December

The Wood Truss Council of America and representatives of several other stakeholders joined the Framing Contractors Association for its final networking and educational event of the year in November. The framers held a three-hour wood truss seminar in conjunction with its monthly membership luncheon at Texas Station.
Sponsored by the Wood Truss Council of America, the seminar sought to educate attendees on how building codes relate to trusses, provide a primer on lumber properties and grades and to provide an overview of the proper techniques of truss repair. WTCA is a national trade association that represents component manufacturers. Education is its core purpose, and it works closely with the American Forest and Paper Association, also known as the American Wood Council, and the International Codes Committee.
Employees of the Clark County, North Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson and Las Vegas building departments and members of the Southern Nevada Component Manufacturers Association and Southern Nevada Homebuilders also attended the seminar.
Richard Zimmerman, WTCAâs technical education and codes manager kicked off the seminar with a presentation on building codes and trusses.
ãEveryone from the component manufacturer to the building inspector has a common goal, and it is to protect the life and safety of the occupants within the structure,ä he said.
A key element of Zimmermanâs presentation demonstrating the difference between a truss design drawing and a truss placement drawing, as he noted the building code itself does not distinguish between the two.
ãThe simple way to look at it is that the truss design drawing is required by the building code and is a sealed construction document. Whereas a truss placement diagram is generally a value-add or contractual requirement,ä he noted.
Zimmerman added that the engineer of record or building designer originates the truss design document, which includes critical information for the framing contractor. He emphasized the importance of the process from the input beginning with the engineer, to the code official for approval, to the framer who makes it happen, to the building inspectorâs approval.
ãIf any one of these steps are skipped, then problems abound. Everyone needs to exercise due diligence in this process,ä Zimmerman said.
On a final note Zimmerman discussed WTCAâs efforts to lobby for code adoption to occur every five years, versus the current three-year schedule. Zimmerman however, was pessimistic about the prospects of success, given the amount of money to be made by changing the codes every three years.
Stewart Garden then presented information on lumber properties and grades.
Garden is a sales engineer at Canfor Wood Products Marketing in Vancouver, B.C. He markets lumber products in North America and provides technical support for Canfor customers and on the CWPM sales floor.
Garden has been president of the MSR Lumber Producers Council since 2003. The council is a non-profit corporation formed to represent the interests of MSR lumber producers in the manufacturing, marketing, utilization and technical aspects of machine stress-rated lumber sales in North America.
Garden is a 1984 graduate from the University of Toronto Engineering School and is a licensed professional engineer in British Columbia.
He first discussed lumber production, from the log yard to distribution, and transitioned into the history and todayâs practices of regulation and identification of lumber grades.
ãThe American Lumber Standards Commission approves grading rules for lumber to be used in the United States and administers the accreditation program for grade marking on lumber used in the states,ä he said. ãGrading agencies on the other hand are actually third party auditors approved by the ALSC and are charged with certifying that lumber quality from sawmills are in compliance, educating and training lumber graders as well as providing grade stamps for use at the sawmills. Of course, this stamp belongs to the grading agency, and at any point of non-compliance can revoke the mill from using it.ä
Garden noted that lumber grading is not an exact science which is to be expected with a natural product. The ALSC allows a reasonable 5 percent allowance for differences in judgment between graders.
Garden concluded his portion with specific details of the design values and visual and machine grading sophistications.
Richard Zimmerman provided the presentation on truss repair, noting that ãcertainly, there are a number of reasons why a truss may need to be repaired. Manufacturing, delivery, handling, design error, construction error or simply an alteration are all at the top of the list for important reasons.ä
Lightheartedly, Zimmerman addressed the politics of repair.
ãRepairing a truss is not an easy undertaking, so it is important to know the exact nature of what went wrong and why the truss is in need of a repair. This means assessing if there could be any further damage not visible, and whether the repair is feasible or if the truss needs to be trashed. Repair politics dictates this information will also dictate who pays the bill for the repair,ä Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman closed out the seminar with a review of who is authorized to design the repair and what building inspectors should be looking for after the repair is complete.
The FCAâs seminar, which provided the educational forum, also provided the more than 100 attendees a free lunch.

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