David,

maybe they are just impressed by the huge roof overhangs. But that is not hard to accomplish.
Did they get the clock in Germany or did they purchase it in the States? If they have been to Germany in all likelyhood they did see some of those hundreds of years old Timberframe houses. Maybe that is more what they are refering to rather than the actual clock.

Find a copy of Hermann Phleps " Craft of Log Construction" It has photos and diagrams of every notable timber and log constructed building in europe. If you can't find something in this book to blow your client away I'd be surprised. I just looked on amazon and they have it and LeeValley tools carries it.

E.H.Carpentry,

Were you involved in the building of the house(s) in the photos?

If so, was the timber dry? I assume it's all oak?

Do you know how the Brick infill was detailed -- wall thickness, flashing details, insulation, inside finish, etc? Is timber movement a problem?

Thanks,

GH

E.H. the clients wife is from Sweden and she has relatives that are from Austria.I think they like the overhang alot and also the "snub hip" roof. I have been told that this roof desgin is called KUPPEL WALM.

Timbo- I did just recently purchase the Hermann Phelps book mostly for the clients to look at for ideas.

Gabel,

I was not involved with these particular houses on the picture but many others. I cannot post all those pictures here but you get the idea.

As for the wood species and dryness level. Yes this is an oak frame since we want it to last. Dried to about 12%. Shrinkage or expansion is not an immediate problem. After some hundreds of years though the bricks may start falling out. But by then some of the frame work may have to be repaired also. So not really an issue.
All timbers have a V-groove along the face that is facing the brick infill. This way the mortar will lock in place and the infill will not fall out. As you can see the frame sits on a 6" brick sill with weep holes. The frame is 120mm (~5") thick.
Wall cross section, inside to outside: 120mm frame with brick infill, 40mm furring (~1.5") for venting the frame/brick, 15mm woodfiber insulating sheathing (~1/2") this is sort of like a MDF but very soft( not sure what it is called here) never seen it at any lumber yard, 120mm stone wool insulation, 115mm limestone wall with 15mm gipsum plaster. So that is a total of 425mm which equals 17". Second and third story walls are similar only there we are using a 2x6 wall with insulation instead of the limestone wall.

Now you might argue that this is a waste of space and very costly. Well from a european point of view I have to say that first of all this makes a very energy efficient and air tight house with very small utility costs. Also Europeans are not so crazy about having a huge house with fireplaces over two stories and "open" floorplan which essentially yes looks impressive but is pointless and useless since there is a lot more space wasted that way than having thick walls. And since many houses are still being build with brick or some sort of stone masons are not as expensive there as they seem to be in the States. So building a house like that on the picture would cost around 200000 Euro including taxes. Hope this claryfies some of your questions. If not, ask me again.

Enrico

David,

thought it was the impressive roof overhang and the balcony that they like. Not so much the log style house.
Yes, they are right this type of roof is called Krueppelwalmdach, since the hipped part does not come all the way down to the height of the soffit of the main roof as it would with a regular hipped roof also know as Walmdach
Good luck with your project.

Edited for spelling.

Here some more picture.

Need to install another software that lets me crop and resize pictures. Rigth now I just have to scan them in the right way. Very time consuming. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

What I want to know is how you kept from busting out laughing when the customer asked you build a timber frame house like a cuckoo clock. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten that job. But it would have been worth the giggle anyway

pegs_1,

the clock is detailed pretty well. Well enough to get the basic design for a house anyway.
The curious details like trees, people and the clock part aside the idea of wanting a house that looks like the clock is not so far fetched at all. Especially since some of the relatives seem to be Austrian. Ever been there? Almost all houses look like that. Though they are not necessarly log homes.

EH, I use an image optimizer from www.xat.com, if you go to that address, it is the first download "Image Optimizer" for jpeg and gif files. It only took me about two minutes to download and install. It will allow you to crop, resize etc. Hope this helps.

The frames in your pictures are impressive. Are they white oak, or a similar variety? I would think red oak would rot to fast.

Dave