Please see the photo. 2x4s nailed to roof truss. Entire roof framing structure was engineered truss. Would nailing those 2x4s to them qualify as a modification? Or simply something for transporting them to the job site and should’ve been taken off?
Thanks for the help
They are used in the build process to keep the trusses alined and stable until the sheathing and ceiling strapping is installed. sometimes the builder does not remove them, But not a problem.
Thanks Scott
You are welcome Ryan, You have a great day.
Do not remove, the structure would collapse on itself.
What Scott said and sometimes they are used to stand on to install spreaders with 1x3’s instead of 2x4’s on the top of the trusses also for spreaders or use the truss spreaders. You should also always check and make sure there are no tags on those chords that called for permanent lateral bracing. What you have there are only temporary and not part of permanent bracing.
Have a good one
You have to look at the truss design drawing to be sure… but in general if the web is 10 feet or greater it probably should have had a brace down the middle with a diagonal somewhere along that plane. Builders like to starve the framers for wood which is one reason roof trusses are really never braced like the truss design drawing call for. Even if you call it out builders are unlikely to fix it…in my experience…Looks like they used scraps to put this brace in…
My guess is that u have never erected trusses on a building before. Like Marcel said you should look for tags that call out for permanent lateral bracing. A good builder would have removed them and recycled them back into the job.
Ask him about a roofing book he wrote, no I am not joking 
You can read or write a book, But there is nothing like hands-on experience.
This one! 
Ryan, here is a free graphic showing the lateral bracing and the associated truss tag.
Lateral bracing is typically used on web members in compression and greater than 8 feet in length. If the 2x4 in your photo are there for lateral bracing they should be continuous, gaps are not allowed.
I just wanted to add that where the bracing is required it is likely to be required to be continuous across all similar members and lapped at least two foot. While it is true that sometimes carpenters put temporary blocking in to stabilize the trusses until they can be properly braced it appears that the blocking in the photo is too low to serve that purpose. So likely it was added after the sheathing was in place and they just used up the wood they had. Here is a example drawing from BCSI-103 page 73 about bracing trusses.
The question is… if missing and there is no tag calling for it… how would a HI know? We (HIs) are not allowed to determine if it’s needed or not.
I think that if the truss designer tagged all the chords that need lateral bracing there would be at least one or two tags left somewhere. I can’t believe one would go around pulling them all off.
And in most cases, if the trusses where erected per drawings submitted with the trusses at time of the erection for temporary lateral and diagonal bracing, and left in place, it would be more than adequate, because most get installed in the same place as the permanent. Some tags will call out some compression members to be T’s or L shape stiffeners, depending on the design.
Compression members can be identified by some HI’s that have had extensive experience in truss erection, but most would not be expected to know, nor should they make an attempt to call out.
Some truss companies where I live have marked the trusses after they were bundled for transport by tagging the end truss and painting a green stripe down the rest.
He won’t know without looking at the truss design drawings. It is the purview of the truss manufacturer to decide if he wants to put a tag on a truss or not…I’ve installed many many that never had any tags what so ever. Now days I’m more likely to see a tag at bearing locations…but hardly ever for brace locations. Just what the manufacture’s do around here…Some trusses require a lot of bracing so that’s a lot of tags. Anyway if it’s a long web it’s probably required but if you can’t prove it I would hesitate about calling it out for a home inspection.
