FLOOR TRUSS ADVANTAGES
Choosing floor trusses over dimensional lumber or I-joists saves time on site, reduces material needs and costs, and enhances design opportunities.
FLOOR TRUSSES
ELIMINATE WASTE AND IMPROVE CYCLE TIME WITH OPEN WEB FLOOR TRUSSES
The open web construction allows for services and utilities to be efficiently run through the open webs, with no need for cutting, drilling, or routing.
- Reduce material costs with fewer framing members and materials, resulting in reduced install time. Longer spans, higher strength capacities, and on-center spacing reduce the number of bearing walls, beams, columns, and footings, compared to traditional framing methods.
- Value engineered so that span, deflection, and load efficiency are unique to each build.
- Reduce material costs in top chord bearing conditions by eliminating exterior rim boards or costly hangers.
- Add trimmable ends to floor trusses for on-site installation versatility.
- Eliminates the need for on-site sawing, which speeds up installation time and removes potential confusion for contractors because drill holes are no longer needed.
- Increases available space for HVAC, electrical, and plumbing installation vs. other framing methods, restricting the location and size of drilled holes. This additional space provides flexibility and increases the speed of installation.
- Reduce the need for soffits with added access to end panels where plumbing drops are common.
- Design freedom to incorporate architectural details into individual truss designs, such as concealed beams, cantilevers, higher ceilings, and balconies. These prefabricated designs reduce framing complexity and install time.
Superior End Reactions
Superior end reaction capabilities eliminate the need for additional structural band-board, web stiffeners, squash blocks, or blocking panels.
Gable ends or Ladder Truss
Gable end floor trusses, sometimes called ladders, provide a strong alternative to large dimensional lumber for parallel closure. Gable end trusses are manufactured along with the main span trusses, ensuring heights match and can include built-in ribbon details.
Open Webbing is Trade “Friendly”
Open webbing provides great benefits to plumbers and electricians, without the need to spend time cutting holes in floor members. Less cutting reduces jobsite labor and reduces potentially critical errors that could result in compromising the structural integrity of the components.
Versatile Floor Depths
Versatile depths allow floor systems to incorporate sunken floor areas into the system. Walls can be framed at a standard height, and steps in the floor system can be created by the depths of the floor trusses, saving the framer time and the builder money.
Superior Cantilever Distances
Open web floor trusses provide superior cantilever distances. Far greater than EWP and conventional framing, cantilevers can include built-in details such as dropped top chords for balcony decking. Open web floor trusses can support greater concentrated loads, carrying bearing walls and roof loads from above.
Built-In Ribbon Notch
Floor trusses feature built-in ribbon notches that can be designed/customized to receive any dimension of 2x lumber desired. Continuous ribbons provide stability for installed trusses and a solid surface for the edge nailing of floor sheathing. This approach eliminates the need for larger and more expensive band-board solutions required by dimensional lumber and other engineered wood products.
Built-in Beam Pockets
Customized beam pockets can be designed into floor trusses to accept various materials inserted through the webs. Trusses can be designed to support load-bearing headers at openings or to carry other floor trusses. Dimensional lumber can be threaded through the webs to create exterior balconies that run perpendicular to the direction of the floor trusses. This versatility allows the builder multiple options for framing today’s complex building designs and saves money on labor and time to complete the required framing.
Keyed Bearing Detail`
Keyed Bearing or Shared Bearing details allow two different floor trusses to share the same interior bearing and stay aligned, eliminating the need to stagger or overlap the two trusses. Sheathing installation is much easier because the supporting trusses line up, significantly reducing the need to cut special sheathing pieces to complete the subfloor. The result is a cleaner detail with full bearing while reducing labor and material usage.
Floor Cassette
Floor Cassettes are manufactured at the plant and dramatically decrease installation time. Floor Cassettes are typically 10′ wide and lifted easily with a crane. In the above picture, all the continuous lateral bracing and X bracing were built-in, reducing installation labor even more.
