TIME TO PACKED IT ALL UP.

I wish you the best of luck with your repairs and am sorry to hear of your troubles.  Keep us posted on progress and I will look forward to you rejoining us in the fall.

-Greg

I hope insurance covers your structural repairs.  Feel free to join the ranks of the multitudes like myself who love to participate in the forum and yet not much than a 4 x 8 slab to run things on.  Taking down the table to repair the structure seems like the only logical move based on your description.  Good luck

I sit and wait for the claims adjuster to call. I will try and get some pictures on the forum. Thanks for your kind words.    Steve

Good luck with the repairs. I hope all goes well and you get things fixed up quickly.

Stephen,

   Usually this happens to me each year when the Christmas layout comes down,

shortly I will only check in every few days myself, try to get back this way as much as possible, I will do the same.

Sorry about your roof and having to break down the layout!

PCRR/Dave

Stephen, I know how you feel, we got burned out in the 80's [lucky I was in the mitts of making changes to the lay-out and a lot was boxed up]. Time will seam to drag by. Just think about what you have learned from the last lay-out and the improvements you will make when you rebuild.

Thank you guy's. I will set my priorities and place some goals to be reached by somers end.  The list never ends there is always something that has to get done……. but being able to get support from so many forum members makes it easyer to deal with…….

I'm gonna miss you Steve.  I hope you can make a come back soon.  We're too like-minded to not talk once in a while.  Good luck, and always keep your great sense of humor.  Thinking of you, stay in touch.  Bob 

Good luck Stephen

Thank you Bob and Pat. Bob just keep doing what you do. I always looking for a post from the Great Bob Severin…….. LOL…. It always puts a smile  on my face…..

Sorry to hear of your problems with your garage and hope you can resolve the situation soon.

Steve

You don't have to leave the forum just because you don't have a layout.  I don't have one at the moment either and the forum is a great way to stay involved.  Stay with us.

 

Bill

Thank you, Jonny and Bill. I will spend time with this forum. It's a wonderful place to spend time and enjoy everyone on it…...

I wish you the best of luck with your garage. I see no reason why you can't continue with the forum. I for one would certainly miss your positive comments.

Sorry to hear about that.  You can still be on the forum though.  Remember it's just a garage and it will be getting fixed

Sorry to hear about your damage,  Hopefully you caught it in time before any of your valuable stuff was damaged.  Good luck with the repairs and plan for a new layout while you are waiting.

 

That's truly a bummer, what a pain!  I hope you can recover without a huge expense.

 

So sorry to hear what happened. Hopefully the insurance will come through. 

 

Bob

What DID happen?  Tried searching the forum but did not find an earlier thread. 

First, let me say thank's to all you gentleman for the support. It truly helps. This Garage is mine and my sons pride and joy we built it for our trains. Permits, engineered trusses from Wicks Lumber Co. town inspection built in 2005 and now, well. 9 of 12 trusses failed when this time last year they were fine…….. I will let you all know what my insurance company say's. 

So very sorry to hear about this..... I had quite a time with my insurance Co. over a wind loss of my car port.... changed insurance Co's over it.... hope your claim goes well for you.....

Stephen,

I am so sorry to read of the trouble with your garage trusses!  I wish you well in getting everything covered and repaired.

Maybe you should see what Wick's Lumber Company's insurance has to say.  I'm not an engineer by any stretch of the imagination but my guess is those trusses should be good for more than 9 or 10 years.  I'm certainly no lawyer either but you might want to search the WEB and see if there were any recalls/complaints regarding the company that manufactured the trusses if other than Wicks Lumber Company.  You may want to contact an attorney that is experienced in the area of building engineering and building materials to see what he may have to say as well.  Most will charge an small "consultation fee" to determine if your complaint has merit to proceed accordingly.  You owe it to yourself and your sons to explore ALL of your options.  Stay The Course.

