Ten extra classrooms have been added to a school in Lenham, Kent thanks to the use of timber trussed rafters.
Trussed Rafter Association member Palgrave Brown supplied more than 200 trussed rafters to form a roof for the existing 28x40m L-shaped maths block. The extra classrooms were created by adding a floor built using timber frame panels to the existing single-storey building.
Palgrave Brown’s contract to design and supply the trussed rafters was complicated by the large spans involved. Many of the trusses were formed of two mono-pitched trusses with a separate central truss section, and more than 20 different configurations were designed and manufactured to order.
The 25degree pitch roof structure was further complicated by the L-shape of the building, the distribution of load bearing walls and the hipped ends. This required quantities of strength graded infill timber to be supplied.
