Hi All,

This is my first post. Thought I would say hi to everyone.

I am interested in building by own barn on my farm near Ottawa Ontario Canada. I have been doing a lot of reading here, and different books on the subject, but thought I should take a course before trying to build a scale model of what I want to build. I have been thinking about this for years and I am now getting closer to having time to actually do it.

Does anyone know where I can take a course in my area?

Thanks,
Steve.

Hey Steve.

Welcome aboard. I think you'll discover this little forum is a great find.

Folks here will probably need some additional info about your project...

What's your background as far as construction?
What will you use the building for?
Do you want to hew, or are you buying sawn stock?
Any particular species of wood you are planning on using?
Do you need suggestions on raising or joinery or both?
Framing styles: purlin roof or common rafters, etc?

I'm not the expert here, but these are some good starting points.

Best and welcome--

wow... a TF revilval in ON?? glad to see yet another Ontarian on board...welcome.
Mark Davidson @ Whippletree Timberframing is your man. Usually holds one or two workshops per year and is one of the most respected TF'er around (just working on those brownie points Mark...hahahahaha) umhhhh brownies

Thanks Don. I will try to answer your questions.

1. I have built and designed my own house including forming all of the concrete work from the bottom to the top. Regular stick framing. Designed/specified all the steel I-beams, truss joist, concrete walls/rebar schedule, footings, walls trusses etc etc and also build everything, not one contractor on the site ever. Installed furnace and designed the ductwork for my own wood oil furnace. Installed the oil tank, burner/furnace, electronics, modified the electronics to support a humidifier that I changed to work more efficiently. Installed the whole AC system as well as sizing design etc. Used software and hand calculations to size and design the whole HVAC and ductwork. Interlocking driveway, stairs, retaining walls with stone veneer. Installation of doors, windows and oak wood stairs. Rebuilt other parts of my house including installing a basement by digging by hand and building a block foundation and rebuilding all the walls while supporting the roof with jack posts etc. Build an addition on the back of an existing barn. Build 2000 ft of cedar rail fencing and electric fence installation. Build in large re-claimed old growth douglas fir beams into my house repairing section of them by using chissels to cut out bad section and insert strips matching the grain from other pieces. I am building a race car as well installing corvette suspentions for both front and back into a 67 Firebird. Welding cutting steel fabrication and design.

No Timberframing but I can use tools that's for sure. I just need to learn some more to get going. I am also an engineer. Doesn't mean much for timberframing but I will be doing the calculations to size the timbers. I would like to start with a proven old design and check it to make sure I'm on track and understand the whole structure.

2. Building is for a barn for horses.

3. Sawn lumber. I thought I might want to hew but it's to much work. I have to be practical, at least a bit, since I'm doing it all myself.

4. Pine. I thought of hemlock but I'm worried about shake showing up before or after I do all the work. I'll go with the weaker pine since it's more stable from what I have read.

5. I need suggestions on raising with a jin pole and also the joinery and layout. I think I will square rule because I will be dealing with sawn timbers. I need step by step instructions to create some simple joinery and I can try it on some slighty warped 4X4 stock to see if I can correct and adjust.

6. I want a purlin roof system because I love the impressive beauty of it.

Thanks again Don. I am hoping that I have enough experience with tools to get started. I am very strong with all power tools for wood steel and concrete. I am also strong with figuring out how to do new things that I have never done before and I am skilled at building accurately. I am a bit week with classic wood working that people do in their basements but I know I can learn. I don't consider building a house from stick lumber to be carpentry or wood working but at least it helps one learn some basic skills.

If you guys have any pulin 30X40 plans with a regular sloped roof, not gambrel I would love to see them.

Thanks again,

Steve.

Steve:

I wish you well... having a plan and then waiting til it's the right time in your life is a special thing. I'm building a small houseboat right now on top of an old 24' pontoon boat-- an idea that swirled round my brain for a decade. I plan to launch it on the lake next spring.

Sounds like timberframing is w/in your grasp, not only because of your background, but for a strong fortitude to see it through.

Sawn timber is a better choice for sure. And Purlins do have that look.

If you've been lingering around here for a bit, the question I have for you now is, will you be using continuous top plates or a "Connected Girt" (CG) design?

A CG frame is well suited to a purlin roof. It may also have some raising advantages if you'll be short on manpower, etc.

The ones I've seen around here all have the continuous top plate and I thought I would try that out since I can get 40 foot long pine top plates with a 10X10 cross section without any problems (not sure of the sizing exactly that I would use at this point). I was going to use gin poles to raise it but I would need some help.

Can you describe to me what a CG system looks like? That sounds like it might be easier and less risky building and raising.

Thanks,
Steve.

I'll post a picture or two soon, but the CG (as we call it) uses a beefy top wall girt as principal bent connector.

We've been dicussing this style in the other section of this forum called "Barns and Traditional Timber Framing." look at the "No long top plates..." thread.

But the long and the short of it is that the CG typology seems to be a regional Northern New England style. Often there are NO PLATES used in the construction, which flies in the face of many building practices. Therefore not everyone is a fan of the style...The girts and purlins tie the building together instead of plates.

The system is old enough to have early 1800-era hand-hewn, scribed examples still kicking around, however, so it is considered "traditional" as far as joinery techniques, etc.

It is a very modular system, meaning the bents can be erected and tied together as you go...once two bents are up and connected, the frame can then be used as an anchor point to hoist the others in position. All the bents needn't be stood and braced to receive a long plate.

Some have said a cutting list is more effecient as well, as all the girts and purlins can be cut to the same length.

Instead of a wall plate, the major rafters rest atop the building's crossties, which are directly atop the wall posts.

Hi Steve,
I do have a TF course in the works for early october, though it is not up on the website yet. I'm planning to run both joinery and framing courses. Here is a link to the page with some course information:
http://www.wpltree.ca/workshopindex.htm

As far as design goes, I would get your horses and the space you need inside to work with the horses on paper before you get very far into frame design. One of the simplest frames to build is the ontario barn frame, and there would be plenty of examples in your area to learn from. Here is an example:

Thanks a lot for your advice everyone.

Mark,

I was in a barn in Kemptville last weekend and it looked a lot like the picture you attached. The only difference was that the two posts that go up to the perlin plates had a tie beam between them. This made sense to me since the roof rafters are trying to push the perlin plates out as well as the wall plates. Someone had cut out the tie beam and the pressure from the roof and snow load had pushed the wall plates such that they had twisted up and were no longer sitting flat on the outer bent posts. You could see that the perlin posts had tipped out. The design that you show has braces down to the main cross tie beam to prevent this I guess. This barn I looked at also had offset center posts to provide more open space on one side of the barn. Quite similar to yours with slight variations.

Warsaw is about a 3 hour drive from me. Are the classes held on the weekend?


Steve.

Upper crossbeam between queen posts is a good idea. the drawing above should have slanted queen posts as below:

The upcoming course will have joinery during the week and framing late week/weekend.