Timber framing , or
half-timbering, is the method of creating framed structures of heavy timber jointed together with pegged
mortise and tenonSimple and strong, the mortise and tenon joint has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers around the world to join pieces of wood, usually when the pieces are at an angle close to 90°. Although there are many variations on the theme, the basic idea is that the end of one of the members is...
joints.
Naming
One of the first people to use the term
half-timbered was
Mary Martha SherwoodMary Martha Sherwood was a prolific and influential writer of children's literature in nineteenth-century Britain...
(1775-1851), who employed it in her book
The Lady of the Manor, published in several volumes from 1823-1829. She uses the term picturesquely:
It is not a term she uses generally for all timber-framed buildings, for elsewhere she writes:
By 1842, the term had found its way into
The Encyclopedia of Architecture by
Joseph GwiltJoseph Gwilt , English architect and writer, was the younger son of George Gwilt, architect surveyor to the county of Surrey, and was born at Southwark....
(1784-1863).
The structure
Timber framing is the method of creating framed structures of heavy timber jointed together with pegged
mortise and tenonSimple and strong, the mortise and tenon joint has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers around the world to join pieces of wood, usually when the pieces are at an angle close to 90°. Although there are many variations on the theme, the basic idea is that the end of one of the members is...
joints (lengthening scarf joints and lap joints are also used). Diagonal bracing is used to prevent racking of the structure.
To deal with the variable sizes and shapes of hewn and sawn timbers, the two main historical layout methods used were: scribe carpentry and square rule carpentry. Scribing was used throughout
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, especially from the 12th century to the 19th century, and was brought to
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
where it was common into the early 19th century. In a scribe frame, each timber will only fit in one place, so each timber has to be numbered. Square rule carpentry was developed in
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
in the 18th century and features housed joints in main timbers to allow for interchangeable braces and girts. Today, regularized timber can mean that timber framing is treated as joinery, especially when timber is cut by large CNC (computer numerical control) machines.
To finish the walls, the spaces between the timbers were often
infillInfill in its broadest meaning is material that fills in an otherwise unoccupied space. The term is commonly used in association with construction techniques such as wattle and daub, and civil engineering activities such as land reclamation.-Urban infill:...
ed with
wattle and daubWattle and daub is a building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6,000 years, and is...
,
brickA brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar.-History:The oldest shaped bricks found date back to 7,500 B.C. They have been found in Çayönü, in the upper Tigris region, and in south east Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. Other more recent findings,...
, or rubble. Plastered faces on the exterior and interior were often “ceiled” with wainscoting for
insulationThe term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer....
and warmth.
This method of infilling the spaces created the half-timbered style, with the timbers of the frame being visible both inside and outside the building.
Jetties
A
jetty is an upper floor that depends on a
cantileverA cantilever is a beam supported on only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
system in which a horizontal beam, the jetty bressummer, on which the wall above rests, projects outward beyond the floor below.
Where the houseowner could afford it, the more expensive technique of jettying was incorporated in the construction of the house. Home owners were taxed on their ground-floor square footage; jettying allows higher stories to have larger square footage than the ground floor.
Timbers
Historically, the timbers would have been hewn square using a felling axe and then finish surfaced with a broad axe. If required, smaller timbers were ripsawn from the hewn baulks using pitsaws or frame saws. Today it is more common for timbers to be bandsawn, and the timbers may sometimes be machine planed on all four sides.
The vertical timbers include:
- post
A column in structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. Other compression...
s (main supports at corners and other major uprights),
- Wall stud
A wall stud is a vertical member in the light frame construction techniques called Balloon framing and platform framing of a building's wall A wall stud is a vertical member in the light frame construction techniques called Balloon framing and platform framing of a building's wall A wall stud is a...
s (subsidiary upright limbs in framed walls), for example, close studdingClose studding is a form of timber work used in timber-framed buildings in which vertical timbers are set close together, dividing the wall into narrow panels...
.
