Hi don and others tonight:

typical historical finishes

Walls----

kitchens--beaded vertical or horizontal wide pine boards topped with a nice molding--boards could be washed with a red ochre paint stain--no additional sealing--above this wainscoating just the plastered wall surface usually left the lime white until such time as it needs refreshening, then maybe paint would be in order

floors----

wide 1.25|" thick t&g pine boards surface nailed, sealed with cedar oil yearly to harden the surface

NH

Hi everyone tonight

Well excuse me for getting carried away on wall surfaces but I am sure there are more than a few souls out there that appreciate an off shoot subject that really is part of the timberframing picture no matter if it is a home or outbuilding or maybe a high end drive shed with living quarters in one end for the hired help to call home.

We had a good example of this type of structure at UCV it was the Robertson driveshed it was 4 bays, the one end bay was a lovely living quarters, with a fireplace suitable for food preparation and heating, 2 centre bays for carriages, and the opposite end was a 3 stall horse barn, the centre section was ground floor, while the 2 ends were raised floors. The area over the tie beams was floored and contained grainaries, and hay storage areas, we used it extensively for drying some of our better grades of lumber from the muley saw mill.

It was a great area to cure slowly the fresh cut lumber, which after about 4 to 5 years could be used by the cabinet maker to create his hand made creations.

Before I leave for the night I am going to throw out a request from any one of you for a special subject that you might want answers to. If I can't answer it I am sure that someone out there can.

NH

I was going to ask about this anyway...

How often do you see exposed timber in historic structures? The only timber framed buildings in Central Indiana aside from barns are very old churches, and in those there is no evidence that they are timber framed at all.
The timbers are lathed and plastered over, never to be seen again.

Hello D L

Well DL some churches do have exposed beams in the ceilings, but if you want to see lovely timber framing just climb up in the attics above the lath and plaster and you will see some of the most beautiful original timber trusses, that are not weathered and just there for the viewing, here again you have to have the oportunity and permission to be able to probe around in these old structures.

When The TTRAG met in Morrisburg a few years ago I hosted them through UCV historic site, and I had set up the itinerary for the group to enter the attic of Christ Church to view the Lovely timber trusses that were exposed in the attic, these trusses held up the gothic ceiling of the sanctuary, and you can see just how the gradual arch of the ceiling was formed on the underside of the trusses,

It is a marvel to see the huge trusses fabricated using white oak, and sit there and imagine the order of construction and try to theorize how they were put together and raised in their present position,

This church was built in 1820 well before any modern equipment was available.

Another structure that I visited and photographed was the lutheran church in Williamsburg Ontario Canada built in 1865 The trusses in the attic are spectracular spanning 40 feet and fabricated using all hand hewn timber.

The trusses look like they were just hewn yesterday

NH

Hi Richard,

The Williamsburg church with the 40ft span is quite a timber design engineering challenge and so I think that we would probably all like to see one of your photos of this roof truss please.

Regards

Ken Hume

Hi Ken

Thanks for coming on board, I will try and see if I have any pics loaded into photobucket, if not it may be a while but I will try to oblige if I can

I do have some good photos if I can get them arranged to post

NH

I would love to see those pictures, NH.

But in my question I was wondering about interior finishes in homes other than plain plaster.

Here's some to ponder:







Notice on that last one the curious tiled object. It is a Kachelofen, a tile oven. The procedure of using these is to get them very hot on the inside in the morning, and the thermal mass of the whole unit will slowly diffuse the heat during the day. Supposedly they can heat an entire house for a day with just a small handful of wood.

Hello everyone tonight


Well here is a shot of one of the wooden Garrison Carriages that I am working on

NH

Is that a 12 pounder?

Hi everyone tonight

I was just reviewing the posts above and noticed that ken had shown an interest in the 40 foot trusses in the Williamsburg Church and their construction, well just to catch up,--

The trusses are constructed similar to a bridge truss and are really strong,in fact the last truss from the south stone wall supports not only the ceiling's 40 foot span, but a good share of the weight of the spire which is supported equally on the stone wall and the first truss.

There are running length wise over the upper surfaces of the trusses hewn timbers that serve as purlins in other timberframes, they in turn support the rafters that seem to rise independent of the trusses but in reality are taking the roof's weight, including the present heavy snow loads

Hope you enjoy

NH