Timber framing

Timber framing and "post-and-beam" construction are methods of building with heavy timbers rather than dimensional lumber such as 2"x4"s. Traditional timber framing is the method of creating structures using heavy squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs (larger versions of the mortise and tenon joints in furniture). It is commonplace in wooden buildings from the 19th century and earlier. The method comes from making things out of logs and tree trunks without modern high tech saws to cut lumber from the starting material stock. Using axes, adzes, and draw knives, hand-powered auger drill bits (bit and brace), and laborious woodworking, artisans or farmers could gradually assemble a building capable of bearing heavy weight without excessive use of interior space given over to vertical support posts. Since this building method has been used for thousands of years in many parts of the world, there are many styles of historic framing. These styles are often categorized by the type of foundation, walls, how and where the beams intersect, the use of curved timbers, and the roof framing details. Three basic types of timber frames in English-speaking countries are the box frame, cruck frame, and aisled frame.

Illustration of timber framing from the Lexikon der gesamten Technik (1904)
The market square of Dornstetten (Germany), showing an ensemble of half-timbered buildings

The box frame

A simple timber frame made of straight vertical and horizontal pieces with a common rafter roof without purlins. The term box frame is not well defined and has been used for any kind of framing other than cruck framing. The distinction presented here is the roof load is carried by the exterior walls. Purlins are also in a simple timber frame.

The cruck frame

A "true" or "full" cruck half-timbered building in Weobley, Herefordshire, England. The cruck blades are the tall, curved timbers which extend from near the ground to the ridge.

A cruck is a pair of crooked or curved timbers[1] which form a bent (U.S.) or crossframe (UK), the individual timbers each called a blade. More than 4,000 cruck frame buildings have been recorded in the UK. There are several types of cruck frames (more information follows in English Style below and at the main article Cruck):

Aisled frame

Interior of a two-aisled market hall

Aisled frames have one or more rows of interior posts. These interior posts typically carry more structural load than the posts in the exterior walls. This is the same concept of the aisle in church buildings, sometimes called a hall church, where the center aisle is technically called a nave. However, a nave is often called an aisle, and three-aisled barns are common in the U.S., Netherlands, and Germany. Aisled buildings are wider than the simpler box framed or cruck framed buildings, and typically have purlins supporting the rafters. In northern Germany this construction is known as variations of a Ständerhaus.

Half-timbered

Half-timbered wall with three kinds of infill, wattle and daub, brick, and stone. The plaster coating which originally covered the infill and timbers is mostly gone. This building is in the central German city of Bad Langensalza.

Half-timbering refers to a structure with a frame of load-bearing timber, creating spaces between the timbers called panels or in German Fächer, which are then filled-in with some kind of non-structural material known as infill. The frame is often left exposed on the exterior of the building.[2]

Infill materials

The earliest known type of infill, called opus craticum by the Romans, was a wattle and daub type construction.[3] Opus craticum is now confusingly applied to a Roman stone/mortar infill also. Similar methods to wattle and daub were also used and known by various names as clam staff and daub, cat-and-clay, or torchis (French) to name only three.

Wattle and daub was the most common infill in ancient times. The sticks were not always technically wattlework (woven) but also individual sticks installed vertically, horizontally or at an angle into holes or grooves in the framing. The coating of daub has many recipes but generally was a mixture of clay and chalk with a binder such as grass or straw and water or urine.[4] When the manufacturing of bricks increased, brick infill replaced the less durable infills and became more common. Stone laid in mortar as an infill was used in areas where stone rubble and mortar were available.

Other infills include bousillage, fired brick, un-fired brick such as adobe or mudbrick, stones sometimes called pierrotage, planks as in the German standerbohlenbau, timbers as in standerblockbau, or rarely cob without any wooden support.[5] The wall surface on the interior were often “ceiled” with wainscoting and plastered for warmth and appearance.

Brick infill sometimes called nogging became the standard infill after the manufacturing of bricks made them more available and less expensive. Half-timbered walls may be covered by siding materials including plaster, weatherboarding, tiles, or slate shingles.[6]

The infill may be covered by other materials, including weatherboarding or tiles.[6] or left exposed. When left exposed both the framing and infill were sometimes done in a decorative manner. Germany is famous for its decorative half-timbering and the figures sometimes have names and meanings. The decorative manner of half-timbering is promoted in Germany by the German fachwerk road, several planned routes people can drive to see notable examples of fachwerk buildings.

Gallery of infill types:

Gallery of some named figures and decorations:

The collection of elements in half timbering are sometimes given specific names:

History of the term

The term half-timbering is not as old as the German name fachwerk or the French name colombage, but it is the standard English name for this style. One of the first people to publish the term half-timbered was Mary Martha Sherwood (1775–1851), who employed it in her book, The Lady of the Manor, published in several volumes from 1823 to 1829. She uses the term picturesquely: "...passing through a gate in a quickset hedge, we arrived at the porch of an old half-timbered cottage, where an aged man and woman received us."[7] By 1842, half-timbered had found its way into The Encyclopedia of Architecture by Joseph Gwilt (1784–1863). This juxtaposition of exposed timbered beams and infilled spaces created the distinctive "half-timbered", or occasionally termed, "Tudor", style, or "black-and-white".

