By Erik Söderlund
The ITC-SA held a very productive and interactive workshop with Mpumalanga’s National Homebuilders Registration Council (NHBRC) representatives in Middelburg on Thursday,8April.
The workshop began with everyone participating in a general discussion on the topic of roof trusses and moved onto presentations on the role of the ITC-SA and the legal requirements for a compliant roof structure presented by Mike Newham. The conversation and the discussion arising from Mike’s presentation on the detailed requirements of a compliant timber roof structure highlighted some misperceptions that may occur that the Institute needs to address.
The most important of these is underestimating the complexity of the supporting calculations for a rational design of a timber roof structure. After Mike worked through an example of the software design process for a timber roof structure with the delegates, there was a greater appreciation of this process.
By the end of the workshop, the delegates seemed to accept that site-made trusses may not have adequate rational designs behind them and, as such, in many cases, are probably not compliant.
We left ITC-SA information brochures and our contact details. We also offered support to the officials, who said they would contact us should they have any queries. The ITC-SA would like to thank the NHBRC for providing us with the opportunity to present the workshop to them. We look forward to furthering our cooperation.
