hello everyone tonight

Hi DL and others looking in, welcome--

Unfortunately I never noticed the exterior of the church, and the day that I was there the roof structure had already been dismantled, many things I wish I had done then--

I have though been in the attics of 2 of the German Lutheran churches --the one in Williamsburg and the other in Morrisburg, both with distinctively different forms of manufacture--

The church in Morrisburg (1875) has sawn 2.5"by12"- ceiling supporting cross ties with 2 vertical sawn 1" by 12" on each cross tie, centred exactly under the peak to support the weight of the cross ties, the lath and plaster etc.--the ceiling has beautiful rounded corners all 4 sides, to reverberate the organ music, and accoustical speaking is the finest of all 4 churches in that respect.

The church in Williamsburg is about 12 years older (1865), but has a completely different roof structure system (trusses) --It has lower 45foot 12" by 12" hewn ceiling chords in conjunction with 10" by 10" hewn sloping sides timbers to form the complete truss along with a 1" wrought rod support in the centre--these trusses are about 8 feet apart-- and the builder then made use of a length wise purlin on top of the trusses (centred on each side), with one sloping brace back to the bottom chord--The rafters feet then lay on the upper plate, next on the chord, while the upper ends are above the top of the trusses, with no bearing on the truss at that point.

This attic by the way was immaculate and did not show its age at all.

Another neat feature was that the spire which is quite immense sat partially on the front stone wall and the first truss--but this truss was heavier being a bridge truss, the verticals of which passed down through the bottom chord held there with half dovetails and wedges--quite neat--147 years young--and still counting--

You know the trees that produced those 45' bottom chords (pine), had to have been pretty nice ones, from what I know drawing on my experience of hewing long timber--I am guessing the trees must have been 48" on the butt ends, also very straight--to have produced these chords without any wane edges that I could see--I also realize the work involved!!!--

enjoy

NH

Last edited by northern hewer; 01/08/13 06:39 PM.