Oldest examples

The most ancient known half-timbered building is called the House of Opus craticum. It was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD in Herculaneum, Italy. Opus craticum was mentioned by Vitruvius in his books on architecture as a timber frame with wattlework infill.[8] However, the same term is used to describe timber frames with an infill of stone rubble laid in mortar the Romans called Opus incertum.[9]

Alternate meanings

A variation of the second meaning of half-timbered: the ground floor is log and the upper floor is framed (half-timbered in the first sense). Kluge House, Montana, U.S.

A less common meaning of the term "half-timbered" is found in the fourth edition of John Henry Parker's Classic Dictionary of Architecture (1873) which distinguishes full-timbered houses from half-timbered, with half timber houses having a ground floor in stone[10] or logs such as the Kluge House which was a log cabin with a timber framed second floor.

Structure

Joints in an ancient French roof, the wooden pegs hold the mortise and tenon joinery together.
Projecting ("jettied") upper storeys of an English half-timbered village terraced house, the jetties plainly visible
This is a part of a timber frame, before pegs are inserted

Traditional timber framing is the method of creating framed structures of heavy timber jointed together with various joints, commonly and originally with lap jointing, and then later pegged mortise and tenon joints. Diagonal bracing is used to prevent "racking", or movement of structural vertical beams or posts.[11]

Originally, German (and other) master carpenters would peg the joints with allowance of approximately an inch (25 mm), enough room for the wood to move as it seasoned, then cut the pegs, and drive the beam home fully into its socket.

To cope with variable sizes and shapes of hewn (by adze or axe) and sawn timbers, two main carpentry methods were employed: scribe carpentry and square rule carpentry.

Scribing or coping was used throughout Europe, especially from the 12th century to the 19th century, and subsequently imported to North America where it was common into the early 19th century. In a scribe frame, timber sockets are fashioned or "tailor-made" to fit their corresponding timbers; thus each timber piece must be numbered (or "scribed").

Square-rule carpentry was developed in New England in the 18th century. It used housed joints in main timbers to allow for interchangeable braces and girts. Today, standardised timber sizing means that timber framing can be incorporated into mass-production methods as per the joinery industry, especially where timber is cut by precision computer numerical control (CNC) machinery.

Jetties

For more details on this topic, see Jettying.

A jetty is an upper floor which sometimes historically used a structural horizontal beam, supported on cantilevers, called a bressummer or jetty bressummer to bear the weight of the new wall, projecting outward from the preceding floor or storey.

In the city of York in the United Kingdom, the famous street known as The Shambles exemplifies this, where jettied houses seem to almost touch above the street.

Timbers

The completed frame of a modern timber-frame house
Ridge-post framing (left) and storey framing (right, with jetties)

Historically, the timbers would have been hewn square using a felling axe and then surface-finished with a broadaxe. If required, smaller timbers were ripsawn from the hewn baulks using pitsaws or frame saws. Today it is more common for timbers to be bandsawn, and the timbers may sometimes be machine-planed on all four sides.

The vertical timbers include:

The horizontal timbers include:

When jettying, horizontal elements can include:

The sloping timbers include:

Post construction and frame construction

There were two different systems of the position of posts and studs:

Ridge-post framing is a structurally simple and ancient post and lintel framing where the posts extend all the way to the ridge beams. Germans call this firstsäule or hochstud.

Modern features

Interior of a modern hand-hewn post-and-beam home.
Porch of a modern timber-framed house
A Huf Haus near West Linton in Scotland

In the United States and Canada, timber-frame construction has been revived since the 1970s, and is now experiencing a thriving renaissance of the ancient skills. This is largely due to such practitioners as Steve Chappell, Jack Sobon, and Tedd Benson, who studied old plans and techniques and revived a long-neglected technique. Once a handcrafted skill passed down, timber-frame construction has now been modernized with the help of modern industrial tools such as the CNC machines. These machines and mass-production techniques have assisted growth and made for more affordable frames and shorter lead-times for projects.

Timber-framed structures differ from conventional wood-framed buildings in several ways. Timber framing uses fewer, larger wooden members, commonly timbers in the range of 15 to 30 cm (6" to 12"), while common wood framing uses many more timbers with dimensions usually in the 5 to 25 cm (2" to 10") range. The methods of fastening the frame members also differ. In conventional framing, the members are joined using nails or other mechanical fasteners, whereas timber framing uses the traditional mortise and tenon or more complex joints that are usually fastened using only wooden pegs.[12] Modern complex structures and timber trusses often incorporate steel joinery such as gusset plates, for both structural and architectural purposes.

Recently, it has become common practice to enclose the timber structure entirely in manufactured panels such as SIPs (structural insulated panels). Although the timbers can only be seen from inside the building when so enclosed, construction is less complex and insulation is greater than in traditional timber building. Structural insulated panels are "an insulating foam core sandwiched between two structural facings, typically oriented strand board," according to the Structural Insulated Panel Association.[13] SIPs reduce dependency on bracing and auxiliary members, because the panels span considerable distances and add rigidity to the basic timber frame.

