brickeyee Your point about RH of winter air seems well taken. What was missing from the Carson Dunlop explanation, I think, is that attic air in a home is often more humid than air outside the attic due to leakage from the conditioned to unconditioned space. Here's how another P.E. describes truss uplift: "A problem that can occur with this system causes cracks in wallboard over time. In recent years, attic insulation usage has increased, which ends up covering the bottom chord of the truss. This tends to keep the bottom chords warm and dry while the top chords absorb moisture and expand. The top cord expansion causes the top chords to lift, pulling up the bottom chord as shown in Figure 1, hence the term truss uplift. " Charles C. Roberts, Jr., Ph. D., P.E. My untrained guess would be that the lengthwise shrinkage of grain does not relate to the length of the wood but to which portion of the tree the wood was cut from. Here's a longer explanation: "Truss uplift is caused by wood's natural response to moisture exposure. This response occurs when humidity changes differentially in two areas (an attic floor and attic ceiling, for example). A truss's top chords expand as their moisture content increases. Problems resulting from truss uplift are most common with flat-bottomed trusses in homes during winter when a truss's bottom chords, often covered by insulation, are kept warm and dry while its top chords are exposed to moisture from condensation. During winter months, warm, humid air emanates from buildings' interior use and occupants. The uplift movement occurs because, as the truss's upper components resize themselves under the differential moisture conditions, internal tensile stress occurs in the truss's web members, which then pulls up the bottom chords (and the attached ceiling drywall), resulting in a separation along the wall-to-ceiling juncture of the drywall. To put this into perspective, consider a truss with top chords made of two members, each measuring 30 feet in length. The total movement anticipated from winter swelling caused by the truss's moisture content increasing is a 0.72-inch expansion per side, or a 1-inch total rise of ridge above the bottom chords. And once a crack forms inside a home, additional moisture generated by occupants and their activities can escape into the attic, travel to the cold attic ceiling surface, condense on the truss's top chords and cause further truss uplift. " Lucas J. Hamilton manager of building science applications, CertainTeed Corp.'s Insulation Group For interest, I will forward this thread with a request for comments to Carson Dunlop. lzerarc As I said, different places, different practices. I've changed only reluctantly. Seeing those spindly stuck-together 2x2s gives me a visceral reaction and I have to rationalize using roof trusses. However, my engineer says they're much better done now than ever and with wall lengths less than 50 feet uplift is rare. None of this applies to warm climate homes.

Take a closer look at the photos. The existing structure is, in fact, a very simple truss but only because the rafter chords sit on the ties just beyond the wall plates instead of directly on the plates. If the rafters did rest on the top plates, the ties could simply be raised until the rafters reached their maximum bending capacity (about 6" by the IRC tables with assumptions listed earlier). Figuring out how to efficiently raise the ties to the mid point of the barely adequate rafters and repair the rafter seat detail has been discussed at length earlier. I have attempted to give the OP sound structural advice within the parameters I listed because that is what I have been trained to do. If there is no building department oversight and he is willing to tolerate sag in the rafters and movement in the wall top plates during extended snow storms, all he needs to do is block or strap the rafter bottoms to the plates and then raise the ties. However, all it would take under full loading conditions is for enough tie connections to fail and the shed could collapse. In my opinion, the tie connection overlap is too small for adequate nailing or bolting and should have a metal or wood plate. Potential structural failure is not an option I would recommend even for a shed.

The structural engineer said they fixed all the issues so I closed on the house on Feb 1st. Structurally I have confidence in the home as it was looked over by a very meticulous city inspector as well as a structural engineer who did end up finding some things on top of what the city inspector found. The finishing work on the inside was done very poorly however. I blue taped the hell out of the house during the walk through. There were paint runs on the trim pieces and stair railing. There are some arched and crooked ceilings where they should be flat. My hardwood floor creaks because it is not flat in some areas. There's a blue halo on the ceiling where it meets the walls, might be from the painters tape. I had a toilet that felt too close to the side wall and there was plenty of room to move it over a few inches. There's too many cosmetic issues to list but I blue taped them all. They fixed few of the cosmetic issues but removed all the blue taped. They said I had to close because they had the certificate of occupancy. They said any remaining issues would be taken care of under the home warranty. Many of the cosmetic issues I can learn to fix myself and I know I'd do a much better job than what they would do. Some other issues however I'm trying to get fixed through them. Like the toilet being too close to the wall, I came to find out there's a code requirement for how close it can be to a finished wall and mine was closer than code. The builder tried to tell me the distance was measured from the studs and not the finished wall but I had already looked into this heavily and knew it was from the finished wall. He agreed to move it 1.5 inches which brings it within code. I'm not sure what to do about my hardwood not being flat. The house is level from one end to the other but within that there are high and low points. The variance is between 1/4 inch to 1/3 inch in a 2-3 foot space and is noticeable without a leveler. The builder says this is "industry standard" and normal. I might be able to get it fixed if I prove it's not, but not sure how to go about that. Are there inspectors I can hire? Would I go with this builder and do it all over again? Definitely not. And they probably wouldn't want another home buyer like me I'd imagine.

Both of my sisters have recently went from smaller choppy homes to two story, open homes and both say the same. Easier to clean. We recently had a window seat and bookcases built for our back 9 x 11 bedroom for an extra sitting/ reading room. I love the coziness. But smaller rooms is all I’ve ever known. It would be an adjustment! Our current living, “dining”, and kitchen is just separated by archways. So not open but not totally closed off. I do like that separation. Allows wall space for my piano, curio cabinet, an old dresser... Im wondering if my walls would look cluttered with all these things lined up against them.