Historic Building Photos

Hi,

This is a trial to see if I can figure out how to post digi pics on the TFG Forum (doh!).

The first one is of a thatched (long straw) 3 bay box framed house made from oak and elm. That's me pointing out various building features to the recording team.



The next one is of an early 15th century 4 bay cruck hall where one end has been raised to provide better headroom on the upper floor. The right hand end is the original roof profile. Do you see the straw rats running up the thatch ?



And finally here is a mid 15th century 3 bay end jettied open hall house that has been underbuilt in brick.



Any observations, questions, comments ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Great post, Ken!

Pictures came through fine. Looks like you have a quality camera. Thanks for taking the time to figure out picture-posting. Pictures add so much to posting here.

Those rats in the second picture...were they part of the recording team?

I thought I heard an old story once about barn yard animals, such as cats and dogs, being able to climb up onto thatched roofs and rest. Then when a surprise rain storm came up it would wash these sleeping animals off the thatched roofs. And that was where the saying that "it's raining cats and dogs" came from......

Very nice Ken, keep em coming!

Ken,

Are the timbers in the last photos painted or treated with something to get to that color? Is there some traditional mix beyond time?

Brad

If I might tag on with more questions. I don't see any bracing on two of the homes, is the infill structural? How do you keep the infill from deteriorating the timbers or does the limewash act as a preservative? At the junction of the timber and infill it seems like there would often be an air leak, does this not cause a condensation problem there? The pattern at the ridge in the top shot is really nice.

Hi Brad, Don & Mark,

The timber frame of the 3 bay box frame (top pic) was until recently covered in a lead based paint but this was detaching in layers and so was removed by the owner. All the timbers that you can see (and those that you can't see) in that pic are elm except the storey posts which are oak. The jettied house is coated with a pine tar distilate which seems to have been popular for a period but not done much these days. It hides a multitude of sins and brings a uniformity to old framing. Some very old timbers just go black (without painting) and its difficult to say exactly why this happens.

The box framed house originally had more bracing that you can shake a stick at - it had 12 windbraces (6 now missing) and 11 long wall braces (1 never fitted on rear wall due to conflict with a scarf joint in the wall plate, and 8 cross braces (4 now missing). The outside wall bracing is set back from the face by a couple of inches and when covered with daub gives the impression of a sans brace building. As Don notes the jettied house in the lower photo has all of the main framing faced to the outside including the braces. This house has a higher oak content but still has many primary timbers made of elm.

I have yet to do a full survey on the the cruck frame for long wall bracing and obviously cruck frames don't need cross bracing but this would most likely originally have been fitted with wind bracing. When the front roof was raised the windbracing would have been lost on one side as an upper floor through way was created. Many buildings like this now derive most of their structural rigidity from either the wattle & daub panels or later brick infil noggin.



The best infil panel for timber frame is wattle & daub. Recent thermographic photographs taken of the box framed house in mid winter demonstrate that later replacement single skin brick noggin panels were loosing heat at a faster rate than the original daub panels. These panels are only 4.5" thick. Daub panels have the added benefit that they are simple to maintain and remake. The gable truss panels in the top box frame were all replaced by the owner by himself. Its not possible to say with certainty how gaps were cured when the frame was new and drying out but the simple answer might be that any gaps that were opening up were simply raked out and then daubed up again around the edges however I have seen no evidence of this practice. Limewash would have been applied on top of the daub creating a weather coat and this wash tends to find and fill gaps and cracks. Limewash appears to have preservative effect as does layers of soot build up from open hall or smoke bay fires.

I have now prepared a full 3D model of the box frame cottage and am currently experimenting to see if I can produce an equivalent X Ray specs Sketchup view to that shown in the photo. More of this later.

Regards

Ken Hume

What is the make up of the daub? Is it clay or loam or a mixture, dung, straw, sand, perhaps blood and sweat. These materials in combination with the lime have a drying quality, clay on its own works similar to lime in that it wicks moisture away and dries quickly. Concrete does just the opposite, it attracts moisture and holds it, perpetuating that 3 letter word, ROT.

What is the climate, is it wet and warmer, temps, cold, does it ever snow? Things seem to be quite lush but still some trees have no leaves. How does the climate effect the ability of these buildings to withstand? Maintenance goes a long way, too.

Ken, these are great photos and comments, thanks.