An alternate construction method is with concrete flooring with extensive use of glass. This allows a very solid construction combined with open architecture. Some firms have specialized in industrial prefabrication of such residential and light commercial structures such as Huf Haus as low-energy houses or – dependent on location – zero-energy buildings.

Straw-bale construction is another alternative where straw bales are stacked for non-load-bearing infill with various finishes applied to the interior and exterior such as stucco and plaster. This appeals to the traditionalist and the environmentalist as this is using "found" materials to build.

Mudbricks also called adobe are sometimes used to fill in timber frame structures. They can be made on site and offer exceptional fire resistance. Such buildings must be designed to accommodate the poor thermal insulating properties of mudbrick however, and usually have deep eaves or a verandah on 4 sides for weather protection.

History and traditions

Anne Hvides Gaard, Svendborg, Denmark, from 1560
Anne Hathaway's Cottage in Warwickshire. Its timber framing is typical of vernacular Tudor architecture

The techniques used in timber framing date back to Neolithic times, and have been used in many parts of the world during various periods such as ancient Japan, continental Europe as well as Neolithic Denmark, England, France, Germany parts of the Roman Empire and Scotland.[14] The timber framing technique has historically been popular in climate zones which favour deciduous hardwood trees, such as oak. Its most northernmost areas are Baltic countries and southern Sweden. Timber framing is rare in Russia, Finland, northern Sweden, and Norway, where tall and straight lumber, such as pine and spruce, is readily available and log houses were favoured instead.

Half-timbered construction in the Northern European vernacular building style is characteristic of medieval and early modern Denmark, England, Germany, and parts of France and Switzerland, where timber was in good supply yet stone and associated skills to dress the stonework were in short supply. In half-timbered construction timbers that were riven (split) in half provided the complete skeletal framing of the building.

Europe is full of timber-framed structures dating back hundreds of years, including manors, castles, homes, and inns, whose architecture and techniques of construction have evolved over the centuries. In Asia you will find timber-framed structures, many of them temples, that have stood for centuries.[15]

Some Roman carpentry preserved in anoxic layers of clay at Romano-British villa sites demonstrate that sophisticated Roman carpentry had all the necessary techniques for this construction. The earliest surviving (French) half-timbered buildings date from the 12th century.

Important resources for the study and appreciation of historic building methods are open-air museums.

Topping out ceremony

The topping out ceremony is a builders' rite, an ancient tradition thought to have originated in Scandinavia by 700 AD.[16] In the U.S. a bough or small tree is attached to the peak of the timber frame after the frame is complete as a celebration. Historically it was common for the master carpenter to give a speech, make a toast, and then break the glass. In Northern Europe it is more common to use a wreath made for the occasion rather than a bough. In Japan the "ridge raising" is a religious ceremony called the jotoshiki.[17] In Germany it is called the Richtfest (German language site).

Carpenters marks

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Carpenters marks is a general term for markings left on the timbers of wooden buildings during construction.

Tools

German carpenters in 1880. The tools, from left to right, are: a cart loaded with timbers, rough hewing with felling axes; in the green coat is the master carpenter carrying his tools including a frame saw; on the ground a ring dog (precursor to the cant dog and peavey); in the background sawyers pit sawing on trestles; on right carpenters striking a mortising chisel with a mallet and boring a hole with a T-auger; lower right on ground a two-man crosscut saw, steel square, broadaxe, and (hard to see) a froe.

Many historic hand tools used by timber framers for thousands of years have similarities but vary in shape. Electrically powered tools first became available in the 1920s in the U.S. and continue to evolve. See the list of timber framing tools for basic descriptions and images of unusual tools (The list is incomplete at this time).

British tradition

The timber-framed Staple Inn in Holborn, London

Some of the earliest known timber houses in Europe have been found in Great Britain, dating to Neolithic times; Balbridie and Fengate are some of the rare examples of these constructions.

Molded plaster ornamentation, pargetting[18] further enriched some English Tudor architecture houses. Half-timbering is characteristic of English vernacular architecture in East Anglia,[19] Warwickshire,[20][21] Worcestershire,[22] Herefordshire,[23][24] Shropshire,[25][26] and Cheshire,[27] where one of the most elaborate surviving English examples of half-timbered construction is Little Moreton Hall.[28]

In South Yorkshire, the oldest timber house in Sheffield, the "Bishops' House" (c. 1500), shows traditional half-timbered construction.

In the Weald of Kent and Sussex,[29] the half-timbered structure of the Wealden hall house,[30] consisted of an open hall with bays on either side and often jettied upper floors.

Half-timbered construction traveled with British colonists to North America in the early 17th century but was soon abandoned in New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies for clapboard facings (an East Anglia tradition). The original English colonial settlements, such as Plymouth, Massachusetts and Jamestown, Virginia had timber-framed buildings, rather than the log cabins often associated with the American frontier. Living history programs demonstrating the building technique are available at both these locations.

Many of the surviving streets lined with almost-touching houses are known as The Shambles, and are very popular tourist attractions.

