Mystery notching?

Today I looked at a barn that I believe has some German influence in the frame design. It is hand hewn oak with long diagonal bracing in the corners and within each bent starting under the top plate and extending down towads the bottom of the next post and resting on the sill beam. It is located near a well established German community in South Central Wisconsin. There a unique features within this frame, but the one that I can't figure out is the small notches or pockets that are chiseled out every 6 in or so on the underside of every section of top-plate, girt, and diagonal on all the outer walls. They are deep enough to hide a golf ball sliced in half, and only on the under side of all these members. The barn is sided with 1x12 pine.

So what are these notches for? They are post-hewing.

Thanks,

Rooster

Got any pictures? That would be helpful in answering your question, and also this sounds like the type of frame I would like to see since German frames are something of my specialty.

At this description, those sound an awful lot like the types of notches that would be made if one were to wattle and daub a building, but the fact that they are only on the undersides of these members seems to suggest otherwise.

It is entirely possible that an original infill may have been removed and then replaced by siding, and it is also possible that an originally intended infill may never have been done, and sided instead.

It might be a while until I can get back to take photos..thanks for the response.

Rooster

Hi Craig,

Was there a groove cut all along the top surface of the timbers located immediate;y beneath the golf ball holes ?

Wattle & daub staves (verticals) are pencil pointed on the top end and chisel shaped on the bottom end with the chisel end trimmed to length to ensure that the stave fitted tightly into the groove. The wattles were then woven between the staves.

Regards

Ken Hume

Wow...That good. Thanks for sharing.

Ken,

The Germans sometimes used other methods for securing the staves. The two that I have seen the most are the cutting of continuous grooves on both timbers, and more commonly the cutting or boring of matching holes on both surfaces.

With the matching holes, the staves would be sprung into both holes, cut to fit securely. WIth the continuous grooves, the staves could be places in, and their exact positioning would be adjusted as the wattles were woven in.

here is a good example of German Lehmbau

Well I looked at the frame again and there were no notches on the top side of the horizontal beams...only the bottoms.

In other sad news,
The salvage company that was going to dismantle the frame so that it could be relocated and re-raised had already stripped off the roof and the siding. An addition had been added years ago that held an interior loft that still had decking on it. A storm came in this weekend and knocked the frame down. It must have been pretty strong because some of the rafters and purlin got tossed 40ft from the barn and damaged a small polebarn garage. The barn frame wouldn't have touched the garage if it had just tipped over.

The frame is pretty busted up... a lot of snapped off tenons, snapped purlins, top-plates, etc. Hopefully we can find someone who cold use the hand-hewn beams to restore other buildings. All the material is for sale. Let me know if anyone is interested. The barn is located near Watertown WI (South/central WI)

Rooster
920-728-0353

Hi Rooster,

That is distressing news but at the same time informative. I would have thought that a timber frame left standing unsheathed would not have been very vulnerable to windthrow.

It should be possible to fit new "free" tenons to damaged beam ends especially if this is a square rule frame with fully housed joints.

This project might well now form a timber building conservation challenge rather than just accepting that the building is now fit only for salvage materials.

Some pictures would be helpful to be able to offer a more informed opinion.

Regards

Ken Hume