Forgive me ignorance please!
I have been reading Steve Chappell's " A Timber Framer's Workshop", and I ran upon something that I have a question on. Hopefully someone can give me an answer, or at least point me in the right direction.
In his chapter on tie beam joinery, he states, that tie beams being in tension should be one continuous member, as scarfs eventually spread. This seems to limit me in my home design to what length timber I can obtain. Right now the mill I use can only do 20' so that leaves me with about 19 after squaring up.
What I would like to know is opinions on using scarfs in tension members, and whether this is workable, or should I go back to using only 19' as my widest bent?
Thanks
