Non Load Bearing Roof Truss

A rolling node is assigned to provide support in only one direction often the y direction of a truss member.

Non load bearing roof truss.

When joists trusses are perpendicular to the wall and bear on the top of the wall that wall is bearing wall. It can take various forms and often used for aesthetic purposes adding height and focal interest to the ceiling. If the wall in question is parallel to the joists trusses it will likely not be load bearing. One top plate and a space between the bottom chord of the truss and the top of the wall non load bearing.

To enable the roof truss to deflect under loads nails to the truss must be installed at the top of the slotted holes and not hammered home to allow a loose fit only. Engineered roof truss systems may be designed to eliminate the need for load bearing walls or change where the bearing walls are located. Internal wall brackets are used to connect internal non loadbearing walls to roof trusses at maximum 1800mm centres. Actually a quick way to determine if the wall is bearing is to cut hole at the top to see if it has one or two top plates.

If there are two plates refer to an engineer. For many multi family projects floor and roof trusses joists span from unit wall to unit wall while interior non load bearing walls tend to fall near the center of the floor span. The formula for truss loads states that the number of truss members plus three must equal the twice the number of nodes. Chances are this is a non bearing wall.

An example of a load bearing wall call be seen on the right. This type of truss is perfect for the dining room living room great room and kitchen. The remaining third node of each triangle is known as the load bearing node.