Roof Truss Prices – How Much do Roof Trusses Cost?

The most important part of a house is its roof. The roof trusses form the backbone of your house and support everything from gutters to shingles. They can be made out of timber or steel.

The king post truss is a type of timber frame often used in older buildings. It comes in the shape of a triangle and consists of three main components: the tie beam at the bottom, which connects with its vertical counterpart, known as the king post, through two middle pieces called struts.

There are many different types of roof trusses, but the most popular styles include queen posts and arch-braced ones. These two designs create a steep angled or pitched roof respectively, with hammer beams for extra strength in valley areas where it's needed most.

Other common truss shapes created by these particular systems include scissor blades that help prevent leaks when there is heavy snowfall on top. Plus, they provide additional support against strong winds at higher elevations like mountain areas.

How much do roof trusses cost?

The price of a roof truss is influenced by factors such as design, lumber used, complexity of the project, and size. Expect to pay somewhere between $40 and $160 (≈1.3 days of non-stop labor at a $15/hour salary) per truss, without delivery and installation costs. When charged by length, the price per foot is somewhere between $5 to $8.

It can be hard to give an exact price per roof because there are so many variables involved in building them that you will need to consider even before you start construction, including but not limited to length, roof pitch or slope angle, and type of materials.

You might also like our articles about the cost of standing seam metal roof, flat roof replacement, or roll roofing.

It is not uncommon for homebuilders to charge between $5.50 and $8 per square foot in today's market. This includes the cost of labor, installation, as well as materials like lumber needed during roof trusses construction. As this job differs from building to building, you should consider getting some free quotes through an online search.

Timberlake Trussworks, LLC has created an expense breakdown guide that is very informative and easy to understand. According to their estimates, on average, the price tag for one truss can be somewhere between $85 and $107 (≈7.1 hours of your life traded for $15/hour) depending on what you want to be done. Only for the materials needed for a simple house, without machinery for roof truss installation and woodworking labor, you may have to set a budget of around $2,100 (≈3.5 weeks dedicated to affording this at $15/hour).

In the table below, you'll find some estimates for different types of trusses.

Factors that influence the roof truss price

Amount of trusses

If you are looking for a way to save money on your next project, consider buying trusses in bulk. For example, it will cost less per 10 trusses than how much you would pay for only one.

Design Loads

The truss has the capacity to hold considerable weight, but there are cases when it needs to hold more than average. In this situation, the design has to be different. For instance, you may have to change the standard gable end truss to the scissor type. This would increase the costs by up to 25%.

Roof Truss Material

As mentioned above, you can choose between two types of materials: a steel truss or a truss made of timber. The cheapest option will always be wood trusses.

Roof pitch

The costs will increase if the roof is steeper as there would be more boards necessary.

Truss Spacing

The standard spacing for a roof is two feet, but in some situations, customers may ask for trusses every 16 inches in order to create their own more robust structure.

The Span

The length at the bottom is known as the span, and the trusses are not all the same size. For example, if the span is 26 feet long, you would need 16-foot and 10-foot pieces of lumber to create the bottom cord, leaving no scrap behind. The price would get higher if the truss has to be customized and the scrap is left over.

Ceiling roof trusses details

Truss design is a common factor in new roof construction. There are many different truss types, but they all serve one purpose: to support weight and distribute it evenly across the span lengthwise without letting too much stress accumulate at any point along its height or width dimensions. A few examples include scissor-trussed roofs, raised heel, gambrel, girder, tri bearing, Polynesian, hip, bowstring, and mono.

The most common types of ceilings are studio vaulted ceilings, cathedral, barrel vault, inverted, flat, and tray.

The most common trusses are made of timber, but you can also find steel trusses.

You can purchase trusses from major stores from all across the United States, like Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Lowe’s, or Menards. Scissor trusses work great with a shingle roof.

What are the extra costs?

In the estimates presented above, the costs of delivery or any extra taxes are not included. Depending on the place you live, the taxes could increase the costs by 5% to 15%, while the delivery could be a few hundred dollars for 20 to 30 miles.

If you want to upgrade the grade of lumber, most roofers, as well as, roofing companies will charge more.

How can I save on the pricing?

You can save up to 15% if you purchase more than 10 to 15 trusses at once, so the more you buy, the more you save.

Some roofing companies might charge labor less as long as you buy the roof trusses through them.

Installing roof trusses is a job that should be done by someone with the needed experience and tools and there probably needs to be more than one person helping for a properly done job. But as long as you have done this in the past and you have people to help you, you could go for a DIY roof truss job as a way of spending less.