Reply To: Warning: Sukkah Alert–Sakanas Nefashos!

ICOT, thanks for the info. The truth is that the beams they supplied were 2×3, not 2×4. it makes no difference as far as my original post is concerned, since the issue was the length which was too short.

Yesterday, just to verify, I put up one board they supplied using their clips, and in less than 24 hours, it fell in. Nobody was in the sukkah yet, but obviously this is totally unacceptable, and gross negligence in the design. Possibly the company made a mistake in ordering the proper wooden pieces to include with their metal and canvas parts.

Whatever the case may be, it was a major tircha to go to Home Depot and pick out the right size lumber and load it on to the rooftop carrrier. Luckily, a very fine Home depot manager spent a half hour tying it up onto the car for me at no charge (although I gave him a nice tip). It was a major drain on time and there was a not insignificant cost to buy the wood.

As far as turning the boards on the side for extra strength, it really is unecessary when just supporting a schach mat.

Thanks for pointing out that 2×3 is really 1.5 x 2.5. I believe 2.5 is for sure less than a tefach lchol hadayos. So there is no conceivable reason to turn on the side.

Cherrybim, as far as metal brackets go, better check with a Rav whether that is permitted. It might render these supports davar hamekabel tumah and would defeat their purpose which is to shield the mat from the metal (so the metal is not a maamid).