How to install Roof Trusses

[Music] hey what's up everybody this is cls all in one today i'll be demonstrating how to install roof trusses in this video i'll be installing an end gable truss and some center common trusses and i'll also show some tips and tricks along the way to make the job go a little easier i recently added an 800 square foot addition to my house and for the roof i ordered a truss package from menards which included various different types of trusses with a standard 412 pitch i also had to tie in the new roof with the existing roof on my home but for this video i'll mainly be focusing on the gable truss and the common trusses so at this point with my addition we have built a basement foundation with two by six framed walls and it's now ready for the trusses these engineered trusses are designed for the harsh climates of wyoming and measure at 24 feet wide plus a two foot overhang on each side and the height of these trusses is around four feet tall with the weight being approximately 130 pounds each so the best way to get the trusses on top of the frame walls would be to use some sort of equipment whether it be some sort of lift or even a crane equipment like this will make the job go by easier but unfortunately on the day we had to start installing the trusses there was no equipment rentals available so we had to just go the old fashion route and lift by hand these trusses are not extremely heavy but they are awkward to lift because of their size so right here what i'm doing is wrapping a 700 pound rated strap around the center of the truss that i want to lift and i also make sure the strap is long enough to reach the top of the walls now i will climb up a ladder to the top of the walls where the strap can be handed to me and to make sure that my ladders don't move on me i've secured them with 2x4 blocks at the top and bottom so we were able to lift these trusses with just three people but depending on the size of your trusses you may need more or less help so with this first truss there's two people on the ground lifting and one on the top pulling after they lift it as high as they can from the bottom i could then lift the truss the rest of the way up without much issue but with that being said it was a little bit awkward to lift this by myself at the top of the wall so for the remaining trusses i will use some help at the top of the wall as well now you want to keep in mind there should be an order for which trusses you want placed on top of the wall first if you're stacking the trusses on top of the walls like i am then you'll want the trusses to be stacked in an order that matches with the installation order if you take a look here you'll notice there's a frame wall located close to the center of this addition this wall will help support my stack of trusses while waiting to be installed if you do not have an existing wall in the center like this the truss will end up flipping upside down when placed on top of the walls so without a center support wall it may be easier to only have one truss at a time on top of the walls or wait until you have an end gable truss installed then at this point you can stack the trusses upright against the gable truss as long as the gable truss is properly supported now i will go ahead and lift the remaining trusses and for the rest of the trusses i will have help lifting from the bottom and from the top and here is a look at my stack of trusses and i will just continue to stack the remaining trusses just like this so i just have a couple more trusses left to get on top the walls and the last truss i will be lifting is the end gable truss and that will be the first truss i will be installing you will notice here the gable truss looks different than the rest of the trusses this truss is designed to transfer loads from the roof to the exterior bearing wall below now it's time to start installing the end gable truss the first step will be to install some temporary support posts and for this i'm just using some scrap two by fours that are around four feet long and because i already have my sheathing installed i also have some half inch osb spacers attached to the inside of these support pose so right here i'm attaching three support posts one on each end and one in the middle and i'm securing these with two three-inch screws towards the top of the outside of the exterior wall where the end truss is going to be installed and i'm leaving about three feet sticking up these temporary supports will allow me to stand up the end gable truss with no worries about it falling off the side of the house so now we are standing up the gable truss and getting it in position and at first we're just eyeballing where it needs to be and we can see that it needs scooted over to the right just a little after getting it somewhat close i then use a tape measure to measure the distance from the end of the truss to the inside of the wall then measure the distance on the opposite side as well and adjust the truss left or right until it's perfectly centered after getting the gable truss centered it's time to start securing the truss to the support pose and for this i'll be using two three inch screws on each post the outside face of the truss should be flush with the outside of the framing on the exterior wall which should create a flat wall surface to mount your sheathing on during this step you also want to make sure that the gable truss is level and plumb as long as the top of your walls are level then the bottom of your truss should match that surface and if your support posts are nice and plumb then your truss should end up plumb as well after securing it to the post but if it's not plumb you can just use some shims where it's needed to correct this issue so my gable truss is now level and plumb and secured to the support posts now it's time to add a 2x6 plate to the top of the wall this will be a permanent support plate for the bottom of the truss and will also provide a lip for the ceiling drywall to attach to and when it comes to this top support plate if your exterior walls are constructed with 2x4 lumber then you only need a 2x4 top plate to secure this plate i'll be using some three inch nails along with my nail gun and i will shoot two nails every 12 inches all the way across the board like this then i will drive some nails from the outside of the truss through to the plate every 12 inches which will secure the plate and the