Tim

Hi Tim,

The climate is temperate with about 28" rainfall per year. It does snow from time to time in winter but not a lot. Damp, mould, decay and rot would be the major enemies of this type of building. The front face of the box frame in the photo is facing north and is thus sheltered from the prevailing westerly wind and rain and hence has survived intact. The south face has deteriorated quite badly and has been rebuilt in places especially below the mid rails.

I can establish the original daub composition since the current owners replaced some of the panels but I will need to ask and await their reply.

Regards

Ken Hume

I am not sure where I read this, maybe in Sobon's yellow book, there was an issue with shrinkage with the lapped dove tail on the bottom of the tie on english tying joints. For some reason here in America there was more shrinkage than in England, therefor the cog was use more frequently, shrinkage not being as much of an issue. Is this true, has anyone read this before?

So, daub is the preferred infill? Have you heard of "stud and mud"?

Tim

Hi Ken and others:

Our historic houses look quite new compared with what you work with Ken, my hat off to you and the challenges that must come your way from time to tme wow!

Here we wrestle with trying to understand 150 to 200 year old structures where as you are working with 500 and 600 year old specimens--alot more information and knowledge are needed when you attempt to repair or alter them without a doubt.

Just as a passing thought how do the owners obtain fire insurance? or do they just do without.

And for a final thought do they (the owners) have to follow strict guidelines as they deal with remodeling\repairing or restoring or can they just do their own thing. What I am trying to say I guess how involved is the Gov't?

Nice pictures what medium are you using to post with?

NH

Hi Tim,

There is an issue with the shinkage of all wood species however some are worse than others. Unfortunately, I do not have Jack's yellow book - to what does this book pertain ?

What quantified evidence do you have to justify your proposition that the cog is more fequently employed than the dovetail as a tie beam end joint ?

Stud and mud sounds a bit like wattle & daub. Wattle is a woven structural membrane made up from vertical (oak) staves with interlaced horizontal withies (split hazel or willow) then covered with daub which will be made up from clay, animal muck, sand and maybe some chalk.

Richard,

There is a thatch insurance company that specialises in both providing insurance and in arranging re thatching. Thatch needs to be re ridged (the patterned bit at the top) every 12 - 15 years and recoated every 25 - 40 years as the top surface breaks down. The layers of thatch can and do build up over the centuries till they are 5 - 6 feet thick. North and east facing thatch tends to be damper and hence grows more moss whereas south and west facing thatch will erode more due to rain and UV sun action. Though most thatch homeowners are fastideous about buying insurance cover the vast majority fail to recognise that they need a decent set of drawings to rebuild. In the first picture showing the box frame you will see a new building to the right which was built to replace an older medieval thatched house that burned to the ground a few years back. Any comments about this building ?

All of the buildings illustrated above are from the same village in which there are a total of about 60 "listed" buildings. This listing is accorded by English Heritage a government body with prescriptive powers but the day to day administration of this power is excercised by the various local authorities equivalent to a town selectmen council or board. The building listings are graded as II - II* and I. Grade I would require the involvement of English Heritage for change approvals and these buildings represent only about 5% of the total listed building stock with II* (two star) being about a further 10%. Most of the buildings that I have shown are Grade II and thus will require only local authority approvals to alter.

Owners are allowed to make repairs and maintain their properties without needing formal approvals but in practice there is such a overlap area between repair and alteration that most folks would involve the local conservation officer in the decision making process. That said not all conservation officers are created equal with this being a fairly modestly paid job appearing to attract a lot of young women most of whom have no real building experience and thus they tend to rely heavily on locally developed planning and conservation policy documents to shape and frame their advice and approvals. I am hopeful that this situation might now be changing with some youngsters now taking part in Masters Building Conservation courses and local recording groups where they can gain exposure to more knowledgeable persons however I hold the line that really these officers should really be drawn from the building trades where real life building experience can be brought to bare to assist and benefit both the buildings and owner.

Cecil Hewett was a conservation officer and was also a very practical person - good with his hands and he and his work stands as a good role model for youngsters to aspire to achieve, following in his footsteps and developing further the vernacular knowledge needed to deal with our listed buildings in an individual, thoughtful, caring and considerate kind of way rather than following a prescriptive mantra. Here endeth my rant about conservation oficers !

