Monday, August 20, 2007

Black Truss Markings

While working on some stuff around the house this weekend, the question arose of what those little black diamonds were every 19-3/16." The question was brought to work today and answered by the greatness that is Wikipedia.

"One little-known feature on most tape measures is
a small black diamond that appears every 19.2 inches, known as the 'black truss'
markings. This is used to mark out an equal five trusses per standard eight-foot
sheet of building material. (8 feet, or 96 inches, divided by 5 is 19.2
inches.)"

So under a normal 8-ft piece of plywood, if there are 5 spaces, there will be 6 different supports. And you don't even have to figure out the correct spacing to be exact. How sweet is that? I for one, can't wait to build a roof in the near future, because it will be soooo much more efficient.

4 comments:

Timothy Miller said...

I'm forwarding that to Charles to see if he knew that already.

Sam said...

My money's on he already knows that.

Timothy Miller said...

He said, "Hey Tim,

Shucks yea, I already knew that. I call it 19.2 centers.

Just don't get too smart with metric, that will mess me up.

-Charles"

MICHELLE CULLUM said...

i don't get it. black trusses. 19 and 3/16ths on center? huh? hook a brother up.