Designing for camber with confidence
For years builders and designers have had to contend with the unpredictable deflection performance of timber. hyCHORD LVL Truss Chords have been specially engineered to set things straight once and for all. Truss manufacturer Charles Sultana, director of MYM Timber and Hardware, used hyCHORD for the first time in two Pascoe Vale units and once again a futurebuild innovated product has proven itself on site.
'Charlie's' trusses are popular everywhere. For years he's been designing trusses to his clients' plans and delivering to projects all over the Melbourne Metropolitan area. Truss framing is clearly a simple construction process and as Charlie points out, avoids the pilfering that occurs on sites using stick framing.
In Charlie's latest project he decided to use hyCHORD as the bottom chords in his more heavily loaded girder trusses. He was introduced to hyCHORD by futurebuild and was attracted by the long lengths and the promise of predictable deflection performance: 'hyCHORD comes in one piece,' says Charlie, 'you don't have too many joins so you can fabricate trusses with uniform camber...the alternative to the hyCHORD is sawn timber that is difficult to get in anything longer than 6 metres, so there are two or three joins in a truss. You've always got camber in the timber itself, but when you split it into three you get a dip where the join is. With hyCHORD it's all in one piece so you can fabricate it with a uniform curve.'
According to Charlie, he designs his trusses with sophisticated software and takes a lot of care to fabricate them in a controlled process. Despite this, the finished trusses 'might' respond the way the builder wants, they also 'might' not. Trusses made from sawn timber do not always perform as intended, as the properties from one piece to the next can be highly variable. hyCHORD is engineered to have a low variability and therefore provide predictable deflection performance. 'With hyCHORD' says Jose Rodriguez, Technical Representative at futurebuild, 'truss detailers can apply just the right amount of camber to ensure flat ceilings and a no 'dips or bumps' roof line.'
Using it for the very first time, Charlie discovered for himself that this new bottom chord produced the intended result. 'Its strength is comparable to F17, and in conjunction with Pryda plates it works really well,' he says. Like so many designer/builders, Charlie is watching the Australian market as changes are happening more frequently and there are new improved products all the time.
Manufactured from renewable plantation pine, readily available in standard lengths (up to 13.2 metres) and strong yet light and easy to use, hyCHORD is typical of current innovations. Each piece of hyCHORD is also stained a light purple colour which not only makes it hard to miss, but means this new engineered building product is also generating interest wherever it goes.
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