The pictures were taken by my son James using a Canon SLR type digital camera. The images were then shrunk to about 680 x 4?? using Adobe Photoshop. I have then posted these images onto Windows Live photo albums (for free) where all "hotmail" or Windows Live users have recently been given 25Gb worth of storage space.

I would very much like to see and hear more about North American buildings. Please keep in mind that many of these are older than the Great Fire of London and so some American built heritage is older than what can be seen today in central London.

Regards

Ken Hume

This link has some pictures from Jamestown which is where I first saw the term,I think in a Nat'l Geo article. The technique apparently comes from Lincolnshire. That is apparently where my surname comes from, so it does strike some curiosity.

http://www.historicjamestowne.org/the_dig/dig_2006_11_20.php

Ken,
European brick looks to be of higher quality than what I've typically run into even through the 19th century here. Ours have many soft and imperfect bricks that are often spalled. Brickmaking here, and I may be talking too locally, was a wheelbarrow trade. The bricks were generally made on site, stacked into a "clamp" or small kiln made of the unfired brick and then fired with wood. As the clamp was disassembled they were sorted and used according to quality. Infill nogging is where I've seen the lowest quality "salmons" used. Fireplaces used the best. Did you have factory brick at those earlier dates?

Fascinating topic.

Great that you can post pics Ken.

Northern Hewer certainly hits the nail on the head comparing our 200 year-old "old" buildings with your 500-600 year-old structures. A whole different ballgame. Fascinating to see.

Like the above post, I find the brick work interesting as well. That brick infill (I think it's referred to as herringbone pattern?) must weigh a ton +. Things certainly seemed more ornamental back then. Brickwork on this side of the Atlantic is far more utilitarian: one on top of the other.

Hi Don x 2,

The brick making and laying process is exactly the same in both he UK & USA. The pattern brickwork shown above is a much later replacement for original wattle & daub and in general light red bricks are quite soft and so in combination with lime mortar will act like a wick to help draw water away from the timber as per Tim's earlier post. The brick will probably weigh only marginally more than daub since this is simply made from unfired clay with a little wattle lattice structure that would make to overall panel a just a bit lighter. This brick is only single skin (4.5") thick as is wattle & daub. I have recently had to deal with soft red brick noggin [note there is no "g" on the end of this word] in a timber frame building which was repointed using portland cement based mortar and now all the brick have spalled leaving the mortar protruding which encourages and causes further freeze thaw spalling damage. Bricks tend to have a hard skin but much softer core and so if the suraface is lost then rapid deterioration will ocurr.

You really need to go and see your own old buildings. I made a memorable visit to The Fairbanks House (c 1638) at Dedham, Mass. with Ed Levin and the smell inside this house is identical to buildings in Olde England. It provides a snapshot of timber frame building construction at the time New England was settled and hence also very likely reflects building style and construction in (east Anglian) Olde England at that time.

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken, the yellow book is Historic American Timber Joinery, A Graphic Guide. On page 8 Jack does mention shrinkage due to our higher moisture swings. Perhaps your moisture levels are more consistent. We get wet/dry cycles allowing settlement in the joinery. For this reason some tying joints used the cog system. I am perpetuating this by using 99% cogs in my joinery.

My Mother-in-law just passed through Jamestown and had to call me on the mud and stud wall system she noticed, it was a great conversation and I wished I had been there.

It is interesting, the smells of old buildings and even more that one so far away has the similar smell, it's a small world , really.

As for the plain brick work here in America, We were a developing nation and needed the quick infrastructure, not much time for flash, "get 'er done".

Tim

I think the Sobon book Tim is referring to is available as a pdf from the guild site under publications / joinery:


http://www.tfguild.org/joinery/part1.pdf
The shrinkage issue Tim speaks of is on pg 5 in this pdf version


That's neat about common smells. There is so much to learn...see...and smell...

I ran across this company while looking for restoration materials. They can analyze and remix old mortars. That would be neat to know how that's done...
http://ushg.macusa.net/heritagestore.php

I've used silane/siloxane on old brick a couple of times and it seems to help make them more water repellant without affecting the color or breathability. I've seen far more masonry contribute to rot than help keep something dry. I would isolate, backer rod and chink the interface of masonry and wood here.

The spelling must change across borders? Webster's and a quick google all showed the G.

Reading back to the first "codes", the first codified or written laws, those of Hammurabi, King of Ur, who wrote them in stone and posted them in the town square... uniformity in the application of the law.