English Styles

Historic timber frame construction in England (and the rest of the United Kingdom) showed regional variation [31] which has been divided into "eastern school", "western school", and the "northern school", although the characteristic types of framing in these schools can be found in the other regions (except the northern school).[32] A characteristic of the eastern school is close studding which is a half-timbering style of many studs spaced about the width of the studs apart (for example six inch studs spaced six inches apart) until the middle of the 16th century and sometimes wider spacing after that time. Close studding was an elite style found mostly on expensive buildings. A principal style of the western school is the use of square panels of roughly equal size and decorative framing utilizing many shapes such as lozenges, stars, crosses, quatrefoils, cusps, and many other shapes.[32] The northern school sometimes used posts which landed on the foundation rather than on a sill beam, the sill joining to the sides of the posts and called an interrupted sill. Another northern style was to use close studding but in a herring-bone or chevron pattern.[32]

Roof structure of the Barley Barn, Cressing Temple, Essex

As houses were modified to cope with changing demands there sometimes were a combination of styles within a single timber frame construction.[33] The major types of historic framing in England are 'cruck frame',[33] box frame,[33] and aisled construction. From the box frame, more complex framed buildings such as the Wealden House and Jettied house developed.

The cruck frame design is amongst the earliest, and was [33] in use by the early 13th century, with its use continuing to the present day, although rarely after the 18th century.[33] Since the 18th century however, many existing cruck structures have been modified, with the original cruck framework becoming hidden. Aisled barns are of two or three aisled types, the oldest surviving aisled barn being the barley barn at Cressing Temple[32] dated to 1205–35.[34]

Jettying was introduced in the 13th century and continued to be used through the 16th century.[32]

Generally speaking, the size of timbers used in construction, and the quality of the workmanship reflect the wealth and status of their owners. Small cottages often used quite small cross-section timbers which would have been deemed unsuitable by others. Some of these small cottages also have a very 'home-made' - even temporary - appearance. Many such example can be found in the English shires. Equally, some relatively small buildings can be seen to incorporate substantial timbers and excellent craftsmanship, reflecting the relative wealth and status of their original owners. Important resources for the study of historic building methods in the UK are open-air museums.

French tradition

Coupesarte Manor (Normandy, France)

Elaborately half-timbered houses of the 13th through 18th centuries still remain in Bourges, Troyes, Rouen, Thiers, Dinan, Rennes, and many other cities, except in Provence and Corsica. Timber framing in French is known colloquially as pan de bois and half-timbering as colombage.

The Normandy tradition features two techniques: frameworks were built of four evenly spaced regularly hewn timbers set into the ground (poteau en terre) or into a continuous wooden sill (poteau du sole) and mortised at the top into the plate. The openings were filled with many materials including mud and straw, wattle and daub, or horsehair and gypsum.[35]

Basque tradition

Most traditional Basque buildings with half-timbering elements are detached farm houses (in Basque: baserriak). Their upper floors were built with jettied box frames in close studding. In the oldest farmsteads and, if existing, in the third floor the walls were sometimes covered with vertical weatherboards. Big holes were left in the gable of the main façade for ventilation. The wooden beams were painted over, mostly in dark red. The vacancies were filled in with wattle and daub or rubble laid in a clay mortar and then plastered over with white chalk or nogged with bricks. Although the entire supporting structure is made of wood, the timbering is only visible on the main façade, which is generally oriented to the southeast.

Although the typical Basque house is now mostly associated with half-timbering, the outer walls and the fire-walls were built in masonry (rubble stone, bricks or, ideally, ashlars) whenever it could be afforded. Timber was a sign of poverty. Oak-wood was cheaper than masonry: that is why, when the money was running out, the upper floor walls were mostly built timbered. Extant baserriak with half-timbered upper-floor façades were built from the 15th to 19th centuries and are found in all Basque regions with oceanic climate, except in Zuberoa (Soule), but are concentrated in Lapurdi (Labourd).

Some medieval Basque tower houses (dorretxeak) feature an overhanged upper floor in half-timbering.[36]

To a lesser extent timbered houses are also found in villages and towns as row houses, as the photo from the Uztaritz village shows.

Currently, it has again become popular to build houses resembling old Basque farmsteads, with more or less respect for the principles of traditional half-timbered building.[37]

German tradition (Fachwerkhäuser)

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Germany has several styles of timber framing, but probably the greatest number of half-timbered buildings in the world are to be found in Germany and in Alsace (France). There are many small towns which escaped both war damage and modernisation and consist mainly, or even entirely, of half-timbered houses.

Idstein, Hesse, on the German Timber-Frame Road.
The Spitzhäuschen, a very narrow timber frame house in Bernkastel at the river Moselle, built in 1417.

The German Timber-Frame Road (Deutsche Fachwerkstraße) is a tourist route that connects towns with remarkable fachwerk. It is more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi) long, crossing Germany through the states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse, Thuringia, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg.[11][38]

Some of the more prominent towns (among many) include: Quedlinburg, a UNESCO listed town, which has over 1200 half-timbered houses spanning five centuries; Goslar, another UNESCO listed town; Hanau-Steinheim (home of the Brothers Grimm); Bad Urach; Eppingen ("Romance city" with a half-timbered church dating from 1320); Mosbach; Vaihingen an der Enz and nearby UNESCO-listed Maulbronn Abbey; Schorndorf (birthplace of Gottlieb Daimler); Calw; Celle; and Biberach an der Riß with both the largest medieval complex, the Holy Spirit Hospital and one of Southern Germany's oldest buildings, now the Braith-Mali-Museum, dated to 1318.

