Trusses improperly fastened on homes

Home inspector Tony Kunich says he's seeing the same problems with roof truss installation in some new Sun City Hilton Head homes as were found in 2007.

At that time, Pulte Homes, the developer of Sun City Hilton Head, and Beaufort County's building codes department ordered a large-scale repair program on affected homes.

One aspect of the problem, then as now, is the way workmen fasten trusses together when one truss rests on top of another. This occurs, for example, when a section of a house's roof extends perpendicularly off of the main roof -- the case with almost all houses. The trusses on top are called "valley trusses," and they're supposed to be fastened to the bottom trusses with nails, metal straps or sometimes screws.

There are specifications for how valley trusses are supposed to be connected to main roof trusses. In Sun City, specifications call for the top truss and the bottom truss to be connected by metal "hurricane straps" and nails. Screws also were used for some of the repairs done in 2007.

At each place where lumber in main roof trusses intersects with lumber in the valley trusses, two 3-1/2 inch nails are required. At every other intersection, hurricane straps -- metal strips that are nailed to the top and bottom trusses -- must be installed. Hurricane straps also are required at the outer two connection points at each end of the valley trusses.

Kunich, a private home inspector whose work includes checking homes in Sun City, says he has found deficiencies there.

"At some of the homes I have looked at, they have no nails and no strapping," he said. "At one house almost every connection had no nails."

Each home where he has found problems had been inspected months earlier by a county inspector and issued a certificate of occupancy, a document essentially saying the home is built properly.

"At all these houses, a county inspector had been there and CO'd them," Kunich said.