D L et al.;

Thanks for the eye candy (photos).

As I understand it bohlenwand translates simply as "plank wall", and the page from the book you posted shows both vertical and horizontal types of plank walls. Does bohlenwand have a specific meaning or is it a general term for different types of plank walls?

The Bohlenwand method of building with a single thickness of horizontal planks is also found in many parts of Europe, mostly Sweden, Jutland and part of Germany. I have an opinion that horizontal plank wall buildings are found in areas where Vikings settled. They are called a bulhus in Danish as one example, and are thought to have been brought to North America by the French known (with many variations) as "Pièce sur pièce". The oldest example I am aware of was found in excavations in Poland dating about 5,000 years ago but these used a V instead of a rectangular groove to capture the plank-ends.

This is an interesting idea to use two horizontal layers infilled with insulating material. Two thoughts I had looking at your drawing are to make the posts thick enough so you could leave small air spaces between the insulating and wall materials in the walls and to be sure the insulating material can be thick enough so condensation could not form inside the wall, but you have already addressed the moisture issues. Another thought for the non-traditional among us is that our forefathers used planks in grooves to avoid the high cost of nails. Now with cheap Chinese nails, the planks or boards could be nailed on rather than being fitted in grooves. Maybe the outside layer could be done using the "rainscreen" concept so the wall was ventilated.

I noticed at the last TTRAG conference that even the most experienced framers are still struggling with how to enclose a frame with our historically "modern" problem of heating, cooling, utilities, etc.

Now to be a smart a--, if you fill the walls with earth and use a sod roof is it an under-ground, timber-frame house?

Jim