Yes, it happens.

My long time readers will recall I owned two prefabricated light gauge metal plate connected wood truss plants in a not too distant past.

And yes – this may come as a surprise – truss people are not perfect.

In this particular case, we had set out what we needed explicitly as far as the aforementioned butt cut sizes, truss loadings, etc. (Read previous two blogs to catch up.)

Well, the truss people decided to quote all 26 trusses exactly the same!!

We happen to buy lots of trusses from these folks – they are by far the largest wholesale manufacturer of trusses in the Northeastern United States. The number of errors they have made in the nearly 15 years we have been their customer could be counted upon in one hand, and leave fingers left over.

Turns out they picked this one.

Now Hansen Pole Buildings does have Justine (the goddess of all things to be delivered to your new building kit – including trusses). Justine handles tens of thousands of orders a year, the huge majority of them perfectly and seamlessly, without a hitch. Trusses, lumber, steel, doors, down to the infinitesimal screw – Justine does it all.

Well – sure enough, this is the hitch job. Justine didn’t catch the “oops” on the part of the truss manufacturer.

Now it is possible, just maybe, the uber-experienced builder might have looked at the building plans and caught the double lined box with red print which says (in CAPS), “TRUSSES IN THIS AREA HAVE STANDARD ¼” HEEL CUT; OTHER TRUSSES HAVE 11/16” HEEL CUT SO THE BOTTOM OF ALL TRUSSES ARE AT THE SAME POINT.”

Mr. Experienced Builder, however, did not notice all of the trusses were identical and didn’t call until AFTER he had all of the truss carriers up in place at the same level. He was wondering what to do with the hump in the roof which would be caused by the 7/16” OSB in the last eight feet of the roof.

Success in construction is measured not by everything being perfect, but by how challenges get handled. This one was fairly simple upon recommendation from Hansen Pole Buildings (after, of course, consulting with our Registered Professional Engineer who designed the structure) – the end trusses and the trusses at four feet in from each end could be placed into a notch on the top of the truss carriers 7/16” deep to compensate, without negative structural consequences and all was good.

There was now peace on Earth and all was happiness.

Until……

Please tune in tomorrow, same time, same channel for more in the continuing saga!