What is the preferred engineering text for timber frame design? I'm a mechanical engineer looking for the best bonafide engineering text about timber framing. If there is not a good text for just timber framing, what is the best structural engineering text that adresses this topic?

You won't get by with just one book. I teach a timber design class to civil and architectural engineering students. For that class, I use "Design of Wood Structures, ASD," 4th Edition by Breyer, Fridley, and Cobeen, published by McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-07-007716-9. This book covers the broad area of structural design with wood, as do most of the available texts. You'll also want something dealing with joinery design. Perhaps "Timber Construction for architects and Builders" (see the home page of this site for details) will do the trick. Be sure you properly account for stress concentrations and all the cross-grain tension created by notching.

Dick,

I havn't seen the "Design of Wood Structures" book. Do you have a rough idea of the cover price ? The authors do not appear to be well known timber framers so is this a theory book or is it tinged with practicality as well ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken,

The book covers a broad range of types of wood construction. Topics include basic material properties, loads on buildings, design of members for specific load types (tension, compression, bending, combined stresses), and design of diaphragm and shear wall systems. Solid wood, glulams, and a variety of engineered wood products (LVLs, etc.) are discussed. One reason I use the book is that it contains a healthy number of practical applications, hints, rules of thumb, and suggestions for good design practice. It is not a timber framing book; it contains nothing on wood-to-wood connection. However, it does develop the necessary methods for design of members. No one has yet developed comprehensive connection design procedures (but we are working on that here in Wyoming). The book sells for about $70 on Amazon.com.