The horizontal timbers include:
- sill-beams (also called ground-sills or sole-pieces, at the bottom of a wall into which posts and studs are fitted using tenons),
- noggin-pieces (the horizontal timbers forming the tops and bottoms of the frames of infill-panels),
- wall-plates (at the top of timber-framed walls that support the truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight slender members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and...
es and joistA joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...
s of the roof).
When
jettying, horizontal elements can include:
- the jetty bressummer (or breastsummer), the main sill on which the projecting wall above rests and which stretches across the whole width of the jetty wall. The bressummer is itself cantilevered forward beyond the wall below.
- the dragon-beam which runs diagonally from one corner to another, and supports the corner posts above and is supported by the corner posts below.
- the jetty beams or joists which conform to the greater dimensions of the floor above but rest at right angles on the jetty-plates that conform to the shorter dimensions of the floor below. The jetty beams are morticed at 45° into the sides of the dragon beams. They are the main constituents of the cantilever system and they determine how far the jetty projects
- the jetty-plates, designed to carry the jetty beams. The jetty plates themselves are supported by the corner posts of the recessed floor below.
The sloping timbers include:
- truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight slender members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and...
es (the slanting timbers forming the triangular framework at gableA gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns...
s and roofA roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....
),
- braces (slanting beams giving extra support between horizontal or vertical members of the timber frame),
- herringbone bracing (a decorative and supporting style of frame, usually at 45 ° to the upright and horizontal directions of the frame).
Modern features
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the art of timber-frame construction has been revived since the 1970s and is now experiencing a thriving renaissance of the ancient skills. This is largely due to such practitioners as Steve Chappell, Jack Sobon, and Tedd Benson, who studied old plans and techniques and revived the technique that had been long neglected. Once a hand crafted skill passed down, timber-frame construction has now been modernized with the help of CNC machines. These machines have helped the industry grow to where it is today, allowing for more affordable frames and shorter lead times for projects.
Timber-framed structures differ from conventional wood framed buildings in several ways. Timber framing uses fewer, larger wooden members, commonly timbers in the range of 15 to 30 cm (6" to 12"), while common wood framing uses many more timbers with dimensions usually in the 5 to 25 cm (2" to 10") range. The methods of fastening the frame members also differ. In conventional framing, the members are joined using nails or other mechanical fasteners, whereas timber framing uses mortice and tenon or more complex joints that are usually fastened using only wooden pegs.
joinery descriptives Modern complex structures and timber trusses often incorporate steel joinery such as gusset plates. The steel is used for both structural and architectural purposes.
Recently, it has become common to surround the timber structure entirely in manufactured panels, such as SIPs (
Structural Insulated PanelsStructural insulated panels , SIPs, are a composite building material. They consist of a sandwich of two layers of structural board with an insulating layer of foam in between...
). This method of enclosure means that the timbers can only be seen from inside the building, but has the benefits of being less complex to build and offering more efficient heat insulation. Structural Insulated Panels are a sandwich construction of two rigid composite materials usually wood based like
OSBOriented strand board, or OSB, or waferboard, or Sterling board or SmartPly is an engineered wood product formed by layering strands of wood in specific orientations. In appearance it may have a rough and variegated surface with the individual strips Oriented strand board, or OSB, or waferboard,...
or plywood with a foamed insulating material in between either by gluing billets as in EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) or foamed and formed in place with
polyurethaneA polyurethane, IUPAC abbreviation PUR, but commonly abbreviated PU, is any polymer consisting of a chain of organic units joined by urethane links...
. The advantage of this for timber framing in the modern world is less of a dependency on bracing and auxiliary members like minor joists and rafters as the panels can span a considerable distance and greatly increase the stiffness of the timber frame itself.
Alternative ways include the use of
straw-bale constructionStraw-bale construction is a building method that uses straw bales as structural elements, insulation, or both. It is commonly used in natural building...
. The straw bales are stacked for the walls with various finishes applied to the interior and exterior such as stucco and plaster. This appeals to the traditionalist and the environmentalist as this is using "found" materials to build.