German fachwerk building styles are extremely varied with a huge number of carpentry techniques which are highly regionalised. German planning laws for the preservation of buildings and regional architecture preservation dictate that a half-timbered house must be authentic to regional or even city-specific designs before being accepted.[39][40]

A brief overview of styles follows, as a full inclusion of all styles is impossible.

In general the northern states have fachwerk very similar to that of the nearby Netherlands and England while the more southerly states (most notably Bavaria and Switzerland) have more decoration using timber because of greater forest reserves in those areas.

The German fachwerkhaus usually has a foundation of stone, or sometimes brick, perhaps up to several feet (a couple of metres) high, which the timber framework is mortised into or, more rarely, supports an irregular wooden sill.

The three main forms may be divided geographically:

The most characteristic feature is the spacing between the posts and the high placement of windows. Panels are enclosed by a sill, posts, and a plate, and are crossed by two rails between which the windows are placed—like "two eyes peering out".[39][40]

In addition there is a myriad of regional scrollwork and fretwork designs of the non-loadbearing large timbers (braces) peculiar to particularly wealthy towns or cities.

A unique timber frame house type can be found in the region where the borders of Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland(former East Germany) meet - it is called the Upper Lusatian house (Umgebindehaus, translates as round-framed house). This type has a timber frame surrounding a log structure on part of the ground floor.[41]

Italy

You can find some examples of half-timbered houses in Northern Italy, especially in Piedmont, Lombardy, and in the city of Bologna.

Poland

Slavic traditional house in Wdzydze Kashubian museum
Slavic traditional house near Koło on Warta

The Slavic tradition of vernacular architecture is rather log building. Most half-timbered houses have been built in regions that before World War II used to belong to Germany or had had a lot of German immigrants. As these regions were parts of Prussia, half-timbered walls are called "mur pruski". The Slovincians, an autochthone Slavic group in the Prussian province of Pomorania also built half-timbered houses. A distinctive type of house associated with mostly Mennonite immigrant groups from Frisia and the Netherlands, known as the Olędrzy, is called an arcade house (dom podcieniowy).

The Umgebindehaus rural housing tradition of south Saxony (Germany) is also found in the neighboring areas of Poland (the Silesian region) and the north of Czech Republic.

Another world-class type of wooden building Poland shares with some neighboring countries are its wooden church buildings.

The examples below were all built during the German/Prussian era:

Spain

The Spanish follow the Mediterranean forms of architecture with stone walls and shallow roof pitch. Timber framing is often of the post and lintel style. Castile and León have the most representative examples of the use of timber framing in the Iberian Peninsula, as in the old town of Frías, Province of Burgos.

Switzerland

An exceptional fachwerk house called Eglihaus in Hombrechtikon, Switzerland

Switzerland has many styles of timber framing which overlap with its neighboring countries.

Belgium

Nowadays, timber framing mostly subsists in the provinces of Limburg, Liège, and Luxemburg. In urban areas, one used to build the ground floor in stone and the upper floors in timber framing. Also, as timber framing was seen as a cheaper way of building, often the visible structures of noble houses were in stone and bricks, and the invisible or lateral walls in timber framing. The open-air museums of Bokrijk and Saint-Hubert (Fourneau Saint-Michel) show many examples of Belgian timber framing. Many post-and-beam houses subsists in cities and villages, but, unlike France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, there are few fully timber framed cityscapes.

Sweden

The Swedish mostly built log houses but they do have traditions of several types of timber framing: Some of the following links are written in Swedish. Most of the half-timbered houses in Sweden were built during the Danish time and are located in what until 1658 used to be Danish territory in southern Sweden, primarily in the province Skåne. In Swedish half-timber is known as "korsvirke".

Norway

Norway has at least two significant types of timber framed structures: 1) The stave church and 2) grindverk. The term stave church essentially means a framed church, a distinction made in a region where log building is common. All but one surviving stave church buildings are in Norway. Replicas of stave churches and other Norwegian building types have been reproduced such as at the Scandinavian Heritage Park in North Dakota, U.S.A.

Grindverk translates as bent construction but what makes the Norwegian type of bent construction important is this type of framing uses no mortise and tenon joints. Archaeological excavations have uncovered similar wooden joints from over 3,000 years ago, suggesting that this type of framing is an ancient, unbroken tradition. Grindverk buildings are only found on part of the western coast of Norway and is mostly found in boathouses and barns. There is not currently an article in English about grindverk framing but in Norwegian Wikipedia is here.[42]

Netherlands

A half timbered building without the infill in Limburg, Netherlands.

