Hi everyone tonite

A winter nite here in the seaway valley.
When I think of the seaway construction, I think of the ruination of some of the oldest farms,orchards, resorts,and towns that was along the St Lawrence river, and I might add islands too, shame,

What we received in returns was a large lake with slow moving water, ruined fish spawning grounds, I could go on, but no one. Listens, soon no one will be left that remembers anyway

In the process we lost thousands of early houses, barns and drive sheds

Well we were promised cheap power, I can't really remember that happening

Thanks to a few individuals we rescued enough period buildings for UCV

Anyway sorry for my ramblings, but it is a real Shame what happened, yes I forgot something real impt in my book,all the cemeteries inundated imagine along with the old gas stations polluted land, still there just a few feet down, now they worry about trivial things

Bye for now
Richard

thanks for your comments

Jim Rogers

Hi Jim,

I spend a good part of my life examining timber-framed buildings where the panels (internal and external) are filled with wattle & daub. Most of these (read all) have a single skin that is about the thickness of a single brick i.e. 4.5" and certainly not 12" as suggested by others. These are not warm buildings in winter. Density would be about 80% of brick.

Cobb walls are thick however these do not contain timber-frames and are laid using shuttering and raised in lifts as the preceeding layer sets and hardens. These buildings are significantly warmer in winter.

Wattle & daub is certainly useable on external walls provided this is lime washed (multi coat) to help prevent migration of rain / damp. Originally timber-framed / wattle & daub buildings were coated in limewash (frame & infill panels). This was used to help seal up shrinkage gaps that opened up after drying in situ.

Ken

To all:
I have a customer who wants to do wattle and daub infill on his 16x20' cabin.
I told him he was crazy due to the timbers being exposed to the weather.

Does anyone have any information on the weight of wattle and daub per sqft or however it is measured.

Hi Mark & Richard,

For a long time I thought that Richard would be "the last man standing" on this forum and so I am sure that all the old forum lags are hopeful that his treatment will help him to recover.

I have posed the question quite a few times as to why traffic on this forum has dramatically declined ? It does exist elsewhere.

For a few years I didn't renew by membership with the Guild but currently I am a fully paid up member however maybe once again for how long ?

I'm in the woodland today measuring growth on our Douglas Fir trees with one of these having now reached over 150ft tall in 65 years.

Last year we raised a single bay box timber frame made form just one of these trees

Ken

Hello Ken! I hope you are well these days, I still remember our brief collaborations.
I hope your health can improve Richard, take care of yourself
m

Regarding the old barns in Ontario, it is an endless fascination to me how the barns all have thier own character,
only rarely can I say that I've been able to know that the barn down the road was built by the same person as the barn I'm currently working on.

This character is sometimes only in the shaping and joinery, with standard patterns of framing.
However, there are also times when I repair barns that have unique framing patterns, unseen before.

My area of Ontario currently has a shortage of people willing to repair the old barns,
I highly recommend if there are young or old framers out there that you consider making this part of your business.
You will learn a lot and you will have a chance to make steady money when the economy is down.
Also, you will meet the old builders as you meet their work.

If you are somehow reading this and interested to enter this line of repair work,
please don't hesitate to email me with questions as I know it can be a bit overwhelming to get started.
(wpltree.ca@gmail.com)

The old barns are disapearing fast these days, and I know that in a few more generations these buildings will become more and more valuable.
Save a barn today, someone will thank you in future.

What is your go-to software for doing timber take-offs and estimates?
I currently just use excel and some of the functionality of BlueBeam Revu.

I find many take-off and estimating softwares don't work well for timber framing.

What is your go-to software for doing timber take-offs and estimates?
I currently just use excel and some of the functionality of BlueBeam Revu.

I find many take-off and estimating softwares don't work well for timber framing.