 

God Speed,

Chief Bob (Retired)

Very sorry to hear of what has happened.  Must be very frustrating.  Hopefully, before you know it, you'll be up and running again and this will just be a bad memory.  Keep up your spirits.

Steve, we didn't have a disaster overtake us, we just moved to a new state, but I figure I'm looking at a three year rebuild to get everything to where I can tolerate it.

 

It will never be finished.

 

Good luck. 

Wick's Lumber Co. went out of business 3or 4 years after I put up the garage…… Hey thats par for the course……...

1 - Sorry to hear that happened to you.

2 - Get off the forum and get those trains in a safe place.

3 - I will stay out of the roof truss mess, but I would like to point out, your neighbor's willow tree could break off a limb and hit your garage too. Don't ask how I know. No trains in it, just two cars, lawn mower, snow blower.

 

My best guess is get some Stearilte clear plastic bins from Walmart and start putting trains in them as soon as possible. Packing up trains is a chore. Sounds like real work.

As puffrbelly stated above, if they were engineered trusses I would think the company doing the engineering would have some liability if they fail? Sounds logical to me anyway, but I am no engineer or lawyer wither. Might be a good idea check out that option though.

 

Sorry, didn't see your post about the lumber co going out of business. You must have posted while I was writing this. That is a shame and even more bad luck.

Stephen,

Sometimes when a business closes, they still carry liability insurance for a couple of years.

Most Unfortunate-  but consider this an opportunity for you and your sons to recreate a new layout.  Lots of Dad- Son time together and the genesis for whatever your whimsy takes you.  There is always a Silver Lining. 

 

Good luck,  Mark

What were the snow loads like this year? There may have been nothing wrong with the trusses. Overloading can be a very real cause of premature failure.

 

Best case, replace the entire roof system. However, if the failure was due to loading, replacement with the same design may not be prudent. Regardless of code requirements, it may be worth your while to reconsider pitch, cord sizing, and truss configuration. There's nothing against the rules about over-building.

 

If there is a PE stamped design for the roof, liability may fall back on the engineer if the design did not meet minimum code requirements. Snow load is a design criteria.

 

As for your lumber company, they probably bought those trusses from a third party manufacturer.

Stephen,

Holy Cow... What happened ??

Whatever you do, DON'T Leave the Forum.

You are a happy face and always have something nice to say.

Besides, We can all keep you motivated to get back up and running as quickly as possible.

Stay focused my Friend.

 

Stephen,

 

Yes, that happened to us the winter of 1995-96.  We had 40 inches of wet snow on top of a vaulted ceiling.  The peak beam, I don't know the correct construction term, had been scabbed together when constructed.  The peak started to sag at that scab.  Our contractor said there was a new laminated beam available that would stretch the gap.  Our insurance adjuster said she was supposed to replace as built.  The contractor was able to convince her it would be better to use the new beam, then this could never happen again.  the adjuster pushed it through for the insurance company to pay for the big beam.

 

Maybe some of this information would be helpful in your situation.

Gilly I would hope that the claims adjuster can tell me what went wrong. We did get a bit of snow this season but nothing that told me to clear my roofs nor did I see any homes in my area clearing a roof. I'am in the Hudson Valley right near the Poughkeepsie Train Bridge over the Hudson River ( it's now a walking path) and I been here over thirty years I was a Supt. of Bldg. and Grounds for a large school district with over half million sq. ft. of flat roofs never had a problem. I just have a gut feeling that they failed…….

Thank you Brian, appreciate your kind words…...

Stephen,best of luck to you this Spring thru Summer. I hope your claim is resolved promptly and in your favor . Please don't stay away any longer than you have to as I always enjoy you posts.

 

Brad

Stephen

Good luck with the rebuild. Please post progress when back in business

Stephen

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, please keep us updated and wish you the best.

 

Steve: What is the span?  Are they 2x4 or 2x6?  What is the center to center distance?  Where did they break?  Did they all fail the same way?  Did the wood crack and break, or did they fail at a metal joint?  Answers to these questions would go a long way at determining why they failed.  Bob