Floor trusses can be an effective and sturdy way to support a floor. If you're putting in trusses, you have several decisions to make throughout the process. Here are some of the elements you need to consider.

Depth

One of the first points you need to think about is the depth of the truss. This is the distance from the top of the truss to its base. The more depth you have, the more support you have for your floor, but of course, you also need to think about clearance. For instance, if you're putting in a floor and you have a limited amount of height in your building, you don't necessarily want to lose a lot of height by choosing extremely deep trusses.

At the same time, you should also think about what you want to install in the trusses. The more wires, pipes and tubes you want to run through them, the more depth you need.

Spacing

Then, you should think about spacing. Spacing is often referred to as OC, which stands for off center. For instance, if you put in trusses with 60 cm OC, that means that you have trusses every 60 cm from the center of your floor. The spacing combined with the depth directly affects how long your trusses need to be.

As a general rule of thumb, the closer the trusses are together, the longer the truss can be, and as you add depth, you also increase the potential length of your trusses. In other words, if you need trusses to span a long length for a large room, you also need to make sure that they are spaced relatively close together and that they are as deep as possible.

Open Web or Solid Timber

Generally, wood floor trusses are open web or solid timber. Solid timber trusses are essentially carved out of solid pieces of wood. This is a very natural approach, but it's time consuming and can waste wood on your work site.

In contrast, open-web trusses are generally put together in a manufacturing plant. They feature multiple small pieces of wood that have been put together in a strategic design that holds weight. Typically, this design features a piece of wood on the top and bottom as well as a series of diagonal pieces or crosses that run between the top and bottom chords to lend support to the top and bottom pieces.  

To learn more about which floor trusses are right for your project, contact a truss professional today.