Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: PC and rebar

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

[papercreters] Re: PC and rebar

I had previously heard firemen use the catch phrase, "Never trust a truss." Now I understand why. Thanks.

Here is a thought. It seems that it could be of great value to wrap wooden trusses IN PAPERCRETE. Especially if the papercrete is an extremely fire resistant mix. It could provide significant protection at an extremely low cost, especially if a house is being made from papercrete anyway.

I suspect that if it were wrapped properly that roof sheathing and asphalt shingles might burn away before such a truss would fail. (Of course I'm just guessing. I have no scientific data to support that hypothesis.)

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "imbulljeanne" <imbulljeanne@...> wrote:
>
> Ditto spaceman,
>
> "Codes are minimum safety standards"
>
> There is one code you could never pay me enough money to use and that is using connector plates in the building of the trusses. I have seen too many homes in California where the entire roof collapsed because the trusses failed. The beams where charred 1/4" and that was enough for the connector plate to fail bringing down the entire roof.
>
> I was dating a fireman and heard all the horror stories about how they would be on the roof cutting access holes, and parts of the roof would collapse beneath them. (not a foot going threw but whole sections) Luckily no one in his department was ever seriously hurt. He brought me to one site to show me just how little the wood had to burn before they failed, it was shocking! He took his finger nail and scarped the burnt truss and you could see good wood. Then he showed me the connector plate that failed. You could see that the metal prongs that are supposed to be hammered or pressed into the wood where either bent in half or only about half the prong had gone into the wood.
>
> Due to the nature of wood, knots or even hitting on the grain could prevent the prong from embedding completely into the wood. There is a certain percentage that must be complete, I don't remember now what it was but you can bet that there is not enough time or money saved on a project to warrant that kind of risk. All the plates we found none did not meet code. There was no contractor cutting corners it was all up to code.
>
> I don't like the idea of any governing body telling us what we can and cannot do. If I want to live in a tent or a hole in the ground if it makes me happy on my own property who is to say it is substandard!
> But I guess that would fall under city ordinances more then building codes. But I do have to be alive to be happy so I will build smart above or below ground.
>
> I guess what I am trying to say is I would never ride a roller coaster that only met the minimum safety standard why would I live in a house that did.
>
> Jeanne
>