truss together and in addition to this i will also toenail some nails through the outside the truss to the top of the wall every 12 inches as well but stagger these nails from their previous nails and for an even stronger connection you can also use some structural lag bolts to secure the truss and plate and here's a look at that top support plate now that it's installed and this does run all the way across this wall from one side to the other and there's a look at that lip where you can attach the ceiling drywall to without this lip you might have a hard time attaching the edge of the drywall and if you don't happen to be installing any sealing drywall then this lip isn't quite as important and you can use some skinnier lumber for this top plate so this end gable truss is now done and it's time to move on to the next truss my trusses are designed to be installed every two foot so i just need to measure over every two foot from the first truss and make my marks on both sides and these marks will represent where the center of each truss should be located to secure the center common trusses to the top of the walls there's many types of brackets and tie downs available such as these double-sided h1 tie-downs and these single-sided h2.5a tie-downs both of these tie-downs are suitable for my area but i do prefer the h1s and to secure these i'll be using some structural one and a half inch long screws and if you're looking to use just nails you can use some 8d nails in place of these structural screws now it's time to stand up my second truss and line it up with my two foot marks to stand this truss up it just takes two people with a ladder at each end and once it's upright we just slide it into position to line it up with the two foot marks from this point one person is able to hold the truss upright while the other secures one end of the truss with the tie down and before we start securing this truss to the top of the wall we did make sure that it was centered from side to side and with the two foot on center marks as well so with these simpson h1 ties they can be installed on the inside or outside of the wall or both sides which is what i'll be doing with mine but to start off with i will just be installing the inside tie downs during the initial installation and then after getting all my trusses upright and into position i will then add tie downs to the outside as well and simpson does recommend that if you're just installing one tie-down on a roof truss it should be on the outside because this will tie down the upper and lower members of the truss to the top wall plates at the same time and the outside sheeting will also give the tie-downs some extra support as well and these types of tie-downs are pretty simple to use they just slide right up underneath the truss then secure to the wall and truss and these ties do have five holes on the front side and three holes on each side of the flange and every hole should have a nail or screw inside of it so i chose to use structural screws instead of nails because they have better grip strength but this does create issues when installing the drywall because the screw heads stick out but i was able to correct this issue with some drywall shims and once i get this end secured with a tie down i then move to the opposite side and start securing this end with another tie down and you want to make sure while doing this that someone is holding on to the truss because at this point it's not properly supported now that the tie-downs are secured it's time to add a temporary support to the top of these trusses for this i'm using a two by four that's around eight feet long and i secure this to the top of the trusses using three inch screws so with this temporary support i secure one end of the 2x4 on top of the gable truss located close to the peak then i measure over two feet from the gable truss and make a mark on top of the 2x4 and this is where i secure the 2x4 to the second truss so by doing this it gives that second truss some temporary support and it also centers the top of the second truss where it should be and as long as all your center marks are accurate your truss should end up plumb but you should always double check and make adjustments if needed and as i mentioned earlier i will be installing a second tie to the outside wall of each truss but i will wait until i have all the trusses mounted and secured from the inside first but if you want to you can install these as you go and if you're installing only one tie this is where it should be installed and just to let you know the outside tie downs should be installed under the sheeting with the sheeting i already have installed on my walls the last top foot is just secured with only a couple screws so i can take this section off with ease and install my tie downs when ready now let's move on to the third truss and this one will get a little easier so right here we're standing the truss up and sliding it into position with the marks on top the walls and the 2x4 temporary support is already in place above this truss but it has not been screwed into the truss yet once we have the truss centered side to side and lined up with the two foot on center marks it's time again to add the tie downs to each side of the truss and if you take a look here you'll notice that the mending plate for the end of the truss lines right up with my tie down plate so attaching the screws on the side was kind of a pain but it still worked out i just had to use more force to drive the screws and you could also pre-drill some holes if needed and now that the tie-downs are installed we can go ahead and secure the temporary top support with a screw on top of the trusses and we've already made some two foot on center marks on top of this support so this truss will be centered four feet away from the gable truss so three trusses have now been installed and you can just continue this same routine all the way across to the next end truss and add more temporary top supports where needed to support the trusses during the installation process but right now i'm going to go ahead and use a different routine to install the rest of the remaining common trusses so what we have done here is we stood up all the remaining trusses but they have not been properly spaced or centered at this point we basically just stacked them upright and secure them with one screw from the top side of the top 2x4 support and the plan here is