joining roofing battens

[gg23]

hi,
Have started putting up battens on 900 cts roof trusses. The roof is about 9.4m long and I have 3.2m lengths of 90x45 for the battens. How are the battens spliced/joined when the join is not over a truss? Im hoping that there is a way to join the battens when they dont meet over the truss as otherwise I will have a lot of wastage.

Also I cannot find any spec for the spacing of the battens? The roof is a simple gable and the sloping section is about 4m.

Thanks
greg

[journeyman Mick]

I'm in a cyclonic area so it may be different for non-cyclonic (but I doubt it) and all battens must be joined over a truss/rafter. Batten spacing is dependant on wind loads and roofing type.

Mick

[sol381]

Prepare for waste.. as mick said they have to be joined on a truss.. seems like 90x 45 is a bit overkill. 75x 38 is the usual size.

[Make it work]

I joined mine over the rafter but to minimise waste I used the longest lengths I could get delivered. I used 70 X 35 at centres to match existing, about 900 plus or minus some.

The other thing is staggering the joins, I was told that inspectors frown on having more than 1 joined batten on the same rafter, made sense to me to stagger the joins.

[DvdHntr]

I was told that inspectors frown on having more than 1 joined batten on the same rafter, made sense to me to stagger the joins.

There is a reason. The battens are assumed to restrain the top chord/rafter and they don't restarin well enough at a join.

[MrFixIt]

Hi

hi,
Have started putting up battens on 900 cts roof trusses. The roof is about 9.4m long and I have 3.2m lengths of 90x45 for the battens. How are the battens spliced/joined when the join is not over a truss?

They're NOT All joins have to be over a truss.

Im hoping that there is a way to join the battens when they dont meet over the truss as otherwise I will have a lot of wastage.

No there isn't and unfortunately yes you will have wastage. The problem you have is the batten length is more suited to 600 centre trusses/rafters. You could try for 2.7m or 3.6m battens that wiil help minimise your wastage as those lengths work better with 900 centres. If you can get a different length of batten, check that the batten ends are not split/poor condition as you will be working at the ends of the material and it is a PITA to be 25mm short and have to cut off nearly 900mm to use the alternative truss.