A trend in home building is to go green and sustainable as much as possible. One of the ways that many people are using to achieve these goals is to go with salvaged wood, including the timber roof trusses. There are several things you need to consider about finding and using salvaged timber trusses. Here are those considerations and what you need to know about each one:
Inspection Criteria
There is a misconception that if you use salvaged timber roof trusses, they have likely been inspected and will pass any home inspections you may have. The truth is, you will still have to make sure that the trusses meet current building criteria. Some may not meet size requirements while others may need to receive some form of treatment for pest control or weather sealing. This becomes an issue for some projects if you are locating and harvesting the salvaged trusses on your own and not using a contractor since you may not know what trusses will pass inspection just by doing a quick inventory of the trusses.
Location of the Trusses Matters
You may not think about where the trusses were located matters, but it can. For example, if you are salvaging timber roof trusses from a barn, they may have different construction or issues than a salvaged truss from an older home. This is due to how the timber is treated and the conditions it is exposed to. With that in mind, it also matters greatly where you will be using the salvaged trusses. If you are using a barn truss, for example, as an exposed truss in your living room then you may want to consider how rustic that natural aging and weathering of the truss may either benefit or detract from your home decor concept.
Transporting the Trusses
You may know the type of timber roof truss you want to use, and where you want to salvage that truss from. What you may not have considered is how you will be transporting the salvaged timber roof truss to your construction location. Keep in mind, depending on the age of the roof truss, you may run into issues dismantling and reassembling the truss on site. This process may damage the truss or the integrity of the reassembled trusses. With that in mind, you may want to have them transported professionally to avoid the issue.
If you believe you are ready to move forward with using salvaged timber roof trusses for your building project, consider contacting a contractor with a background in using salvaged timber. They can give you pricing and they can discuss your local options for resources as well.