Codex... the trunk of a tree... a block of wood... a tablet with the law carved on it.

Anyway, the law that has made it down to us as "breaking and entering" first comes from his laws and relates to breaking through the thin wattle and daub walls of his time and entering into another man's home to steal.

I heard the other day that 1/3 of our population is in prison.
Hammurabi didn't imprison anyone. The thief was buried outside the hole in the wall.

Hi,

We surveyed and recorded the cruck building shown at the top of page 1 today.

We found that this is nearly an all elm frame with elm cruck blades, purlins, floor joists, spine beams, mantles, collars, rafters but with oak wall plates, sills and wall studs. This frame has stood exposed to the elements no for nearly 600 years and they say that elm is not durable - yeh right !

Regards

Ken Hume

What species of elm do you have over there? Most of the elm around me is Ulmus Americana. I've sawn some recently for truck sides and trailer decking. Waiting to here how it holds up. I know the red oak doesn't.

Very neat to see the pictures of the old buildings. Thanks.

Hi Dave,

The elm used might well be either English Elm (Ulmus Procera) or Wytch Elm (Ulmus Glabra)- its very difficult to say which for sure. I had both of these species growing in my woodland which is less than 10 miles from this cruck framed building until 2 years ago when they secumbed to Dutch Elm disease again and are all now standing dead snags. These trees were last killed by dutch elm disease back in 1973/4 and have since then sprouted back from the roots which remain unaffected. My trees reached approximately the same size in 30+ years as has been employed in this cruck and so Dutch elm disease might be nothing new. The heartwood timber of this tree is entirely unaffected by this blight. The Dutch Elm disease fungus results in a tyloses of the growing cells in much the same way as happens in oak so it might well be that this disease inadvertently contribute towards its apparent longevity ?



I am attaching a cross section photo of the cruck concerned so that you get a better impression of the tree sizes employed. These are not much greater than 7 inches across the (flat) face though the diameter will be greater.

Please also check out the thatch which has at least 5 distinct layers showing. I measured the width of the thatch that extends out from the rear of this property to be just under 5 feet.

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken, so the thatch is left in place and a new layer is added? Is this standard practice? I am guessing a hundred years worth? The lower layers seem much thinner, with the exception of one in the middle, the light gray layer.

Tim

Hi Tim,

Some thatched roofs still have smoke blackening on the underside of the thatch from the days when the open hall fire was burning on the hall floor with the building open all the way to the rafters and apex of the roof. This practice ceased about 1550 - 1600. That is what happened inside this building but unfortunately we cannot see the underside of the thatch due to the plaster ceilings. Ideally thatch should just be raked down to remove any mouldy or composted crud and then a new dress top coat applied. In time this builds up to form quite a thickness. A long straw roof like this will need to be recoated every 25 years or so thus your guess as to overall age is probably quite a good estimate. It is now quite frowned upon to remove all of the thatch but eventually the weight of the thatch can become quite overpowering for slender rafters and breakage of same and / or localised collapse of sections of the roof is not unknown.

Regards

Ken Hume

That is very interesting. From what I gather, thatch was used to some small degree in our first period houses, but I have never seen a thatched building.

I've been studying cruck frames a little lately. I am hoping to take Jack Sobon's cruck workshop at Heartwood this summer. Should be great fun.

Hi Ken,

Sounds like a lot of fun poking around that building. I was wondering if you have some tricks you've come up w/ to identify old wood.

Many times I'll be poking around an old barn here, and though I know my area woods species quite well, time makes them look different. And "old growth" is not quite the same (does not look the same) as what I've grown up with either.

No doubt, the blackend faces of those timbers you're looking at must make it tough to tell at first what you've got.

Any suggestions / tricks you (or anyone else) can share?

...moreover, "extinct species" that I never grew up with, such as chestnut, is an example of another variable.

It's tempting to assign a species to any wood that I see. But like chestnut there are some woods that just aren't used anymore-- I never worked them, etc...

Hi Dave,

I note that you are in Mass. and so if you want to see some thatch then you should head out towards Cape Cod where there is a shopping arcade that is thatched. I have a photo of this somewhere. If you check out Abbott Lowell Cummins book on the Framed Houses of Mass Bay he lists a number buildings that were thatched during early times in the establishment of New England but soon thatch was outlawed for fire reasons and still is in downtown Boston (and London).

