Splicing Roof Trusses

The truss companies use a gang nail to splice wood together pictured at left.

Splicing roof trusses.

Rafter plates are load bearing beams that support either a single rafter or a truss. In the case of large roof trusses which cannot be transported whole welded sub assemblies are delivered to site and are either bolted or welded together on site. But sometimes a roof is too long for a single ridge board. Scab additional timber connected to a truss to effect a splice extension or general reinforcement.

A gang nail is basically a thin piece of metal stamped out so that many metal tangs stick out into the wood about a 1 2 or so. Shop drawingdetailed drawings of a roof truss or roof framing showing critical. How to splice a roof rafter plate. It is stamped into the wood at the factory with a hydrolic press.

Rafter plates are almost always spliced due to the length of most structures. This issue is dedicated to the importance. The idea of trussed rafters arrived in this country from the states during the 1960 s and quickly became the standard method of constructing roof structures in domestic construction. Also referred to as a ribbon or band board rise vertical distance from bottom most part of the bottom chord to inside of the peak.

In light roof trusses entirely bolted connections are less favoured than welded connections due to the requirement for gusset plates and their increased fabrication costs. Then a splice is in order. These three planes are the top chord plane the bottom chord plane and the web member plane. If your roof rafter connectors will not be visible after your construction project is completed it may be possible to connect these rafters together using a rafter splicing technique you will want to check your local building codes before undertaking this type of construction as there are very specific ways that roof rafters can and cannot be spliced together.

Truss brace splicing methods he building component safety information bcsi booklet jointly produced by wtca and the truss plate institute recognizes three planes requiring restraint in a roof truss.