Ron,
Here is the start of the thread I told you I would post on the trusses I bought from you. This building is for a buddy of mine and I need to upload the rest of the pics…he’s moving in next week. These pics start at the middle of August.
Day 1. Trusses were just delivered and we are setting the girder trusses on the ends to get a head start for when the crane shows up tomorrow.
Setting the girder with my bobcat and lifting boom.
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Edited 11/24/2006 7:00 pm ET by JLazaro317
Replies
This is Tom the head framer yucking it up....and this is what you look like when you get whacked in the head with a truss one too many times.
View Image
Hip trusses on the east end about complete.
View Image
Day 2. Setting trusses.
View Image
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
More pics.
View Image
Filling in the center hanging on the girder truss.
View Image
Another view.
View ImageJohn
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Have you ever built the whole hipset on the ground and had the crane do it all in one lift?
I do it that way to make life a little easier on the guys?
Shirtless and shorts what a nice boss you are.
Looks like a nice job you did there, do you have more pics?
The spreader is cats meow, crane didnt have one on his truck?
We have some nice hooks that I need to send you a picture of, you don't have to unhook the truss if you have a good operator they work great.Friends help you move.
Real friends help you move bodies!
We rarely do trusses and these were some big trusses. We typically stick frame. I'd be afraid to build them on the ground and hoist up. Building is about 40' x 80' and I had Boss size them for clear span and with what I consider considerable wind and snow loading. I'm sure he'll be along soon to offer more explanations.
Surprisingly he didn't have a spreader on the truck. When I asked him about a spreader he said his was broken. Luckily I had one at the shop that was given to me. It used to be used for picking up boats. I believe it was a 12' long.
Shirtless and shorts? It was August and it was hot! I wear shorts from when it gets hot in the spring until it gets colder usually at the end of October.
I'll probably upload more pics tomorrow.John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Thanks for posting these, John. I was hoping you would.Do ya think I should tell 'em the rest of the story ???
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. [Arthur Schopenhauer]
Fill them in. I need to get the rest of the pics from Dale. After the trusses were set I kinda dropped the ball on pics and he took over. I'll probably go out today and shoot more pics inside and out. The landscapers are wrapping up and we are striping the lot tomorrow. The inside in completely done aside from cleaning. I can also take some shots of the inside of the unfinished side.John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
I'll do that a bit later - Don't have time to tell the whole story right now.Lookin' forward to the rest of the pics. I don't get to see finished buildings very often.
What is Initiative? I'll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told. [Elbert Hubbard]
Boss,In you opinion, how important is it to use the spreader bar. I look at the instruction with almost every truss package we get and there is a big difference between what you see they ask for and what most crews installing trusses with a crane do. We've been setting our trusses by hand on our additions recently so it really hasn't been an issue for us.
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
"In you opinion, how important is it to use the spreader bar."
It mainly depends on the size of the trusses. The bigger they are, the more important it is.
Personally, I would never set anything over 40' that was picked up from the peak. And nothing over 50' without a spreader bar.
If you're setting stuff like scissor trusses, they may have more of a tendency to fold up, and would need a spreader bar at shorter spans.
"I look at the instruction with almost every truss package we get and there is a big difference between what you see they ask for and what most crews installing trusses with a crane do."
I've never once seen a set of trusses craned and braced according to those instructions.
I got chewed out by our engineer once for saying that the WTCA bracing documents were too conservative. Those things were dreamed up by engineers, not framers.
I do think the WTCA recommendations are too conservative. But I also think most framers do a poor job of bracing trusses, since they get away with it the majority of the time.
I've talked here on BT many times about poor truss bracing and how serious it can be when the trusses domino. Don't really know if anyone has paid attention or not.
At one point in time, there was a movement by the NAHB to try to get the WTCA to back off on their bracing recommendations a bit. But given the generally poor job that's typically done, I doubt they'll ever back off any.
I am the bad thing that happens to good people.
I can't agree with you more Boss, bracing trusses is something that alot of crews overlook. I don't understand why they don't do it, it not worth the risks for a few minutes of bracing.
Every 5-6 trusses I have my guys nailing diagonal bracing on, it doesn't take long and it makes the job safer.
I refuse to set trusses on Friday, I wouldn't be able to sleep all weekend even if they were braced well.
Trusses falling is one of my biggest fears on the jobsite, so I try and minimize the chances of that happening.
thanks for the post this is a nice set of photos on an interesting truss job.
what's up with the plywood reinforcement on some of the tails ?
Hot in August ? I guess so.
Our safety policy mandates full length trousers, shirts with sleeves (short sleeves are ok, no tank tops) hard hats and safety glasses.
Whether it's August or December.
carpenter in transition
Plywood reinforcement was due to some field adjustments. Those trusses were in the center section of the building and they had to be shortened by 1 foot. Truss plant sent out a crew and they reworked the trusses.