Please give my regards to Jack and see if you can prise an email adress out of him !

Don,

Elm is an easy wood to identify. It has little mini growth rings between the main annual rings whereas oak simply has early and late wood. It also tends to spiral dramatically back and forth along the length of the trunk. (White) Oak has very obvious medullary rays which will show up quite easily when inspecting a halved timber. Bug damage is also a good indicator. White oak heartwood will not be as affected as the sapwood whereas elm will suffer bug damage right across the sap & heartwood which in any event is hard to reliably distinguish. It tends to be much more difficult to identify softwoods. Knots are a good indicator.

Smoke tar (creosote) coatings can mask some of the clues but it helps to know the trees in the woods and especially if you can positvely identify a tree before chopping it up for the firewood pile.

Regards

Ken Hume

I'm not sure there is an email address to prise.

No, there's no email address for Jack. It's all hand tools and no computers.

Ken,

I guess I was interested in where you look in a frame for clues about the wood species. Sills or rafters kind of thing? Do you ever slice off a piece w/ a knife to expose a fresh surface?

I bet knots are a good indicator / clue in softwood.
And I've found bark is sometimes left on a waney edge, which helps.

No email for Sobon, but there must be another TTRAGer looking in who can lend an idea on wood identification after it's been aging in a frame for 200, 300, even 600 years.

TTRAGers... Hello? Anybody out there? Your craft needs you.


And what's the R-value of 5 layers of thatch? Pretty good I'm guessing. Interesting discussion.

Hi Don,

I personally would not recommend making any intrusive inspections of historic timbers that would require altering the patina of age or remove coatings that have built up over the years.

I think that 4 - 4 feet of thatch would prove to be a good heat insulator and they do say that this type of house is warm in winter and cool in summer.

Regards

Ken Hume

Don,
knowing the species of a timber is like knowing who painted a piece of modern art, or what particular model of sports car someone is driving. If you have been interested in the art for many years, you will know right away who the artist is.
I had the good fortune to be raised with a father who took me on a lot of trips to the forest to gather firewood and materials for our farm, and for some reason I took an interest from the beginning, so I can nearly always ID a timber, or at least put it into a group like oak/ash or poplar/basswood.
Probably cutting firewood has given me the most information about identifying wood, and in later years learning to run the sawmill has put a lot of timber past my eyes.

Hi Mark:

The woods are a great teacher, and a great comfort, too, I guess. I burn wood at home here each year and have scoured the forest w/ a saw myself. Besides the standard firewood species here, such as oak, maple, ash and beech, decades of woodworking have also introduced me to non-native species like mahogany, rosewood, and other exotics. Birds-eye maple or cherry from Appalachia falls somewhere in between.

Doing finish carpentry and woodworking in Maine, I have seen more pine than just about anything. But looking at old barns the past few years has found me scratching my head most times.

The old timbers most always take on a russet brown patina. And old growth timber has few knots and a slightly different appearance b/c of a tighter grain structure, it seems.

W/ the abundance of pine here in "The Pine Tree State" I would gather many barns are pine frames. But the color of time finds me often doing a double-take. My eyes are used to seeing fresh wood. This old stuff is kind of tricky to pinpoint--at least for me.

Kind of why I like this stuff, I guess. A old barn is most always a good detective story.

The grain and especially the knots will be there to see, even if there is a coat of paint.

Hi,

I just got a note from Sarah at www.orchardbarn.org.uk

Her suffolk barn is made from elm and even has elm pegs.

Does anyone have experience of making / using elm pegs ?

Regards

Ken Hume

I occaisionally use up my hardwood sraps, and saw them into octagonal pegs. I have sawn elm as part of the process, they work ok, but are not as stable as the ash, oak, cherry that makes up the majority of my scrap. The elm tends to warp a bit, which is really not an issue with pegs, as the hole will keep them straight.
( - :

Hi,

I spent last week in Barbados inspecting the last sugar cane crushing windmill in the world which unfortunately was damaged by a lightning strike several months ago.

Whilst in this very hot tropical paradise I noted with some interest the original form of houses in which slaves and then more lately sugar plantation workers lived. These are simple two room timber houses made with a plan area of about 12ft x 10ft cut to suit the length of available imported timber in order to help minimise cut wastage. These little houses are called chattel houses because they are moveable. The occupants owned the building but not the land upon which it stood so they were free to dismantle and move their house away to a new location say as per upon the land of a new employer.



