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Welcome to the site; I hope you find it informative. I'll discuss a wide variety of trades-related topics that reflect my own path in the trades, and issues relevant to what is happening with the new "College of Trades" here in the province of Ontario. Be sure to check older posts, and I'd welcome your comments

Dave

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Interesting Thread on RC Forum

The pictures below were posted on RC Forum under "General discussion, Main Forum".
I asked for lessons learned from older construction, and the "Loneframer", a widely respected master framer from the NYC area, submitted them and contributed to a discussion on some rather unique framing methods. The framing method was almost like an early version of a roof truss. Here's some of the discussion.


"One thing that surprised me recently was some trusses that were in a 103 year old building that I'm doing some work in".

Q. Any idea why bracing only in one direction, and how recently (threaded rod) might have been added. I often catch myself being surprised by engineering at that time, which is ridiculous, when engineering principles are centuries and millennia old.

A. "Unless the building was damaged by fire, it's original as far as I can tell. The entire job is fastened together with cut nails and there is no evidence that would lead me to believe the trusses are not original. The rods are actually square headed bolts that appear to be about 1" in diameter".

Q. Those pics open a lot of questions. How much snow load, any? Fairly low pitch, no sign of rotting for that age. Will structure stay exposed? Wonder if uniformity today excludes some of the unique solutions you see there. Are the cross pieces morticed into the top chords of the trusses?

Be interesting to have an engineer comment on the direction of bracing.. now there's a thought I never expected to have. Wonder if an architectural historian would be able to trace the design back to a technical school in NY.

A. "These trusses freespan 40' and when sighted from end to end, they have a slight crown up on the bottom chord. The top chord is jointed into the bottom chord at the plateline. The fit of all the joints is remarkable.
As for snow load, In the 70s we had over two feet of snow in one storm. I realize that may not be much by some standards, but for here it is a huge amount of snow".
Here's the links to the pictures;


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