Bracing & Restraint

Long (Attention) Span: Trusses Over 60 Feet Present Bracing Challenges

"There's something wrong with your trusses!"

Truss Bracing Responsibilities

  • The truss industry follows the requirements of the building code and ANSI/TPI 1 for general project scope of work concepts.
  • The Truss Designer identifies the location of required individual truss member lateral restraint and diagonal bracing on each Truss Design Drawing.
  • The JOBSITE PACKAGE can prove invaluable in documenting that the CM provided industry best practices on truss bracing, particularly when a project goes in a bad direction.

BCSI Guidelines for Continuous Lateral Restraint & Diagonal Bracing of Metal Plate Connected Wood Trusses

Understand the potential for future BCSI
optimization using SBCRI truss assembly test data.

From a McDonald’s Napkin to BCSI: Educating Customers on Proper Installation & Bracing

  • CMs deal with customers with a wide range of skill sets, including those who have drawn their house plans on a McDonald’s paper napkin. I wish I were making this up!
  • While CMs are not responsible for ensuring that customers brace jobs correctly, they can provide BCSI documents to help customers build a better building and stay safe.
  • The BCSI book and B-Series Summary Sheets are a CM's saving grace, especially if the customer plans to install the trusses on their own or not hire an engineer of record.

Parting Shots

In case you ever needed a picture to define the importance of diagonal bracing in the context of lateral restraint (i.e., top chord purlins as well), these photos of long span trusses say it all.