Traditional Framing:

If you ever have a chance to walk around an old barn or see the bones of a really old homestead shelter you’ll notice that those massive posts and beams don’t land straight on the foundation but on even larger timbers, the sills. Our forebearers built this way based on centuries of practical experience. Those sills lock in the box, as we say, making the entire frame ridged and allowed the frame to ride like a boat on top of the foundation. Today’s timber frame industry has done away with timbered sills and we feel that this is a great loss and will generally shorten the life span of the frames.

This four over four timber frame incorporates fully timbered sills and has the main floor braces in a traditional inverted position. The main frame has a foot print measuring twenty eight feet square with the lean-to taking up fourteen feet square. The total square footage  is 1, 764 square feet.

There are many benefits to this design:

• Increased overall rigidity of the frame.
• Increases the reliance on the dynamic nature of wood rather than forcing reliance on the foundation. The structure supports itself.
• Self supporting structures do not rely on engineered materials to meet building code.
  
• You can do away with toxic plywood, Structural Insulated Panel systems and highly manufactured nominal lumber.
  
• Inverted lower braces improve passive solar options and view lines on main floor.
• A timbered floor system does not need toxic plywood to make it structural.
• Cellars and basements will benefit from a beautiful ceiling.
  
• Our timbers are locally grown and milled, and we replant two trees for every sixteen foot timber we use.

On top of these points we can cut this frame as modeled for significantly less than others can cut the posts and main beams and for nearly what it costs to frame in a conventional house. If you are considering straw baling, cob, slip straw or rammed earth then a traditional timber frame will provide you with an heirloom skeleton that allows these natural walls to do what they do best – insulate you from the elements.

As with all our models full plans are available to the ambitious DIY, plans include full joinery details, construction specifics and permit necessary stuff like wall sections.

To enquire about this or any other frame either comment on this post, (this is the slow response way), or drop us an email — follow the leads on the contact page.

For an explanation of listed costs, click!

Preview: Look before you buy a plan. We suggest you request a preview of the model(s) you are interested in. You will need to download, for free, Google’s SketchUp Viewer. This program is available for both MacIntosh and Windows users and is very easy to use. Email us a request for the preview files of the models you are interested in and we will send them off just as soon as we are next at the computer.

What’s Included: PDF’s of all necessary wall sections for permitting. One, fully authorized copy of original 3-D rendered files — these include scaled, highly detailed joinery in digital format (multiple formats are available), augmented by files containing timber by timber visual specifications. Multiple wall sections covering a variety of potential external membranes, from conventional through straw bale.  We also have compiled statistics and documentation relevant to the integrity of heavy timber construction, information that is often useful in educating your local housing authority and building inspector on the viability, craft and integrity of heavy timber construction.

Structural Engineering: Your local building authority may require you to have a licensed engineer, review and approve of the structures design. If this is so and alterations are required, we will work with you to facilitate reasonable modification to the frame design should this be required. Up to 4 hours of redesign and file alteration is provided free of charge, additional hours are prorated at a reduced hourly design rate of $25/hr, down from our normal $30/hr.

Accessory Drawings: To receive a building permit in most North American municipalities the builder must submit a wall section relevant to the method of construction. Given the diverse options for enclosing timber frames — from stud wall infill, through straw bale, we have provided each model with PDF images covering most potential scenarios. If by chance your project is not covered we will generate a wall section that will serve your specific application. No charge.

Consider: We are builders and students of timeless building techniques by profession, it’s what we do. We have a good grasp and understanding of applied physical engineering and building trigonometry, we have learned out of desire and need. No person, institution, committee or group of the learned has bestowed on us a certification or degree stating that we have studied and understood any of the above. We are competent humans, building healthy and sustainable shelters using the intellectual tools available to us and the skills we have honed. We live in and work in shelters built using all of the methods and tools listed. We are also honest and concerned for you and yours’ safety, health and happiness. Given this we would not and do not build, design or sell anything that we, ourselves would not work or live in with our loved ones. If you need our designs certified by a licensed professional we can secure a reputable engineer or architect that is proficient with heavy timber construction  — oddly, most are not.

We developed this design as a demonstration of several key design points when planning custom frames for our clients. We’ve realized that this frame has virtues enough to be offered as is. The points that the design conveys are:

1. Boxes are efficient to build and don’t have to be boring. Something as simple as turning a roof line or extending a post height can offer you a highly dynamic shelter.
2. Solar design has to be an integral part of how we design and locate our shelters, this is the cornerstone of sustainable shelter building. With correct orientation to the suns over head passage and efficient insulating walls on the north, this building is ideally suited to passive solar fundamentals.
3. Optimal capture of rain and funneling, for rain water catchment systems.
4. All the fundamentals of appealing design are available in this structure: good interior to exterior sight lines, layering of spaces, potential for hidden alcoves, visual stability of the structure and a genuineness, an honesty of purpose.
5. Most of all, the interaction an occupant would experience with the immediate external environment while still being sheltered, would be awesome. Imagine the rain, sunsets and rises.

Potential stand alone uses are: Public or Private Pavilion, Green House, Workshop or Studio, Pool House, Guest House, Small Homestead. The frame could also be slightly modified to form an addition to an existing structure. If placed on a south facing wall its high solar gain could be used to augment current heating systems greatly reducing the demand on grid or fossil fuel systems.

This Frame could also be modified to achieve a full or half second storey doubling the square footage, for much less than doubling the cost.

As with all our models full plans are available to the ambitious DIY, plans include full joinery details, construction specifics and permit necessary stuff like wall sections. Click!

To enquire about this or any other frame comment on this post or drop us an email — follow the leads on the contact page.

For an explanation of listed costs, click!

]]> http://blog.traditionaltimberworks.com/cornered-gables/feed/ 1 http://blog.traditionaltimberworks.com/storey-and-a-half-timbered-cabin/ http://blog.traditionaltimberworks.com/storey-and-a-half-timbered-cabin/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:30:18 +0000 Chris http://blog.traditionaltimberworks.com/?p=161 At 14 feet by 20 feet and featuring a half storey second floor, this cabin will make an excellent bunkie or could be outfitted as a guest house for weekend or extended use.

For an individual or couple in the early stages of homesteading this frame could allow for four season living while the main home is brought to completion — and will stand to serve as an integral part of the homestead even once it has ceased to be the primary shelter.

Though small in size this frame has many features that are found in larger frames. In the second storey queen posts support gable and central timbered rafters, while a continuous timber top plate provides ease of common rafter installation — the use of common rafters in place of more traditional purlin system, eases raising and reduces the overall cost of the frame. This frame could be raised by hand with a small crew making it an ideal frame for remote locations.

As with all our models full plans are available to the ambitious DIY, plans include full joinery details, construction specifics and permit necessary stuff like wall sections.

To enquire about this or any other frame either comment on this post, (this is the slow response way), or drop us an email — follow the leads on the contact page.

For an explanation of listed costs, click!

As with all our models full plans are available to the ambitious DIY, plans include full joinery details, construction specifics and permit necessary stuff like wall sections. Click!

To enquire about this or any other frame comment on this post or drop us an email — follow the leads on the contact page.

For an explanation of listed costs, click!