1800 century fur post construction.

Good Day,

I am looking for information about who to talk to about furthering my ideas of a workshop that looks like a building that would fit into a 1800 century fur trading post. I have recently found a link to a webpage that describes pretty well the basic idea of what I want.

http://www.northwestjournal.ca/PostCon.htm

More specifically I am looking for someone who I can talk with who will be able to tell me the important things I am missing with my idea. Right now I am in the planning stages to just get a good idea if this is possible and what it would entail.

The basic idea is the building to be built into the side of a hill and the foundation being a rock and cement foundation and the main building being of the posts and sliding piece design as in the article. The part by the exposed hill would be a "man cave" if you will and the main level would be a workshop with a small loft in it.

If I could be pointed in the right direction of who would be able to help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

Where are you planning on building?

Hello,

plank wall construction is a very good and sound method of building. I am very familiar with this method, but not the French Canadian version -this concept is repeated all over the world.

I have studied French Canadian plank wall enough to notice its most significant differences from the techniques I am familiar with, but surely there are people more thoroughly versed in this specific art than I am.

What more specifically do you need help with, I could help you create a basic design that follows historical patters but would need more detail to do so. Even just a rough sketch would be helpful, including dimensions.

This is certainly possible, but be advised you will probably have to pass it by your local building inspector. I'd suggest you have a good talk with him before going too far.

I was fortunate enough to not need my cabin inspected, since in my county a building for agricultural use is not permitted or inspected, but this is not common these days I am afraid.

TW, I would be building in Nova Scotia, Canada. I don't plan to build it anytime too soon. It would be once my wife and I decide on building a house. Thinking about the range of 5 to 7 years or so.

Bahler, That is great that is it a sound building method. I am looking for who I should be talking with to discuss my idea of the building to. To see if what I have in mind is possible and what would be necessary for this to be built.

Talk to us here, we will help. That is what this forum is for!

I would love to help with a project like this, I consider recreation of historic building types to be my specialty, it's what I enjoy to do the most.

I am going on a vacation tomorrow I will do a write up when I get back with what I had in mind.

Hi Calvin;

This type of construction is known by many names and was briefly discussed in this forum under one of its more common names: piece sur piece. (search for "peice sur piece"). It is still in use in parts of Canada but I have no first hand experience even seeing historic examples. One question I have is how the shrinkage of the planks in accounted for since the posts will not shrink nearly as much.

I have put most of what I know into the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-and-plank

Good luck;
Jim

Jim,

Did you write much of the wikipedia entry?

There is a small amount of confusion,

First, Blockständerbau and Bohlenständerbau are not the same thing, and are not related.
The first is a term that is often misused even in vernacular German. It correctly refers to a log structure with posts worked into the walls to make construction faster. In this case, the loads are still born by the horizontal logs stacked between the uprights. When you do this you have to have log consoles, the posts can't be two stories high without risking the structure becoming unstable. This lacks any form of added bracing. Usually this takes the form of a first story that is posted and a second story that has interlocked log corners.
Bohlenständerbau, in contrast, is a true timber frame with a wood plank infill. The planks may even be as thick as logwork, but the distinguishing characteristic is the fact that the structure as a whole functions as a timber frame.
It's confusing but the terminology is very specific, much more specific than English speakers would probably ever bother with.

When dealing with shrinkage there are two different approaches. If your infill is thick, you can stack it up so that there are gaps at the top of the posts. This is carefully calculated so that the gaps will close perfectly as the infill shrinks.
If you have thinner planks for infill, then either you wait until everything is very well seasoned before fitting it into the wall or else you have a deep groove cut into the header beam that will hide any shrinkage.
One alternate approach is the use of vertical planking on the upper level of the structure. A wedged plank is inserted through a hole in the header beam that can be driven down to force the wall planks tight as they season. Of course, you would need such a plank in each cavity.
Usually in Switzerland you will have a long window ledge that has a broad lip on its underside. There will be horizontal infill under the window ledge, and this lip will hide any gap that opens up. The ledge is securely tenoned into the posts.

Hi Jim. Here is a project we did last summer, vertical plank wall 26'square. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_32Je56yjM