Hello all. I found your forum while I was searching for information on the Forestry Forum.
I am a home builder. I'm an experienced stick framer and trim carpenter.
I am currently building a new personal home for myself and it is traditional stick frame construction. My business partner and I have done all the framing on the house. It is a 2,700 square foot heated house over an 1,800 square foot basement. 12/12 hip roof with a couple dormers and several gables. There are a lot of LVLs through out the house, including a triple 24" lvl spanning 24'.
The back screened porch will be 17"-4" wide and 20' deep. It will have a 12/12 pitch.
I would like to use king post roof trusses on 48" centers with 2x6 tongue and grove pine as the roof deck(exposed as the ceiling). I do not want to use a ridge beam. Basically I would like the same design as the lightweight 2x4 trusses we use on 24" centers. Steel plates at the joints instead of joinery.
I plan on sawing the timbers for the trusses from local pine(SYP, longleaf, loblolly)on my Woodmizer.
The home is in northeast Georgia with a 0-10 psf snow load and wind zone 1, up to 99 mph winds(at 53 years old I do not recall a wind over 40 mph here that was not tornado related).
I have several questions.
1. I plan on hiring a kiln drier to dry the timbers. Can a run of the mill(no pun intended) kiln dry timbers or do I need to use them green?
2. What dimensions do I need to use for the truss members? I have seen 2x4 dimensional lumber trusses on 4' centers on a 4/12 pitch with 40' spans using 2x4 purlins on 24" centers.
I was thinking along the lines of a 4x8(actual rough sawn dimensions) bottom cord, 4x8 top cord with 4x6 king posts and braces.
3. I want to use steel gussets cut from 1/4" plate and 1/2 nuts and bolts instead of joinerty. I'll get one of my internet buddies to cut them on a plasma table. Good?
The trusses will stack over 6x6 laminated pine posts rated at 12,000 lbs each. Like these:
https://www.menards.com/main/p-1444427703640.htmI'll use a 4x6 top plate across the columns and bolt the gussets that tie the bottom and top cords together to the top plate of the wall.
Drawing of truss:
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The look of the truss that I want(photo credit to Vermonttimberworks.com ):
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What say you folks that have experience in this sort of thing?
Thanks, Jim
