Q. I’m facing some building projects. One’s a tall deck, another is framing a garden shed, and then I need to help a friend with a room addition. I’m wondering about diagonal bracing. I don’t ...

Q: I’m facing some building projects. One is a tall deck, another is framing a garden shed, and I need to help a friend with a room addition. I’m wondering about diagonal bracing. I don’t understand ...

Q: The attic in our 4-year-old house creaks, and when it’s windy we hear cracking noises as well. The sounds are loud, waking us up. The builder sent a fellow to add 2-by-4s to some of the trusses. It ...

Exposed trusses are exceptional architectural elements, at once structural -- they hold up the roof -- while modulating a space to give it scale and rhythm. But with the many truss types out there, ...