"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message

There I found that, in order to get clearance for the pulley of the
whole-house fan, someone had cut a piece out of the underside of the top
chord of one of the roof trusses. There is about a 6" section with only
half the material left.

On that same truss, the upper end of one of the diagonal braces has
obviously been moved: I can see where the metal plate (do I recall
correctly that they are called "gang nails"?) *used to be*, but it is now
perhaps an inch away from that position -- farther down toward the eaves.

Is this dangerous? How would I remedy it?

Perce

Trusses are engineered to take a given load, plus a safety factor because
some homeowners are idiots and cut things they should not. The engineer
that designed the truss can tell you how bad it truly is. Moving one of the
braces an inch is probably not a major factor either, but there is a reason
it was placed where it was though. Moving it an inch is probably not a big
deal either.

What you want though, is some piece of mind that 10 years from now there
will be no sagging in the roof. Why was the brace moved? Can you put
another piece along side of it? You can add a 2 x 4 to sister the brace and
it will take a much heavier load. Depending on where the pulley is, it may
be possible to add some extra bracing along side of it also. Removing some
of the thickness does make it more subject to flexing so you do want to add
some stiffeners. Use a little geometry and see if you can make an angle
brace or two that will assist in keeping the truss stiff. Not being able to
see it, I can't offer a recommendation, but if you take a photo to someone
familiar with trusses they could probably tell you the best way.