Truss Uplift
A detachment of the ceiling from the wall is an irritating, but all too common problem. Its principal cause is a natural event called Truss Uplift.
Wikipedia defines truss uplift as an occurrence common in new houses built with roof trusses as opposed to rafters. If a house undergoes truss uplift, the top floor ceilings lift off the interior walls.
Wood is mysterious. When it shrinks, it shrinks more at right angles to the grain, than along the grain. Wood studs in the walls of new homes don’t get shorter; they get thinner in thickness and width.
However, when 2″x4″ studs are connected (butt-ended to each other) in long spans, as in top or bottom chords in conventional roof trusses, they may contract and expand at the rate of 1/2″ to 3/4″ per 40-foot length, depending on its moisture content.
Since the bottom chord has no other direction to move but up, it creates the break at the joints between the wall and the ceiling as it takes drywall with it.
If for some reason, the interior walls are nailed more securely to the truss than the floor, the truss could lift the entire wall. This accounts for gaps you might see at the bottom of your baseboard trim.
Why is it happening?
Most roof trusses consist of a flat horizontal 2″x 4″ dimensional wood member called a bottom chord. The angled portions of the truss are named the top chords.
Field tests show that differential shrinkage between upper and lower members causes the whole truss to bow upward, and if the drywall is attached to the bottom chord too close to the partition, this upwards truss movement will crack the drywall,
The lower chord in your home and many others like yours is probably enclosed with insulation. During the winter, the warmth from the heated ceiling below allows this portion of the truss to stay nice and dry.
Meanwhile, the upper part of the truss is exposed to much moister and air together with the snow load.
Moisture in the attic condenses on the cold top chords, which act like sponges and soak it up to reach an equilibrium with the surrounding air. The idea is that the top chords expand while bottom chords shrink thus causing trusses to arch upward.
How to fix truss uplift:
- Some people use a crown moulding where the walls meet the ceilings. Molding is fastened to the ceilings but not to the walls. As the ceilings move up, the mouldings move up with them hiding the gap.
- Some people float the truss by using brackets with a vertical control slot rather than toe-nailing the truss to the top plate.
- Attach clips as a backup for all drywall comer joints involving interior partitions DO NOT reduce the amount of insulation to expose the bottom chord.
- Ensure that adequate airflow is maintained at the eaves.
- Float the drywall corners. It is vital that the recommended ceiling float distances of 12 inches and 16 inches (for 1/2″ and 5/8″ drywall respectively) be maintained. For walls, the proper distance is 8″ from the ceiling.
- Careful material handling before construction can also prevent or minimize the truss movement. Arrange for the trusses to be delivered to the site just before they are needed so you don’t have to store them on site.
- If on-site storage is unavoidable, store the trusses upright with bracing or horizontally with adequate blocking.
- First, specify the use of dry lumber. S-Dry graded lumber has a maximum of 19% moisture content and will shrink less.
More Info: http://www.carsondunlop.com/resources/articles/truss-uplift/
My wife and I are getting ready to move out of state and looking to sell our home. We noticed some cracking in our dining room ceiling. In your article, you stated that new homes are often built with roof trusses as opposed to rafters. I have never seen this before in any of the homes we have lived in. Are there professionals that can correct this problem?
Yes. You can either call a taper that will retape over those cracks or put a crown moulding around the ceiling to cover them.
Hi,
Is the truss uplift a perpetual problem, or let’s say after 2 years we can assume house is settled/dryed and the gaps can be sealed from inside for good (and not bother fixing the framing from attic)
It gets better through time.
I have a 45-year-old house (built in the early 70’s) with a 5 foot crack at one location where the wall meets the ceiling, and it hasn’t gotten better. It is about 1/4 of an inch wide in the winter and closed (barely visible at all) in the summer and it has done this for all 20 years that we’ve lived here. We are in Calgary Alberta. Over recent years, cracks on the vertical drywall wall have appeared on both sides of the wall at the location, but these are relatively thin ones that I will try to fix myself with crack tape and compound. I’m just at this site wondering what to do, or if there is anything I can do, about the big crack where the wall meets the ceiling.