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Thanks for the added pictures, John. I think the building turned out great. Now I guess I owe everyone else some more details.John emailed me last summer, asking if I could recommend a truss plant near him that would do trusses for an office building he was going to work on. I told him the company I worked for had recently bought a truss plant in that area, and asked if I could quote the trusses. John said that would be fine. So he emailed me some plans in PDF format and I got at it. This was the first time I had ever quoted trusses for someone I knew through BT.John also got another quote that was close to ours. I offered to go over it and compare the 2 quotes to make sure we were both supplying the same thing. John sent me the information, and I offered my thoughts on both proposals. I also told him that if he would give us the job, I would insist on designing the trusses myself. I would try to keep his cost down as much as possible. And I would do everything I could to make sure the trusses were correct when they got to the jobsite.I eventually slung enough BS at John that he bought the trusses from us. And I did as I said - I went over every truss carefully. I did all the stuff I normally do, and tried to make sure everything was 100% right. This building wasn't the simplest I've done. There were 3 different wall heights, and different ceiling heights. I emailed drawings back and forth to John a few times, and we went over the details. I checked every web pattern, heel height, ceiling height change, splice location, and overhang. Eventually I figured I had it all lined out and turned the order loose to be built.The trusses were actually built and delivered while I was in New York at TipiFest. When I got back, someone told me that there was a problem with some of the trusses on John's job. Initially I didn't believe them, as I was certain everything was O.K.But after a couple of phone calls I found out what had happened. If you look at the attached layout, you'll notice a 4' dimension that I circled in red. That dimension was actually THREE feet on the plans, not four. How in the world I got it into the truss layout program as 4' I have no idea. So after giving John a big song and dance about how I would make sure everything was right I had royally screwed up. Not only that, I had screwed up something that was pathetically simple. John was very understanding about it, and my company did take care of fixing things. But I was still thoroughly disgusted with myself, as I'm sure any of you would be..So now you know.......The rest of the story.
Charter Member: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Ron,
Like I said before, we all make mistakes (usually at the worst possible times). The important thing is that it was an easy fix and you made it right. I just hate jobs where I make a mistake and the job ends up being one mistake or problem after another. Trust me, I've misread or mislabeled prints before and re-dug a few footings. I now realize how important the overlay function is on Softplan.John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Just a comment:
We all make mistakes. If we say we dont,..then we are making a second mistake called lying. <G>
Its not the mistakes that we all make that matter....what matters is how we take care of the mistakes....by first owning up to them,,,and then following through and taking care of them.
Boss took care of it admirably....and thats more credit to him for admitting the error and then taking care of it.
Way to go Boss...
By the way...if you and Carl are ever up my way on some weekday....I would love to give Carl a little tour of my stairshop and maybe be of some helpful influence.
Stan
Edited 11/26/2006 11:56 am ET by StanFoster
".if you and Carl are ever up my way on some weekday....I would love to give Carl a little tour of my stairshop and maybe be of some helpful influence."
Heck, you're gone every time we come by there.
(-:
We may try again this Christmas. We'll likely be headed for Kankakee again sometime.
What does it mean if you break a mirror with a rabbit's foot?
Boss: I am in and out an awful lot....lots of times up to the airport...
Stan
If you guys didn't have such small numbers on those plans it would be easier.
Just my opinion! fwiw
We have bought many trusses from your company, but all from the Breese plant, so I don't think you designed them.
I wish you could have done the house I am on now, at least your company.
One screwup by the unnamd okaw company cost us about 12 hours for 3 guys.Friends help you move.
Real friends help you move bodies!
I would be happy to do your trusses. But I don't want anything to do with your buddy J.B.(-:You mentioned small numbers - Do you mean the dimensions on the layout?BTW - You know what okaw spelled backwards is don't you ???
The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. [Herbert Agar]
Yes those small dimension numbers on that laminate plan they send out.
J.B. can't place the initials unless it's a guy at breese plant for you guys.
I know okaw backwards, but they work with luxery homes, which is where this package of components came from.Friends help you move.
Real friends help you move bodies!
When I used the initials "JB" I meant Jeff B. from our main office. (The guy you don't like) I didn't want to post his full name - Didn't think that was the thing to do.I didn't know they were sending out layouts with small numbers on them. It's just a simple default that can easily be changed. If you asked your buddy Jeff B., I'm sure he would be glad to have it changed for you.(-:
Life may not be the party we'd hoped for but we still gotta dance to it anyway
If I must talk to him I will.
thanks Boss
Friends help you move.
Real friends help you move bodies!
I didn't mind making the mistake so much - It was the fact that I said I'd try so hard to make sure there were NOT mistakes. With a first-time customer, I ALWAYS try hard to make sure everything goes well. I also wouldn't have minded so much if I figured something complicated wrong - Like a fascia height, or ceiling plane. But to miss the outside dimensions of the building after getting everything else right...
Two wrongs don't make a right.But three rights make a left.
Interior truss shots
View Image
View Image
View Image
View Image
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Current exterior shots.
View Image
View Image
View ImageJohn
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Interior shots:
Conference room:
View Image
One of the large offices:
View Image
Bathroom:
View Image
Kitchenette:
View Image
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Reception area:
View Image
View Image
View ImageJohn
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
More pics.
View Image
Filling in the middle. We started at both ends with the girder and hip trusses and worked our way to the center.
View Image
The big lift! Notice that I went and got the spreader for the center trusses. The trusses wanted to fold, so hooking them up this way prevented it.
View Image
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.
Plan room:
View Image
Mechanical room:
View Image
Plant shelf in entry:
View Image
John
J.R. Lazaro Builders, Inc.
Indianapolis, In.