Two broken trusses on a new home

This is a pre-closing inspection on a house located in Little River South Carolina. One truss was completely broken in half in two places. A second truss was missing approximately 1/3 or 1/4 of the wood for approximately 5 feet. A repair method will need to be drafted by a truss structural engineer. The craft on site will need to make repairs in accordance to the drawing. This drawing needs to live in the attic space forever for future buyers. Still think you don’t need a home inspection on your new home?

[darkdelta]

Looks like they were using the cull pile for the roof!

[markb]

You were not supposed to see that behind the flex duct

[richardkawucha]

As a MIOSHA Construction Safety officer, I've seen many of the things you are pointing out.
On one job, a single story office building the crew had installed approximately 40 roof trusses. Rather than follow the truss manufacturers, supplied bracing schedule they used, what I refer to as "killer cleats". This is a single piece of 2x4 cut to fit the span from one truss to the next. While all the trusses are connected to each other, they only used two per pair of joists. They install them with a single nail, at each end.
On this job the had all the trusses installed, as above. Two men were working on them and one was inside cutt8ng more "killer cleats". During the work the trusses started to fall, in one direction. I call them "killer cleats" because when used they offer no diagonal support/bracing. All they do is ensure that when they collapse all the trusses are equally spaced, and usually someone dies as a result.
In this case no one was seriously injured. The carpenter wanted to pick through the trusses and salvage them. I told him no one was going to enter until an engineer said it was safe. As for the trusses, any they wanted to salvage had to be inspected by an engineer and determined to be safe for reuse. Needless to say, an excavator was brought in and reached over the walls to grab the trusses and deposit them in a dumpster.

[cgschow]

Trusses are built from crap lumber, often no. 2 or 3 grade. As long as the cords are intact. they will function. You would think that trusses provide perfectly flat ceilings, but I find that to be rare, either crooked lumber or bad installs.
The damage in the video likely occurred when the delivery driver rolled them off the tilt bed and they slammed onto the ground.

[ThorOdinson-zckq]

It’s insane that a builder even used that piece of wood

[heroknaderi]

Because if not repaired properly it be more vonuable to severe weather

[clutteredchicagogarage]

I built a tree house for my daughter last year with a mix of No2 grade lumber for studs and some 4x4 members as well as No2-grade southern yellow pine for some beams.

What I learned from this as well as something that I've learned from looking at studs in my own home when I've had to cut out some drywall in a few areas to fix things behind the walls is that a lot of lumber that is sold at lumber yards and big box stores is defective. You can go to a lumber yard and look in a pile of No2-grade lumber, and you will ALWAYS find some pieces that would be totally inappropriate to support a structural load. There might be very large knots that almost go through a stud, and the wood around the knot may not be stable. There may be longitudinal cracks through a long stretch of a piece of lumber. Many pieces of lumber at a yard are bowed or twisted. Some have WAY too much bark on the outside or chewed-up edges.

I have found some pieces of really poor lumber behind my drywall that I would never have used if I were working on my own home.

Whenever I build something myself, I spend probably an hour sorting through the lumber pile to get the 20% of good pieces in the pile for my project. This is totally worth it for small renovation projects in my experience. Personally, while I HATE spending so much time sorting through lumber at a big box store, I think it probably saves me time later in my project when I discover that it's impossible to build something square and plumb because the lumber is warped.

A lot of builders and carpenters just don't care. They want to finish a job quickly, and they won't take the time to sort through lumber piles to cull bad pieces of lumber. This means that some studs behind your walls may be bowed or twisted. I would imagine that this is also going to happen with pre-made floor and roof trusses. I understand why carpenters may not want to spend so much time sorting through lumber at he start of a project when they're working for a living to feed their families, but it sucks for a homeowner when a builder cuts corners and creates structures that aren't strong and stable.

[BlueSteel-izqt]

I bought a home during Covid without inspection. Applied for 20 homes before starting to skip inspections. I am now watching YouTube to understand how to fix the roof from previous owner who cut 7 ceiling trusses for some odd reason

[briankeeley]

Rated for 150 mph winds? I'm having a hard time believing that this roof would survive 100 mph winds.

[krisdphillips]

This is why I'll take a home built in the 50s to 70s over anything new built today. I love my 1962 house because it's overbuilt as hell.

[jeffreyjeffrey]

City inspector either rubber-stamped the inspection from his/her office or is on the payroll of the builder.

[tommycollier]

I have never thought of using a home inspector On a new Home home Simply because I trust the city and county inspectors, I'm gonna rethink that

[scottsteele]

It’s just how testing goes. It tells you the process is typically sound for producing quality framing materials, but cannot guarantee everyone is sound. But it is why many towns like mine will not adopt the national building code. It states that rough sawn lumber coming off my mill, because it is not stamped, does not meet the requirement. Maybe, but my old Victorian is still standing at 3 stories tall with rough sawn hemlock. That would NEVER be allowed under the national building code. It is also why I love my town, it’s up to Me to build something safe and live in it. It’s also up to me to build something that will meet inspection criteria if I sell my home.

[Dpknox]

Why can you not take the electrical panel off? That makes zero sense You're not modifying changing any of the electrical only inspecting what else are they hiding

[dusty]

I can’t believe the builder walked away from that.

[klausschwab]

LIMITS YOU? WTF DO IT THESE CRIMINALS NEED EXPOSING.

[actionjack]

All that need be done is to have a lawyer ask the county building inspector to explain how this house passed building, insulation, and final inspection. NO reputable builder is going to leave that truss like that. #settlement.

[BillyBobThorntn]

My house was built in the late 60s. Back when they used better quality lumber, from trusses to plywood instead of osb. We did replace the old cast iron drains and updated the electrical. But I'd take my house over a newer cheaply built house any day. And I live near the east coast where we usually see a hurricane or two every year with no issues minus a shingle or two.

[tommays]

I had a 14 x 20 extension put on my Horry County home and the building inspector Was ALL over by Contractor Picking out violations that they force corrections on at every STEP

[skeeterfan]

What about that gaping hole in the OSB at 00:20 ?