Did Centennial A&Ps Have Roof Truss?

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Ephrata1966
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Did Centennial A&Ps Have Roof Truss?

Post by Ephrata1966 »

I have been wondering if the standard A&P Centennial used what is called Truss roofing. This style of construction was very popular with restaurant chains in the 60's and 70's for its energy efficiency. Burger King and I believe Pizza Hut among other chains used it in their hundreds of locations across America. Sadly, these buildings are prone to roof collapses if they catch fire. I imagine asbestos was used when many were built, insulating them, but we all know why asbestos is gone now. Not sure if this is regulated by the city, state, county, or federal law, but in at least a few areas these buildings must have a warning sign like this on the front today: http://www.compliancesigns.com/NHE-4126.shtml
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BK31
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Re: Did Centennial A&Ps Have Roof Truss?

Post by BK31 »

I'm not sure if all of the centennial A&P's used truss roofing, but I do know of at least one on the east side of Atlanta that did not. It was a combo of conventional stick built and steel from what I remember looking through the ceiling of a space we worked on a couple years ago.

On a side note, truss roofs, are generally used to speed along construction rather than for energy efficiency. The members are made at a factory off site to exacting standards and then craned into place. They help take the guess work our of framing in the field up in the air and the possibility of contractor error. Light frame trusses are rather common in commercial and residential projects across the board. The majority of builder homes use trusses because they can call up the factory and order the same exact set of trusses as the house 4 doors down. that's why many of the prototypical chain business use trusses. They can just order that prototype's roof from the manufacturer and it'll look exactly the same wherever its built.

Part of the reason there are issues with fires and collapse is that the trusses usually use 2X4 or 2X6 wood members connected together to form a system rather than one larger 2X10 or larger laminated beams and members. The smaller members burn through faster and once one or more of the areas are compromised you have a greater tendency for failure than if just one stick member was damaged in a fire. It doesn't pose much of an issue to you or me, but it does affect how a firefighter might attack the blaze, so I can see why they need the labels in certain areas.
Ephrata1966
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Re: Did Centennial A&Ps Have Roof Truss?

Post by Ephrata1966 »

Wait, most of them did?
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BK31
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Re: Did Centennial A&Ps Have Roof Truss?

Post by BK31 »

Sorry I worded that wrong. I should've said I don't know if ANY of the centennial A&P's used truss roofing. I honestly don't know. Sorry for the confusion.
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MikeRa
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Re: Did Centennial A&Ps Have Roof Truss?

Post by MikeRa »

BK31 wrote:Sorry I worded that wrong. I should've said I don't know if ANY of the centennial A&P's used truss roofing. I honestly don't know. Sorry for the confusion.
It would be just the front part of the A&P Centennial/Colonial buildings that would've used truss roofing. The other 5/6 of the buildings were flat roofs, except for the A&P that had barrel roofs.
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