to install the furthest or last common truss in this area then add a 2x4 top support that connects the trusses i've already installed with the last common truss and just to let you know i still have some other types of trusses that have to be installed such as a girder truss and some valley trusses which will be the tie-in trusses that tie in the new roof with the old roof but for all these other types of trusses they will be covered in more detail in a separate video now let's get back to installing the common trusses with this one we installed it a little bit different we went ahead and secured the tie downs to the top of the wall first then slid the truss into position then centered it from side to side then secured the tie downs to the truss but this method will only work when there is no top support above the truss because you have to be able to lift the truss up to be able to slide it inside the tie down so now we have the last common truss on this end installed and my helper is holding the truss upright until i can get the top support in place and here it is with the top support this connects all the previous trusses with this truss we just installed so this last end truss is exactly where it should be and now we have a solid connection starting from the gable end all the way to this end by using these two by four top supports and with this current setup i can now use a string line on the outside of the trusses like this so this string line is secured to the outside edge of the first cable truss and the other end of the string line is secured to the last common truss i just installed so this string line will give me a nice guide to follow for where the rest of the trusses should be located from side to side now that my top support is in place going all the way across i can slide my trusses into position with ease and i was able to install these last trusses pretty much by myself but i'd still recommend having a helper for a job like this so with this truss i was able to center it with the two foot on center marks on top of the wall and line up the end of the truss with the string line as well while standing on a ladder located at the middle of this truss from this point i was able to secure the top of the truss with the top support using a three inch screw and at the same time i made sure to center the truss with my two foot on center marks located on the top support after getting the top secured i then installed the tie downs at the bottom of the truss at both ends then i just kept repeating the same process for the remaining trusses and here's the next truss so i'm just sliding it into position then getting it lined up with the marks on the top of the wall and also lining it up with the string line as well then i'll secure the top of it with the top support then secure the bottom of the truss with the tie downs then move on to the next truss and for any of the trusses that are making contact with the frame walls such as the one i'm standing on you can use some long structural rated screws or more of these simpson ties to secure the bottom of the truss to the wall where it's making contact so with the majority of these trusses i used the simpson h1 tie downs but there was a couple areas where i used the simpson h 2.5 a tie downs so as you can see right here the h1 ties do not fit but these h 2.5 a ties fit great and these are just as easy to attach they got two different faces one that secures to the side of the wall and one that secures to the side of the truss and i try to get at least four screws on each face of this tie and as i mentioned earlier if all your center marks and measurements are accurate starting from the gable truss then all the trusses should be plumb but you always want to double check and make sure everything looks good so all my common trusses are now in position and secured with tie downs on the inside of the walls now all i have left to do is add more temporary and permanent supports to the trusses and add some tie downs to the outside of the walls as well which will be really easy to do since the trusses are already in position i simply need to just slide the ties under the truss from the outside then screw them in place and one thing i would like to mention regarding the sheathing on the front side where the gable truss is located i'm actually going to remove about one foot of the sheathing on the top of this wall so i can install a wider piece of sheeting that overlaps the seam or the gable truss sits on top of the wall which will create a much stronger and more structural bond between the wall and the gable truss and in regards to the temporary supports that i used to support the end gable truss i would leave those on until you start installing the sheeting as far as the top supports go i will leave these in place until the roof sheeting or decking is installed and i also added some more top supports on each side of these trusses to help support it better in these windy wyoming conditions and these also help keep the trusses perfectly centered and aligned with each other so right here you can see the top support and side supports i have installed on these trusses now it's time to add some permanent supports to the inside of the trusses now depending on your trust specifications these may or may not be necessary but i chose to add some to mine and these supports added quite a bit of structure to my trusses these supports start at the gable truss and go all the way across the inside bottom of the common trusses and i added two rows of these supports on each side of the trusses in these locations and i also added some supports to the inside top of the trusses in these locations on both sides as well and with all these inside supports i've added they will be permanent okay it's time for me to go and hopefully this video will help you out with installing your own roof trusses and now i'm going to leave you with some preview footage from some of my upcoming videos showing the tie-in trusses sheathing roofing and more if you liked this video if you could hit that like button and have yourself a great day and i'll see you next time you

Channel: C.L.S. Allinone

Views: 25,172

Rating: 4.9569893 out of 5

Keywords: simpson, strong tie, structural, home depot, sutherlands, menards, lowes, construction, house addition, roof, truss, rafter

Id: qaXBe1LkN7Q

Length: 22min 48sec (1368 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021