These houses stand on simple coral stone blocks located at the corners and mid span of the sill with the gap between being infilled with course coral rubble stone. The gaps in this stonework are quite deliberate to allow for ventillation of the floor underside.



As general wealth levels rose then so did the aspirations of the occupants and these little houses were then expanded to include pentice roofed extension to the rear and even an outside balcony where the oppressive heat inside the houses could be escaped.



But today the occupants of these little houses now have security of tenure over the land upon which they stand and so a new wave of building in block and metal roof is in full swing. The value of these chattel plots has risen dramatically as tourists seek to buy and build holiday homes in Barbados. Those fortunate enough to own a beach front chattel can and do ask millions for their modest homes whereupon the chattel is demolished and lost from the building stock. Further inland the chattels are being demolished to make way for new middle class affluent houses that can bare little relationship with their humble neighbours.



It's just possible that this wholesale clearance and replacement of this type of vernacular building stock might go some way to explaining how and why virtually every pre 1200's house in England has disappeared.

We are quite familiar with the phrase "goods and chattels" but rarely do we gain an insight into what exactly is meant by a chattel and according to the dictionary this is a simple moveable possesion. I also learned a new word which is "jalousies" which is used to describe the louvered shutters that were typically fitted to the chattels and I believe that this word might also still be in use today in the southern USA.

The people of Barbados need to take care that they do not loose their built heritage and some thought needs to be given to help preserve these old buildings but at the same time recognising and affording the occupants the opportunity to build and live in more comfortable surroundings.

Quite a challenge. Time for a siesta !

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken,

Thanks for the insight -- any photos of the mill?

I have heard the term jalousie in normal usage around here, but it's usage is rare, perhaps because jalousie windows are rare.

Hi Ken,

Like Gabel, I'd enjoy seeing some pics of that mill as well.

"Goods and chattels" is a phrase I've never heard before. Also interesting to note that corrugated steel roofing looks like the dominant material. Must be very loud in those small spaces when they get a good Caribbean storm.

Are they stick-built or timber framed? You say imported wood; what is the species? And what is the average date of one of these chattels?

They all appear to have the main entry on the eaves side and are quite colorful, too. One building in the second pic has gable entry, but it looks like a very modern door and bigger than the 10 x 12 dimension you listed.

Hi Gabel & Don,

I took plenty of photos of the mill but unfortunately release of these is currently embargoed due to the damage incurred to the mill. This mill is featured on the back of every 25c coin in Barbados and so it is of some importance to the islanders with the owners being somewhat sensitive about the repair process.

All of the chattel houses shown have side wall (eaves) entry and the gable entry in the second picture is of a more modern building. I have no knowledge about internal construction details or about the timber employed however the mill employs greenheart timber from Guyana.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi,

Recent posts about timber physiology and conversion were in my mind when Anne Ree called yesterday to tell me about a cottage that she had just viewed in Purley, Berkshire, England. She sent me a few digi pics to ask my opinion on certain matters and this was interesting since here was 400 year old testimony to past practice.



The first item to catch my attention was the gable end tie beam and I attach below a zoom in on this component.



This is an oak tie beam that has been halved and the pith or heart of the tree can plainly be seen wandering along the timber. The tree used to produce this component was obviously not very old maybe 30 - 50 years and so this must be made up from a high proportion of juvenille wood which we would expect might result in significant warp and decay but the proof is here that a timber that might well be classed as substandard today has endured in exposed service for at least 400 years. The secret to long term survival is of course the ability to dry quickly. The same cannot be said for the cross braces which have been covered by tiles. With a bit of luck these will have been attached with lime mortar which might help to remove any trapped water but the same cannot be said for the two rendered gable panels where portland cement has been employed. This is going to result in frost and water trap damage to both the timbers and the underlying soft red brickwork.

I was recently challeged hard on this forum as to how I can be so sure of my opinions in respect of timber framed buildings and the answer might well lie in having the opportunity close to home to examine the long term effects of design, function, tansformation, materials and workmanship where these factors can be observed first hand and conclusions drawn as to effectiveness in respect of all these factors.

