Truss vs. Handcut Roofs: Expert Builders Weigh In

Matt Risinger discusses the differences between truss roofs and handcut roofs with experts Bill Wood and Tim Uhler, better known as Awesome Framers. Matt starts by introducing Bill, who has been working with him for 15-16 years, and Tim, a seasoned framer from the Pacific Northwest. They delve into their extensive experience with both roofing methods, highlighting their benefits and challenges.

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[joeywharton]

Buildinf a super high energy efficient custom home. Unvented roof, no ductinf, no perforations through the roof..Hand cut with a beautiful massive glulam beam in the center giving me a clear span of 38 x 32. No interior structural walls. Even the truss company told me to go with hand cut.

[aarontorres]

I'm 54 and I don't know anybody younger than me that can cut a roof anymore. When I was in my early twenties I worked for some badass guys like Chewy. My mentor could cut six houses out ahead of us in two day and then the four or five of us would come behind and stack those roofs in 3 to 4 days. It was sweet.
One of my biggest pet peeves of trusses is the delivery process and individuals handling them and damaging them and never repairing them properly before installation and or all the other trades come in and chop them apart to make their stuff work and often ruin the Integrity of the roof structure. Cutting in Rafters is always and will always be a better roof than trusses. Trusses were designed for production only. It's a shame they took the skill out of the trade cuz these two guys here are very rare with their Crews nowadays. I did my roof time in Northern California, I'm in Arizona now and if you can cut a Roof in you are making bank...
Good stuff guys

[jeanfrancoisbrodeur]

I am a timber framer and partial to hand cut rafters over trusses.
Where I am in British columbia, Canada, the snow load requires roofs to withstand 100 pounds per square foot. And truss manufacturers tend to cheap out on their trusses and call out for a ton of bracing and reinforcement of the trusses they deliver. And that ends of taking a lot of time of walking through the trusses and finishing the work that someone else could have done. So it takes a lot of time and costs extra to use trusses I find.

[thormatteson]

Structural engineer here. Many trusses need "continuous lateral bracing" (CLB) to meet engineering requirements. Installing the CLB system could easily eat up half a unit of 2x4s plus another day of labor. And then your attic is criss-crossed BOTH ways with obstacles. On most jobs I've inspected, the CLBs were installed wrong or omitted altogether. Bad news.

[yodaiam]

As a structural engineer, trusses are the norm unless you require a hand cut roof. They are much easier to spec and have a simpler load path. The suppliers do all the detailed engineering of the truss design. You don’t have to worry about the load path of the ridge support beam. Framers also get the hip to ridge beam connections wrong even when you detail all of them out. That means having to do extra details to fix mistakes.

I can see there are non-structural advantages to hand framed roofs but it is financially better for the engineer of record to go truss framed. It is also cheaper to build in most cases. There are lots of suppliers where I live and delays have never been an issue.

[kenm]

I don't understand the laughing about doing handcut for the first time. I'm about to do my first handcut roof on my own house and as long as the math is applied correctly, what's the issue?

[jimpie]

Have had both, as a homeowner, both are good. First home was custom, architect designed, had some framing issues. Soffit was too low and mater bedroom windows couldn’t open fully. Staircase wall was 2x3, no room. All windows didn’t open properly because of brick installed too close to windows. The other was a tract home, walls and trusses made in a factory. Best home ever had, still living there 20 years later, with no problems.

[jairrodriguez]

Why didn’t you interview or ask the actual guys framing

[Dsanrides]

You didn’t even mention the heavy equipment needed to lift large trusses. That can be a huge cost added.

[dredhead]

I'm a remodel carpenter in one of the few densely packed cities we have in America and trusses are just a logistical nightmare (almost an impossibility) here, so GC's are basically forced to do handcut roofs. Kinda the opposite of Matt, didn't really realize what trusses were or how they worked till I helped on a buddy's job out in the suburbs a few years ago

[aarontorres]

If you have ever built in seismic 3 or 4 zones you will understand why cutting in a roof is better. I've put solar on over 2 dozen HEB Grocery stores and a distribution center in Texas. Crazy hurricane winds. I've never built roofs in Texas but I would insist on rafters over trusses.
There is a reason anyone 40 or younger has only seen it it custom homes.

[talon]

? Does anyone know where I can find the code for a beam spanning 24 feet with 14 foot rafters, this is for a car port rafters only, no ceiling. Minimal snow load, this is St George Ut.

[Natedoc]

I’m not a fan of cut up busy roofs in general so we typically use trusses. Also, for future floor plan changes the trusses eliminate load bearing interior walls. Overall a cut n stack is good if the guys doing it are good.

[Eric]

I did trusses for my house, but it is a barndominium 40x104. Truss crew was in and out in a half day. It was nice to just send the blueprints to the truss company and not have to think about it again, very simple and cost effective roof

[trickstothetrades]

We are in the Midwest and I have an older guy working for me that worked in a truss shop years ago and is excellent at hand cut rafters, our install time is the same either way for us. So we go buy the job, if we are doing an addition or trying to match the existing house we hand cut. If it is all new and scheduling allows we will go with a truss. That’s basically how we go about it, keeping in mind some of the points you mentioned like HVAC as well

[Sjwolosz]

I like that these guys are experienced. This is The Real World . I started in boatbuilding in 1979 and carpentry in 1982 . Worked in the big cities to the mountains of The Appalachians, . Cracker box, townhomes to the insanely compex and highly detailed, Truss and stick and everything in between . I wanted to be a baddie and was Gifted with the talent .Even asked in 1993 by an architect to write a book about residential construction . Might be able to now since I laid up and dying . So many truths here with these guys . In my experience . stick framing baddies looked down on truss. Much like what trim carpenters think about framers . or at least in thier quiver when they can't install a piece of baseboard . . These guys are refesjing to listen to. . In the end what matters is The House . not how much you made on it, But how much joy you had building it and building it that ot will be here for 100's of years . Thee most important is making sure you buld your best because it's someone''s dream . It's thier home . The greatest tool, method or approach in building anything .. It all came through you . By God

[multipotentialite]

Floor trusses are good but roof trusses cause delays?

[kiwigrunt]

Down here, way under, I would say that 99.78765578% of houses are built with trusses. Of course, if you need the space, then you need a floor and rafters. But with an unused roof space, as is typical in NZ, trusses are much cheaper, no matter how complicated the roof is. The timber is usually just 4x2s nailplated together, and it frames both the roof and the ceiling in one go. Also, they span from external wall to external wall, so internal walls are not load bearing.

[robertduffy]

If the total price to install is close, it's a no-brainer. Hand Cut = Local Jobs & Keeping your guys working. Truss = Sending the Monney out of the area so someone else can afford to buy a home you didn't make and improve that economy instead of yours.

[MrDbrault]

Theres a video somewhere on YT showing a truss roof on fire and a hand cut roof on fire and a stack of blocks on top of them. The truss roof lasted only a few minutes. The hand cut roof last like an hour.