Need Wood truss engineer for Nevada 23

[jepps3]

Hello. I’m looking for engineered flat roof wood truss design for a single family home in Nevada.

I know truss manufacturers can provide this, but I don’t want them to design. I would like to get the design drawings independently and then send out to manufacture.

 

[RWW0002]

***********Hijacking the thread for a sidebar ***************

Ron - I noticed the biggest difference in your truss and the original sketch is the spacing and number of webs. Of course the longer webs require web bracing (as you show in your screenshot). No big deal as long as it get put in, especially if you are saving 20% on the trusses. In my area this web bracing is very often left out (along with the required bottom chord bracing many times). Making sure the bracing matches the truss drawings is always a struggle on my projects. Since you practice in an area where engineered designs are often not required, who makes sure the bracing gets put in? I would say that bracing is wrong initially on 90% of residential and over 50% of commercial projects that I observe. Is anyone policing this in your area? If not, is it worth the extra 20% to eliminate the web bracing??

************Sidebar Ended******************

 

[Eng16080]

*********************************************************************************************
RWW0002, that's an excellent point. I would prefer the original truss for that reason alone.
*********************************************************************************************

 

[jayrod12]

To quickly chime in on RWW0002's point, our structural notes for wood trusses specifically indicate that member sizing and grades shall be chosen to eliminate web bracing where possible for exactly the reasons you state. Truss bracing is often inadequately done, and when we point out the required bracing all we get is push back and complaining.

 

[jepps3]

I found an engineer. We are all good.

However, I will tell you that there are smaller, cheaper plants that offer competitive pricing. It’s the big plants sponsored by the big boys of mail plates that screw everything up.

 

[BridgeSmith]

Glad it worked out for you. Let us know how much money you saved, when all is said and done.

 

[jepps3]

Now that we are all good on the engineering side of things, let’s get deep inside the meat of this thick juicy ribeye!!! I’m talking about metal connector mafia and it’s servants…..yeh baby, let’s get political!!!

How many people here will admit that the ASTM, ICC, IBC, etc standards are written by a committee of assigned individuals born from mafia kingpin bosses (Simpson, Mitek, Alpine)??

Come on you smart, eclectic and refined engineers, join the resistance. Don’t worry about lining your pockets with jobs from these puppets.

 

[phamENG]

How many people here will admit that the ASTM, ICC, IBC, etc standards are written by a committee of assigned individuals born from mafia kingpin bosses (Simpson, Mitek, Alpine)??

It's true. I hear local pizza joint basements are their favorite meeting places.

 

[BridgeSmith]

...let’s get deep inside the meat of this thick juicy ribeye!!! I’m talking about metal connector mafia and it’s servants…..yeh baby, let’s get political!!!

Again, that's not the purpose of this forum.

 

[jepps3]

@pham - exactly!!! I love it. Let’s recreate the movie Goodfellas and replace the main characters with the CEO’s in question.

 

[jepps3]

@bridgeSmith - I wholeheartedly agree with you. This forum is designed to provide solutions and advice to creatively solve engineering problems.

BUT, Mr BridgeSmith, it’s nice every once in a while to throw in some spice in here. You and I don’t want our buddies here to get to dry and stuffy, so we’ll toss in some fun items in this grab bag that they can play with.

Enc-Tips.com will become the fun and exciting place to solve matters!!!

 

[driftLimiter]

Frankly your not going to solve anything matters by badgering people and groups that aren't represented on this forum. I for one am thankful for many of the product manufacturers available today. They simplify our work and alleviate us from having to worry about testing results/application on a daily basis. While I agree that it can feel suspicious that these groups take a large part in code writing, I prefer it this way rather than having PhD's write all the codes. Industry groups have the muscle to gain valuable insight into daily practice of engineers, and have a long history of making products for this sector.

 

[jepps3]

@driftlimiter - Ooof! But at the same time, completely understandable.

 

[BridgeSmith]

I prefer it this way rather than having PhD's write all the codes.

Amen to that! The AASHTO spec is mostly written by egghead PhD's. Some sections I just look at and think "you want us to slog through hours of calculations for possibly a 2% reduction in the design load? WTH are are you smoking?"

 

[Aesur]

Come on you smart, eclectic and refined engineers, join the resistance. Don’t worry about lining your pockets with jobs from these puppets.

I'm curious what you propose us engineers do?

If you are suggesting we design the trusses, then I suggest owners/developers pony up the money for us to do so. Believe it or not, most engineers break even on projects and our margins are extremely thin. Engineers are constantly beat up by owners and developers to lower their fees, even saw a few team up with contractors on design-build projects say since construction material costs are up we should provide lower fees to help make up the difference.

 

[Aesur]

How many people here will admit that the ASTM, ICC, IBC, etc standards are written by a committee of assigned individuals born from mafia kingpin bosses (Simpson, Mitek, Alpine)??

While this is partially true, the rest of the committee is made up of PHD's who are trying to justify their existence as researches and the end result is more complexity for those of us actually doing the engineering. Even with software available now days, it takes just as long as or longer to design a building now days then back in the UBC days. An example of this is steel beams and vibration, steel beams used to be conservative for strength, resulting in heavier steel being used on a project, PHD's got in there and reworked formulas to get lighter shapes and maximize utilization; in doing so they create vibration issues, the solution.. more stiffness and weight to dampen the designs; in the end you get the same size beam as before the codes were re-written, but with many extra steps and checks. Engineers need to be on committees but there is no incentive for engineers to do so financially nor time so we just don't. I have always been interested in sitting down with one of these researches and us both designing the same building, my money is on the practicing engineer being able to design it on budget, on time, and provide a superior product in the end.

 

[RontheRedneck]

1503-44 claimed that the truss would not work in deflection. It did work, or I would not have posted the design.

Although it's possible that where the OP is located they might have different loading or other requirements that would change things. I just used local loading since I don't know where the OP is building at.

The design was only intended to be something for discussion. Not something I planned on defending in court.


RWW0002 - Brought up bracing.

Interesting subject. Probably worth a thread on its own. This one is already too long.

 

[jepps3]

@RonRedneck - Project is in Las Vegas. no snow load, dry air, low humidity. honestly, that truss design would work as well.

@Aesur - I truly appreciate the PHD's involved. And of course we ALL appreciate the ease of getting work done when components to building a truss are designed and engineered to make all of our lives easier. but Jesus, at what cost? Things are invented all the time to make things better, easier and efficient....AND I agree that an appropriate premium should be placed on that. Take caution though, when there are too many players (in any industry) that start to pull this crap, those cost get past on to you, then the final consumer. AND THEN, this is one of the factors that contributes to inflation, which then in turn affect your wife, kids, family etc. All im saying is you should detect when things are starting to smell like sh*t. Some people well smell it (analogy: someone ripping a silent one in the grocery store line) and have good manners and dont say anything. But unfortunately, when I smell a nice healthy pile of fresh dung on my doorstep, I have a bad habit of making faces and saying things....LOL

 

[jepps3]

@1503-44 You know what they mean though. They’re talking about zones with low roof loads. Desert areas, no/low snow, places were it’s common to use light metal roofing finishes, things like that.

 

[RontheRedneck]

1503-44 - Being a jerk isn't going to help anyone. Suggesting that I would design a truss with no loads and/or no wind loading is ridiculous.

 

[1503-44]

Oh. SORRY.
I was asking what the loads were. See the QUESTION MARKS!
No wind loads in Nevada?

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."