would not want to do rafters without posts to support the ridge beam.
We DID however go to an actual lumber store and finally got someone who knew what he was talking about. We told him what we wanted, he asked a few question, and said he would have us a quote today. It was so much nicer talking to a pro than just some guy tapping away on a computer. We picked up the 2x10s that we will use as beams to set the trusses on and got them up.
We should get the trusses ordered today, and have them in a week or so.
Tim
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