History and traditions
The techniques used in timber framing date back to
NeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
times, and have been used in many parts of the world during various periods such as ancient
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, continental Europe as well as Neolithic
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
Half-timbered construction in the Northern European vernacular building style is characteristic of medieval and early modern
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
, England,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and parts of
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, in localities where
timberTimber may refer to:*Lumber, i.e. wood materials* Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Oregon* Timber , a 1984 arcade game by Bally Midway* An alternative spelling for Timbre...
was in good supply and building stone and the skills to work it were in short supply. In half-timbered construction timbers that were riven in half provided the complete skeletal framing of the building.
Some Roman carpentry preserved in
anoxicOceanic anoxic events or anoxic events occur when the Earth's oceans become completely depleted of oxygen below the surface levels. Although anoxic events have not happened for millions of years, the geological record shows that they happened many times in the past. Anoxic events may have caused...
layers of
clayClay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired...
at
Romano-BritishRomano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people Celtic in language and custom...
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
sites demonstrate that sophisticated Roman carpentry had all the necessary techniques for this construction. The earliest surviving (French) half-timbered buildings date from the 12th century.
The English tradition
Some of the earliest known timber houses in Europe have been found in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, dating to
NeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
times;
BalbridieBalbridie is the site of a Neolithic timberhouse in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated in the south Deeside near the B9077 road. This archaeological site is one of the earliest permanent neolithic settlements in Scotland dating to 3400 to 4000 BC...
and Fengate are some of the rare examples of these constructions.
Molded plaster ornamentation,
pargetting further enriched some English Tudor architecture houses. Half-timbering is characteristic of English
vernacular architectureVernacular architecture is a term used to categorise methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it exists...
in
East Anglia,
Warwickshire, Worcestershire,
Herefordshire, Shropshire, and
Cheshire, where one of the most elaborate surviving English examples of half-timbered construction is
Little Moreton Hall. In
South YorkshireSouth Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and the city of Sheffield...
, the oldest timber house in
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
, the "
Bishops' HouseBishops' House is a half-timbered house in the Norton Lees district of the City of Sheffield, England. It was built c. 1500 and is located at , on the southern tip of Meersbrook Park...
" c.1500, shows traditional half-timbered construction.
In the
WealdThe Weald is the name given to a physiographic area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs...
of
KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
and
Sussex, the half-timbered structure of the
Wealden hall houseThe Wealden hall house is a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed yeoman's house traditional in the south east of England. It is most common in Kent and the east of Sussex but has also been built elsewhere.The original plan usually had four bays with the two central ones forming the main hall...
, consisted of an open
hallIn architecture, several things are commonly known as Halls or halls. A hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...
with bays on either side and often jettied upper floors.
Half-timbered construction went with
British colonists to North AmericaBritish colonization of the Americas began in the late 16th century and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the Americas and a protectorate had been established over the Kingdom of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean...
in the early 17th century but was soon left behind in
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
and the mid-Atlantic colonies for clapboard facings (another tradition of
East AngliaEast Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
).
The French tradition
Elaborately half-timbered houses of the 13th; 14th; 15th; 16th; 17th and 18th century still remain in
BourgesBourges is a commune in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the former province of Berry.-History:...
,
TroyesTroyes is a commune, the préfecture of the north-eastern Aube département in France and is located on the Seine river. It is around south-east of Paris...
,
RouenRouen is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northern France on the River Seine, and currently the capital of the Haute-Normandie region. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
,
ThiersThiers is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. The town was featured in François Truffaut's 1976 film Small Change .-References:* Thiers from the French Wikipedia* -External links:...
, and many other cities, except in
ProvenceProvence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
and
CorsicaCorsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
. Timber framing in French is
pan de bois or technically
colombage.
The German tradition
Many German cities are famed for their half-timbered houses. Timber framing was the most popular building technique from the 12th to the 19th century. The oldest buildings still standing are from the 13th century. From the 15th century on, timbers were sometimes elaborately carved and infills with smaller timbering were made for both decorative and structural reasons.
The
German Framework RoadThe German Framework Road is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to Lake Constance in the south. Along the road you can find nearly 100 cities and towns with remarkable timber-framed houses. It is divided into seven sections, leading through the following states of...
