There are literally over a hundred million nail-plated timber roof trusses in service in Australia and several billion structural components that go to make up those trusses. And you can count on one hand the number of roofs that have collapsed in the last twenty or thirty years. That’s not a bad record.

If you look at those structures that have failed, almost without exception they are over large open areas without internal walls in institutional buildings – think halls in clubs and institutions, churches, classrooms and the like. And, typically, the failure occurs many years or decades after construction.

Unfortunately, these larger open rooms are exactly those that might on occasions have a large number of occupants. I fear that one day we may have a mass casualty collapse.

So, if you manage or frequent one of these older buildings with large open areas and you see or hear anything untoward (including sagging of the ceiling, sags in the ridge line, progressive cracking of plasterboard, the ongoing popping of plasterboard nails, or cracking/popping sounds) then DO NOT DELAY; get an engineer experienced in timber roof structures to check it out.