Trussing up Your Own Roof Truss

Although you can order pre-made trusses, you may have a special project that requires that you build your own roof trusses. No problem. With careful measurements and planning, you can build your own roof trusses. Before you begin, you will probably want to make a jig so that each truss matches the others. To do this, lay out a piece of plywood. Marking the centerline with a pencil, nail a 2 X 4 straight across the bottom at the point at which the bottom chord should rest. This will assure that each truss has the same dimensions.

Step One

Gather the materials you need to construct the trusses. Choose the best 1/2 inch lumber you can find for the top chord and the outer pieces of the bottom chord because this is where most of the stress will fall. For each truss, you will need two pieces of the appropriate length for your top chord, one or two pieces for the bottom chord depending on how wide the building is, four 1 X 4 pieces for the "W" shaped bracing, gussets or truss plates for each joint, and concrete nails.

Step Two

You will need to cut your lumber to fit size and needed angles. Measure all of your pieces according to the size of the building. Cut the bottom chord to fit the width of the building. You may need to splice pieces with a gusset at the joint if the building is very wide. Use a rafter square to help you cut the top chord pieces at angles based on the desired slope of the finished roof. Finally, cut the interior web pieces for the typical "W" pattern to brace the top chord and the bottom chord. Dry fit these pieces together to make sure all joints meet tightly.

Step Three

Prepare the gussets for joining the pieces together. Cut the gussets, usually made of plywood pieces that are placed on the front and the back of each joint to connect the pieces. Mark a set as front and back so that you can make a pattern of where the nails will go on each side. You want the nails to be placed so that they will not meet from opposite sides and split the wood. Truss plates may be used in the place of plywood gussets.

Step Four

You are ready to put the first truss together. Laying all the pieces on a level surface that will not give, fit the joints together by butting them tightly up to each other and nailing through the gusset placed over the joint. The nails' tips should barely show the tips on the opposite side after passing through the first gusset, the piece of 2 X 4, and the second gusset on the other side. Nail all of the joint connections on one side before flipping it over to nail all the gussets on the other side.

You may want to dry fit the truss on the roof before building the rest of the trusses. You will need a helper to do this, but it will prevent you from repeating any mistakes on the rest of the trusses if you happened to make one on this first truss. Once you know that the truss is of the right measurement, repeat the process on your jig until you have enough trusses for your roof. The number and spacing of trusses will depend on how big the building is and what type of load it will need to hold (especially during the winter when snow may accumulate or if there is anything that will be depended from the ceiling).

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