Who Should Attend

The primary audiences for this course are consulting design professionals, truss manufacturers, truss designers, contractors, and building design professionals. Secondary audiences are building code plan reviewers and inspectors, as well as home inspectors.

Workshop Objectives

The professional and practical repair of new metal-plate-connected wood trusses and the repair of existing truss systems are demonstrated in this course.

The objectives of this course are to:

1. Review the theory and calculation methods for designing the required permanent bracing for roof and floor truss systems
2. Present data and bracing options beyond the typical "continuous lateral bracing" method
3. Present procedures and methods for "defining the problem" at the jobsite
4. Present procedures for gathering all the requisite information needed for the repair design work
5. Demonstrate typical truss repairs that involved both engineering judgment and calculation
6. Demonstrate through case studies extreme truss system repairs for existing buildings
7. Discuss the needed communication among general contractors, truss manufacturers, truss designers, building design professionals, and truss installers in order to minimize the need for potential repair of new and existing wood truss systems, and
8. To provide an opportunity whereby participants can voluntarily share some examples of their unusual field repairs

Workshop Features

Participants will receive a certificate for 1.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) equivalent to 15 hours of instruction. The lead instructor, Mr. Gary Sweatt, P. E., will address the practical aspects of truss repair and wood truss system repair with an emphasis on actual problems from the field. The presentations and discussion will be "rich" in practical solutions to a wide range of truss and truss system deficiencies encountered over several decades of design practice in the Dallas Fort Worth area. The participants will be exposed to repair problems and solutions that involved from one-hour to over one-month of consulting engineering professional time. The function of the repair design engineer, serving in an oversight role of the repair construction work, will be presented through example cases. Upon completion of the course, the notebook will serve as a reference document for truss and truss system repair design.

Sponsored by

Virginia Tech Continuing and Professional Education

For More Information

For more specific information on course content, please contact Dr. Frank Woeste at 540-951-0469, or e-mail: fwoeste@vt.edu