The Netherlands is often overlooked for its timbered houses, yet many exist, including windmills. It was in North Holland where the import of cheaper timber, combined with the Dutch innovation of windmill-powered sawmills, allowed economically viable widespread use of protective wood covering over framework. In the late 17th century the Dutch introduced vertical cladding also known in Eastern England as clasp board and in western England as weatherboard, then as more wood was available more cheaply, horizontal cladding in the 17th century. Perhaps owing to economic considerations, vertical cladding returned to fashion.[43] Dutch wall framing is virtually always built in bents and the three basic types of roof framing are the rafter roof, purlin roof, and ridge-post roof.[44]

Americas

Most "haft-timbered" houses existing in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas were built by German settlers.[35] Old Salem North Carolina has fine examples of German fachwerk buildings.[45] Many are still present in Colonia Tovar, (Venezuela), Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul,(Brazil), where Germans settled. Later, they chose more suitable building materials for local conditions (most likely because of the great problem of tropical termites.)

New France

In the historical region of North America known as New France, colombage pierroté, also called maçonnerie entre poteaux,[46] half-timbered construction with the infill between the posts and studs of stone rubble and lime plaster or bousillage[46] and simply called colombage in France. Colombage was used from the earliest settlement until the 18th century but was known as bousillage entre poteaus sur solle in Lower Louisiana. The style had its origins in Normandy, and was brought to Canada by very early Norman settlers. The Men's House at Lower Fort Garry is a good example. The exterior walls of such buildings were often covered over with clapboards to protect the infill from erosion. Naturally, this required frequent maintenance, and the style was abandoned as a building method in the 18th century in Québec. For the same reasons, half-timbering in New England, which was originally employed by the English settlers, fell out of favour soon after the colonies had become established.

Other variations of half-timbering are colombage à teurques (torchis), straw coated with mud and hung over horizontal staves (or otherwise held in place), colombage an eclisses, and colombage a lattes.[46]

Poteaux-en-terre (posts in ground) is a type of timber framing with the many vertical posts or studs buried in the ground called post in ground or "earthfast" construction. The tops of the posts are joined to a beam and the spaces between are filled in with natural materials called bousillage or pierrotage.

Poteaux-sur-sol (posts on a sill) is a general term for any kind of framing on a sill. However, sometimes it specifically refers to "vertical log construction" like poteaux-en-terre placed on sills with the spaces between the timbers infilled.

Piece-sur-piece also known as Post-and-plank style or "corner post construction" (and many other names) in which wood is used both for the frame and horizontal infill; for this reason it may be incorrect to call it "half-timbering". It is sometimes a blend of framing and log building with two styles: the horizontal pieces fit into groves in the posts and can slide up and down or the horizontal pieces fit into individual mortises in the posts and are pegged and the gaps between the pieces chinked (filled in with stones or chips of wood covered with mud or moss briefly discussed in Log cabin.)

This technique of a timber frame walls filled in with horizontal planks or logs proved better suited to the harsh climates of Québec and Acadia, which at the same time had abundant wood. It became very popular throughout New France, as far afield as southern Louisiana. The Hudson's Bay Company used this technique for many of its trading posts, and this style of framing becoming known as Hudson Bay style or Hudson Bay corners. Also used by the Red River Colony this style also became known as "Red River Framing". “The support of horizontal timbers by corner posts is an old form of construction in Europe. It was apparently carried across much of the continent from Silesia by the Lausitz urnfield culture in the late Bronze Age.”[47] Similar building techniques are apparently not found in France[48] but exist in Germany and Switzerland known as Bohlenstanderbau when planks are used or blockstanderbau when beams are used as the infill. In Sweden known as sleppvegg or skiftesverk and in Denmark as bulhus.

A particularly interesting example in the U.S. is the Golden Plough Tavern (c. 1741), York, York County, PA, which has the ground level of corner-post construction with the second floor of fachwerk (half timbered) and was built for a German with other Germanic features.[49]

Settlers in New France also built horizontal log, brick, and stone buildings.

New Netherland

Characteristics of traditional timber framing in the parts of the U.S. formerly known as New Netherland are H-framing also known as dropped-tie framing in the U.S. and the similar anchor beam framing as found in the New World Dutch barn.

New England

Some time periods/regions within New England contain certain framing elements such as common purlin roofs, five sided ridge beams, plank-frame construction and plank-wall construction. The English barn always contains an "English tying joint" and the later New England style barn were built using bents.

Japanese

Wall framing of a Japanese house under construction

Japanese timber framing is believed to be descended from Chinese framing (see Ancient Chinese wooden architecture). Asian framing is significantly different from western framing, with its predominant use of post and lintel framing and an almost complete lack of diagonal bracing.

Revival styles in later centuries

The Saitta House, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York built in 1899 has half-timber decoration.[50]

When half-timbering regained popularity in Britain after 1860 in the various revival styles, such as the Queen Anne style houses by Richard Norman Shaw and others, it was often used to evoke a "Tudor" atmosphere (see Tudorbethan), though in Tudor times half-timbering had begun to look rustic and was increasingly limited to village houses (illustration, above left).

In 1912, Allen W. Jackson published The Half-Timber House: Its Origin, Design, Modern Plan, and Construction, and rambling half-timbered beach houses appeared on dune-front properties in Rhode Island or under palm-lined drives of Beverly Hills. During the 1920s increasingly minimal gestures towards some half-timbering in commercial speculative house-building saw the fashion diminish.