This particular frame reflects function in the determination of bay lengths. We can see that a short 6 - 8 ft bay has been employed in which the chimney is currently located. This could be a smoke bay which would predate the insertion of a chimney or it could have been built from new to accomodate a chimney. The LH bay length is about 10ft and the RH about 12 ft. This building is equipped with sills and Anne tells me that these are now somewhat deteriorated. A scotch (dap) is visible in the main post to the LH of the porch at mid rail height and this indicates that this building has probably already had work done to repair or replace the sill and also right the building. Some of the infill horizontal noggin is not positioned in a regular fashion and this is most likely a cheap and chearful repair done by a brick layer rather than carpenter. The quality of timber used for the mid rails is pretty awful and the mortices at their connection with the main posts have now blown to reveal the under lying tenons. Despite this the building has survived long term and this can also be attributed to the large number of secondary timbers that were employed initially to frame windows, doors and infil panels which also help to provide secondary load paths to accomodate failures in main components. All the lesons needing to be respected to ensure the long term survival of a timber framed building are here for those who want to see them.

The height from the mid rail to top of wall plate indicates that this is not an open hall and was built with upper floors from the outset. We can thus probably confidently ascribe a date of later than 1550 but probably no later than 1600. The porch is positioned in front of the chimney bay and there will be a short entrace lobby immediatly behind the front door and a stair winding up the chimney on the far side. This style of house would thus be called a lobby entrance box frame.

I suppose if one see's enough of these kinds of buildings then eventually one becomes quite intuitive about what to expect and so here we have a building pattern that can be replicated with fairly good certainty of long term performance and with little risk accrueing to a carpenter builder even if he has to use sub standard materials and is unable to run calculations.

The result also just happens to be quite charming.

Regards

Ken Hume

Spamalot - Follow this link to an image of the Gilpin House...

http://www.tfguild.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=21169#Post21169

I really am looking for help in identifying the name of this Tie and perhaps some idea if there is a region they are common to, on either side of the pond.

Stone houses and barns are quite common to this area, (unlike home) but I have yet to see another example that has these broken ties, or any embedded ties for that matter.

Hi Will,

I did read and examine your original post but found myself to be more than a little stumped for a name or experience of seeing another like that which can be seen at the Gilpen House.

At first sight this practice doesn't make a lot of sense but on further reflection it might well be good practice.

If we consider alternatives then the obvious one might be a continuous tie beam stretching from side to side. This would result in a plane of weakness at the integration line between the stone gable and the lower gable wall. Usually gables are less thick than the lower gable wall because they are not holding anything up and so there would be a real prospect of the gable simply falling out of place. The alternative might be to simply bury the wall plate in the end wall but because this would be so close to the surface of the masonary then there would be very little deadweight to develop sufficient holding power to resist outward thrust.

The picture would appear to illustrate a compromise between these 2 options such that the gable masonary remains reasonably stable and the wall plate is secured.

A better solution might be to run a tie beam or tie rod along the inside face of the gable but not burying this in the wall. This would leave a short cantilevered section of wall plate which would be carrying very little roof load. Have you been able to inspect inside to see if a tie beam / rod is in place ?

Making a join between masonary and timber is not easy. On my recent trip to Barbados I discovered that the timber windmill cap was secured to the masonary of the stone tower by a process of building a ring of 6 foot long vertical timbers into the 3 foot thick mill wall top and then securing the cap ring to same. Clearly this solution works but it is unable to be adequately inspected and as such must pose a continual worry to the owner / operators. The only reason I know this is because I saw a derelict mill wall with these timbers now exposed. I will try to dig out and post a photo of this feature.

I am meeting with some knoweldgeable building types in Oxford tonight and will raise this issue to see if others who live in the north west of that county have any experience of this technique. That part of Oxfordshire is built using predominately Cotswold stone walls with timber floor and roof so I might get a result.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi Will and Ken

I would think that the embedded tie could be a variant of a dead man anchor. The interesting detail is the peg and to what the peg connects. If a hidden stubby tee at the end of the tie is present an effective tie could be produced.

The peg is the interesting aspect, and I do wish I could know what is going on in there. I haven't put a ruler to them,but it is on the large side, perhaps 1 3/4" and placement is the same on all of them, with all that end distance in the relish.

They have held up to time well (though one suggest some movement) despite some erratic repointing and parging over time, sometimes with portland in the mix, most of that and the predictable results happen lower down - I'd suspect the Ties are still bedded in lime mortar.