Sorry for the delay, but here are the additional images of our project I promised.
Exteriors Frame Raising Details The "Exteriors" view shows the front and back sides of the house. The timbers are not very prominent from the exterior, but the protruding beam ends hint that there's something a bit different under the hood. There are several groups of casement windows that have 8x12 beams and produding beam tails overhead. These will be trimmed out with Western Red Cedar 2x8s between the windows. These will have the same edge radius detail as the timbers and to the untrained eye will appear as posts supporting the overhead beams. The effect will be carried through to the inside using fir trim. This may seem like cheating to purists, but a number of factors went into the decision to handle it this way.
The "Frame" photos show the two long chord beam lines that run the length of the house. In all we had about 90 timbers throught the house. The interior view is from the front entry foyer looking toward the dining room, kitchen, and living room areas. The timber elements serve organize this entire area. The masonry columns and fireplace are to be covered with stucco after some additional detailing.
The first "Raising" photo shows the team from Cascade Joinery in action placing the 8x10 chord beams. This view also shows the stairwell deck in the foreground. This was the other major timber area. The timbers here support the second floor hallway and extend all the way up to the roof. They are also an integral part of the stairway trim scheme.
The second view shows the living room fireplace supporting the chord beams. The timber and masonry in this area are strucutural, supporting 1/3 of the roof loads. This allowed the ceiling to be vaulted in the living room more dramatically than would have otherwise been possible.
The "Details" link shows a typical set of steel hardware securing the timbers to the masonry. I designed and fabricated these myself. There is a steel baseplate with welded-on rebar extending down into the block grout. These plates have nut assemblies welded undernieth that also serve as grease boxes to prevent water from getting at the bolt threads. This is really only an issue on the exterior locations, but I used the same detail on all 32 assemblies. The final finish is hand hammered and chemically blackened. The pieces shown didn't have their final finish applied and were later taken off for finishing. The black plastic was to protect the timber from rust stains until the roof was in place.
The other image shows one of the rain caps that will protect the beam tails were they protrude from the eve line. There are 16 locations in all where these will be used. I fabricated these from 16 gauge copper. The purpose of the protruding beams is to support collector boxes for the gutter system and to hang lanterns from.
I hope these pictures are interesting to those in the forum. Our "hybrid" project has a little different flavor from many traditional timber frames.
Take care,
Richard Johnson PE
Camano Island, WA
