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Growing Up Green

Summary

I was recently asked to summarize the major programs available today for “Green” or “Sustainable” building. Big cars, big houses, Big Mac’s, and mostly driving from our big houses in our big cars to get our Big Mac’s. The sixties bred back to the land “New Ecology” movements, then in the early 1970’s, during the OPEC oil embargo there was a sudden interest in conservation and alternative energy. I worked on an active solar home in NH in 1976 and we thought we could reduce or eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels entirely, never mind just the Middle East! This was all too soon forgotten with the opening of the OPEC spigot. The department of energy set up the Energy star, the Building America, and Rebuild America programs in the early nineties and again, we thought we were on a roll to low energy impact buildings. There are now three major programs around: “Green Globes™”, brought to us by The Green Building Initiative¹, which provides a web based toolkit for building evaluation, the

LEED ™ (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) developed by the United States Green Building Council² (USGBC), and the National Association of Homebuilder’s³ “NAHB Model GREEN Home Building Guidelines”. There are similarities and differences, and the author believes they are all a step in the right direction.

The Old FRT is Gone, but Truss Damage Remains

Truss Failure Example

Something to watch:

Remember the 1990's and the older-style FRT problems we were constantly writing up? Once in a while, we see reminders of that old FRT and may overlook the implications of it. The photo shows a town home roof where the old FRT was replaced long ago, but there is still clear evidence of truss and connector damage that are a significant concern.

At least two major issues have way outlived the FRT plywood itself; first, the deteriorated top chord of the truss itself - this was what caused the original plywood failure - and second, the corrosion of the gusset plate. A third possibility is the nails that secure the replacement sheathing to the top chord may continue to corrode from the FRT chemicals. The combined effects of this residual damage are difficult to quantify, but that is not our job. We do, in my opinion, need to inform our clients that such trusses are deteriorated, and may not perform up to original design specifications.
This is another example of the law of unintended consequences. While the original risk of plywood sheathing failure may no longer exist, structural compromise of the roof support system may.

Greg Trotter

Greg Trotter
President
Commercial Building Consultants, LLC
590 N. Semoran Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32807

We are a team of professionals that specialize in project management, property condition assessments, and due diligence services.

Greg Trotter and Richard Gregor performing a property condition assessment