Is it possible to put crown molding all around the room?
My home is 50 years old. I am seeing the cracks along the ceiling and will consider crown molding in future remodel to conceal this. But I’m now seeing the hairline cracks running down the wall from the ceiling too. No crown molding is going to fix that. I tried to repair one in a bathroom a few years ago. So proud of myself…just a bit of wall patch and sanding, then repainted. Hairline crack reappeared soon after. Hopeless. I want to know what can be done in the attic to prevent this. Should I tackle this project before I do any major remodeling…like an expensive kitchen. Ugh! Home ownership is overrated! The American Dream? Or the American Nightmare?
I just finish a home build right before winter started and now I have cracks on most of the interior walls. Question is do you think I should fix them now or wait until it warms up ? The new homeowner has not moved in yet but will move in before spring warm up. If I fix them now will it come back down and ruin the tape and texture again in the spring warm up or will it stay where its at now that it has moved? And no I can not put crown molding up.
Is the home heated? If not, wait until you turn on the furnace. If it is, fix it right away.
I would wager a guess that the dry winter air dried up the dimensional wood under drywall.
If it is truss uplift, nobody can guarantee that it will not repeat itself. Did you put a resilient channel under drywall?
I have a truss roof; house is 10 years old and I have a constant issue with nail pops and cracking where the wall meets the ceiling. Also there is a hairline crack that runs across the ceiling of my 2-story hall.I just had someone install crown molding in the 2nd story bedrooms that are my main problem. But, they attache the molding to the ceiling as well as to the wall stud. Will this work, or will the truss lift my ceiling, molding and all?
I have a small 2 storey house with bad truss uplift in center of the structure mainly, does not occur on outside walls. It happens every year. Putting up crown moulding sounds easy, but how to attach it to the ceiling only and have it look decent?
I am also wondering if there is an insulation problem in my attic? Maybe not enough ventilation for the summer months? Should I have that looked into?
I have a flat roof home in New Mexico that is less than 1 year old. During the winter, I was told by the builder that the VERY loud, popping sounds that occurred (mostly) during the overnight hours was due to truss uplift. As predicted, the frequency lessened during the hot summer months but has begun again, albeit infrequently, as we approach fall. I expect it will continue to happen more frequently as temperatures drop. The builder said I could expect the problem to (mostly) disappear after about 3 years. Does this sound accurate, or is he blowing smoke to avoid a costly fix?
I bought a new house in 2018 that had this issue. After the first winter, we repaired the drywall. The problem happened again in the second winter (shocker). After the second winter, I cut the drywall screws on the truss closest to the wall where the separation was occurring. The problem happened again in the third winter, but wasn’t as bad. After the third winter when the drywall came back down into place, I went back up in the attic with some aluminum angle, placed one side of the angle against the drywall and the other side against the wall framing where the separation was occurring, and screwed the angle to the wall framing. This essentially created a hard stop, so the drywall could not raise up beyond the aluminum angle. There are some risks with this approach – drywall can crack as uplift occurs… however, for us, corner separations are just as annoying as cracks, so we took the chance and it worked out. We had zero separation from truss uplift during our 4th winter. So it’s worked out pretty good so far.
In your opinion, can truss uplift cause damage to a gutter that is secured to a fascia board at the truss tails?
No!
I appreciate the techniques you mentioned for controlling the effects of truss uplift, such as floating the truss with vertical control slots and using clips for drywall corner joints. Another helpful tip is to ensure adequate airflow at the eaves to minimize moisture accumulation in the attic. Additionally, specifying the use of dry lumber with lower moisture content can help reduce shrinkage and mitigate truss movement. Great insights on managing truss uplift effectively!