In the revival styles, such as Tudorbethan (Mock Tudor), the half-timbered appearance is superimposed on the brickwork or other material as an outside decorative façade rather than forming the main frame that supports the structure.

The style was used in many of the homes built in Lake Mohawk, New Jersey as well as all of the clubhouse, shops, and marina.

For information about "roundwood framing" see the book Roundwood Timber Framing:Building Naturally Using Local Resources by Ben Law (East Meon, Hampshire: Permanent Publications; 2010. ISBN 1856230414)

Advantages

The use of timber framing in buildings offers various aesthetic and structural benefits, as the timber frame lends itself to open plan designs and allows for complete enclosure in effective insulation for energy efficiency.

In modern construction timber-frame structure offers many benefits:

In North America, heavy timber construction is classified Building Code Type IV: a special class reserved for timber framing which recognizes the inherent fire resistance of large timber and its ability to retain structural capacity in fire situations. In many cases this classification can eliminate the need and expense of fire sprinklers in public buildings.[52]

Disadvantages

Traditional or historic structures

In terms of the traditional half-timber or fachwerkhaus there are maybe more disadvantages than advantages today. Such houses are notoriously expensive to maintain let alone renovate and restore, most commonly owing to local regulations that do not allow divergence from the original, modification or incorporation of modern materials. Additionally, in such nations as Germany, where energy efficiency is highly regulated, the renovated building may be required to meet modern energy efficiencies, if it is to be used as a residential or commercial structure (museums and significant historic buildings have no semi-permanent habitade exempt). Many framework houses of significance are treated merely to preserve, rather than render inhabitable — most especially as the required heavy insecticidal fumigation is highly poisonous.

In some cases, it is more economical to build anew using authentic techniques and correct period materials than restore. One major problem with older structures is the phenomenon known as mechano-sorptive creep or slanting: where wood beams absorb moisture whilst under compression or tension strains and deform, shift position or both. This is a major structural issue as the house may deviate several degrees from perpendicular to its foundations (in the x-axis, y-axis, and even z-axis) and thus be unsafe and unstable or so out of square it is extremely costly to remedy.[53]

