Imagine you are relaxing with your family and suddenly part of your roof caves in. Such an incident can be traumatizing and lead to significant damage to your home. Such accidents can arise because of weaknesses in the timber trusses which support the roof of your building. As such, any slight defect on the timber trusses poses a danger to your family. There are several smart ways that you can use to make sure that your timber trusses last longer.
Reinforce with steel
You can add steel plates to the outline of the timber trusses. Steel is very strong, and it helps to secure the timber trusses in place while also distributing the weight of the load on them. This ensures that your trusses last longer. Adding the steel plates can be quite costly, but considering the benefits in relation to the safety of your family and property, it is a good investment.
Use multiple timber beams
There are different types of timber trusses available on the market. You can decide to choose trusses with thick timber beams or logs or select trusses that consist of multiple beams that are stacked together. Multiple beams offer a greater support and result in a stronger truss than trusses made of just one log. The weight on the timber trusses is spread evenly across the various beams, and even if there is a crack in one beam, the truss will remain intact.
Use fasteners instead of nails
Using nails can create points of weaknesses along the timber trusses. This cannot be easily noticed, but the points of weakness leads to the development of cracks over time. The result will be a fracture in the timber, and it will eventually collapse. However, when you use fasteners, the timber trusses remain intact, and there are no chances that points of weakness will develop. In this way, your house can be passed down for several generations without any roofing issues.
Conduct regular checks
Many people conduct regular maintenance checks in their houses to ensure that everything is in order and to avoid any eventualities. You should apply the same approach to check your timber trusses. Take time to carefully check the entire length of the trusses to make sure that it is structurally correct. If you are scared of going to the attic, you can get a professional to conduct the checks on your behalf. Any defect can then be dealt with as soon as possible.
Share20 October 2017
Hi and welcome to my blog. My name is Jules, and several years ago, I bought an old house. As it needed so many repairs, we learned to compromise and prioritise our goals. That included the roof. Although the house needed a roof, we spent a few years working on other elements of the house, and during that time, we repaired and patched parts of the roof or added shingles as needed. Finally, we were able to replace the entire thing. I learned a lot through the process and wanted to create a blog about it. If you are interested in anything to do with roofs, please check out my posts.