A summary of problems with Fachwerkhäuser or half-timbered houses includes the following, though many can be avoided by intelligent design and application of suitable paints and surface treatments and routine maintenance. Often, though when dealing with a structure of a century or more old, it is too late.[43]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary
  2. ↑ Nikolas Davies, Erkki Jokiniemi: 2008. Dictionary of architecture and building construction. Architectural Press. ISBN 978-0-7506-8502-3. 726 pages: pp 181
  3. ↑ Vitruvious, De Architectura, Book II, Chapter 8, paragraph 20
  4. ↑ Sunshine, Paula. Wattle and daub. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications, 2006. 7-8. Print. ISBN 0747806527
  5. ↑ Glick, Thomas F., Steven John Livesey, and Faith Wallis. Medieval science, technology, and medicine: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge, 2005. 229. Print. ISBN 0415969301
  6. 1 2 Pollard, Richard; Nikolaus Pevsner (2006). The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 710–711. ISBN 0-300-10910-5.
  7. ↑ Sherwood, Mary Martha. The lady of the manor being a series of conversations on the subject of confirmation. Intended for the use of the middle and higher ranks of young females, Volume 5. Wellington, Salop. London: Printed by and for F. Houlston and Son. 1827. 168. Print. https://books.google.com/books?id=teYKAAAAYAAJ
  8. ↑ Vitruvious, De Architectura, Book II, Chapter 8, paragraph 20
  9. ↑ Wilson, Nigel Guy. Encyclopedia of ancient Greece. London: Routledge, 2006. 82. Print. ISBN 0415973341
  10. ↑ Joyn Henry Parker, 1875. Classic Dictionary of Architecture, 4th ed. Facsimile published in 1986 by New Orchard Editions, Poole, Dorset, pp. 178-179
  11. 1 2 Nortrud G. Schrammel-Schäl, Karl Kessler, Paul-Georg Custodis, Kreisverwaltung des Westerwaldkreises in Montabaur. Fachwerk im Westerwald: Landschaftsmuseum Westerwald, Hachenburg, Ausstellung vom 11. September 1987 bis 30. April 1988. Landschaftsmuseum Westerwald: 1987. ISBN 978-3-921548-37-0. 78 pages
  12. ↑ "joinery descriptives". Vermonttimberworks.com. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  13. ↑ "What Are SIPs?". Retrieved 1 February 2013.
  14. ↑ J. H. Williams, 1971.Roman Building-Materials in South-East England in Britannia, Vol. 2, (1971), pp. 166–195. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. Accessed via jstor.org/stable/525807
  15. ↑ "Timber Framing History". Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  16. ↑ Robert J. Abrams in Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? And Other Imponderables.
  17. ↑ Tennessee Aquarium Newsroom - News Release
  18. ↑ Pargetting on the White Horse, Pleshey (C) Colin Smith: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  19. ↑ Half-timbered house in Laxfield (C) Toby Speight: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  20. ↑ Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford... (C) Frederick Blake: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  21. ↑ "The Shakespeare Hotel- Stratford Upon Avon:: OS grid SP2054: Geograph Britain and Ireland - photograph every grid square!". Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  22. ↑ Huddington Court (C) Richard Dunn: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  23. ↑ West End Farm, Pembridge, Herefordshire (C) Doug Elliot: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  24. ↑ "Pembridge, Market Hall and New Inn:: OS grid SO3958: Geograph Britain and Ireland - photograph every grid square!". Geograph.org.uk. 2006-04-10. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  25. ↑ The Feathers Hotel, Ludlow (C) Humphrey Bolton: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  26. ↑ "Historic buildings in Ludlow:: OS grid SO5174: Geograph Britain and Ireland - photograph every grid square!". Geograph.org.uk. 2007-02-24. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  27. ↑ Half timbered building (C) Andy and Hilary: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  28. ↑ Little Moreton Hall: Cheshire (C) Pam Brophy: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  29. ↑ Spreadeagle Hotel 1430: Midhurst (C) Pam Brophy: Geograph Britain and Ireland
  30. ↑ "Wealden house". Geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  31. ↑ Cruck Construction: an introduction and catalogue (CBA Research Report 42), pp. 61-92.
  32. 1 2 3 4 5 Brown, R. J.. Timber-framed buildings of England. London: R. Hale Ltd. 1997.46-48. ISBN 0709060920
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 Vince, J.; The Timbered House; Sorbus, 1994; ISBN 1-874329-75-3
  34. ↑ Bettley, James, and Nikolaus Pevsner. Essex: The Buildings of England. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. 313. ISBN 0300116144
  35. 1 2 Charles Van Ravenswaay: 2006. The arts and architecture of German settlements in Missouri: a survey of a vanishing culture University of Missouri Press: 2006. ISBN 978-0-8262-1700-4. 539 pages
  36. ↑ eu:Dorretxe dorretxe weblink to the Basque Wikipedia
  37. ↑ fr:Néobasque Néobasque weblink to the French Wikipedia
  38. ↑ Heinrich Edel: 1928. Die Fachwerkhäuser der Stadt Braunschweig: ein kunst und kulturhistorisches Bild. Druckerei Appelhaus, 1928
  39. 1 2 Wilhelm Süvern: 1971. Torbögen und Inschriften lippischer Fachwerkhäuser in Volume 7 of Heimatland Lippe. Lippe Heimatbund: 1971. 48 pages
  40. 1 2 Heinrich Stiewe: 2007. Fachwerkhäuser in Deutschland: Konstruktion, Gestalt und Nutzung vom Mittelalter bis heute. Primus Verlag: 2007. ISBN 978-3-89678-589-3. 160 pages
  41. ↑ Agnieszka Gaczkowska, Traditional Upper Lusatian Umgebinde House: Modern Reinterpretation. http://gaczkowska.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/masters-work_english.pdf
  42. ↑ no:Grindverk
  43. 1 2 Lars Boström editor 1st International RILEM Symposium on Timber Engineering: Stockholm, Sweden, September 13–14, 1999 Volume 8 of RILEM proceedings RILEM Publications, 1999. ISBN 978-2-912143-10-5. 838 pages. 317–327.
  44. ↑ Herman Janse, Houten kappen in Nederland 1000-1940. Delftse Universitaire Pers, Delft / Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg, Zeist 1989. translations are mine
  45. ↑ Noble, Allen George, and M. Margaret Geib. Wood, brick, and stone: the North American settlement landscape. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984. 42, 43.
  46. 1 2 3 "colombage pierroté" def. 1. Edwards, Jay Dearborn, and Nicolas Verton. A Creole lexicon architecture, landscape, people. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. 65. Print.
  47. ↑ Upton, Dell, Vllach, John Michael, Common places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture, referencing V. Gordon Childe, The Bronze Age, (NY, Macmillan, 1930, pp. 206-8.
  48. ↑ Noble, Allen George, and M. Margaret Geib. Wood, brick, and stone: the North American settlement landscape. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984. 121.
  49. ↑ “Corner-Post Log Construction: Description, Analysis, and Sources”, A Report to Early American Industries Association by Nancy S. Shedd March 10, 1986. available online at http://www.huntingdonhistoryresearchnetwork.net/?page_id=236).
  50. ↑ “Saitta House – Report Part 1”,DykerHeightsCivicAssociation.com
  51. ↑ Gotz, Karl-Heinz; et al. (1989). Timber Design & Construction Sourcebook. McGraw-Hall. ISBN 0-07-023851-0.
  52. ↑ http://www.tsib.org/pdf/technical/10-101_Building_Codes.pdf
  53. 1 2 Charlotte Bengtsson: "Mechano-sorptive creep of wood in tension and compression": in Lars Boström editor 1st International RILEM Symposium on Timber Engineering: Stockholm, Sweden, September 13–14, 1999 Volume 8 of RILEM proceedings, RILEM Publications, 1999. ISBN 978-2-912143-10-5. 838 pages. 317–327.
  54. ↑ "Fire Safety" (PDF). Canadian Wood Council.
  55. ↑ Bailey, Colin. "Timber". Structural Material Behavior in Fire. University of Manchester. Retrieved 2008-05-04.

References

Further reading

English tradition
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