(
Deutsche Fachwerkstraße) is a tourist route that links cities with picturesque half-timbered buildings. It is more than 2000km long and stretches across the states of
Lower SaxonyLower Saxony lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen Bundesländer of Germany...
,
Saxony-AnhaltSaxony-Anhalt is one of the sixteen Bundesländer that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of , and a population of 2.45 million...
,
HesseHesse is a state of Germany with an area of and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main.Hesse contributes the largest share to the Rhine Main Area....
,
ThuringiaThe Free State of Thuringia is located in central Germany. It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen
Bundesländer...
,
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and
Baden-WürttembergBaden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine—but one which has some of its major cities straddling the banks of the Neckar River...
.
The Canadian tradition
Called
colombage pierroté in
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
as well other areas of Canada, was half-timbered construction with in-filled stone and rubble. The style had its origins in Normandy and was brought to Canada by very early Norman settlers. The Men's House at
Lower Fort GarryLower Fort Garry was built in 1830 by the Hudson's Bay Company on the western bank of the Red River, twenty miles north of the original Fort Garry, which is now in Winnipeg, Manitoba...
is a good example of
colombage pierroté. The walls of such buildings were often covered over with clapboards to protect the infill from erosion. Naturally, this required frequent maintenance and the style was abandoned as a building method in the 18th Century in Québec. However, the style survived well into the 19th Century in the Prairies, where it was employed by French-Canadian carpenters at outposts of the
Hudson's Bay CompanyThe Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world...
, as well as on the
Red River ColonyThe Red River Colony was a colonization project set up by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk in 1811 on of land granted to him by the Hudson's Bay Company under what is referred to as the Selkirk Concession...
.
Revival styles in later centuries
When half-timbering regained popularity in Britain after 1860 in the various revival styles, such as the Queen Anne style houses by
Richard Norman ShawRichard Norman Shaw RA , was the most influential British architect from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings....
and others, it was often used to evoke a "Tudor" atmosphere (
see Tudorbethan), though in Tudor times half-timbering had begun to look rustic and was increasingly limited to villages houses (
illustration, above left). In 1912, Allen W. Jackson published
The Half-Timber House: Its Origin, Design, Modern Plan, and Construction, and rambling half-timbered beach houses appeared on dune-front properties in
Rhode IslandRhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
or under palm-lined drives of Beverly Hills. During the 1920s increasingly minimal gestures towards some half-timbering in commercial speculative house-building saw the fashion diminish.
In the revival styles, such as Tudorbethan (Mock Tudor), the half-timbered appearance is superimposed on the brickwork or other material as an outside decorative
façadeA facade or façade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
rather than forming the main frame that supports the structure.
Advantages
The use of timber framing in buildings offers various aesthetic and structural benefits, as the timber frame lends itself to open plan designs and allows for complete enclosure in effective insulation for energy efficiency.
The timber frame structure goes up quickly in its modern incarnation. While some modern shops still cut the timbers with hand tools and hand guided power tools, modern CNC (computer numerical control) machinery has been readily adapted to the task. This eliminates much of the repetitive labor from the process, but still often requires hand-finishing. Additionally, due to the rigid timber requirements of CNC machinery, odd sized, tree trunk, hand hewn, and recycled timbers are usually hand cut even in the machine dominated shops.
One aid in speeding up assembly on site is pre-fitting the frame, usually in
bentA bent is a structural entity composed of several timbers that defines the cross-section of a timber frame. Bents are the building blocks which define the overall shape and character of a the building. They do not have any sort of pre-defined configuration in the way that a Pratt truss does....
or wall sections that are laid out on the shop floor. This can assure a correct fit and with pre-drilling for the pegs it speeds the site process. This pre-fitting in the shop is independent of a machine or hand cut system. Valley and Hip timbers usually are not pre-fit but careful layout and checking can catch most errors.
In two to three days an average size timber-frame home can be erected and within a week to two weeks after that the shell of the house is ready for
drying in, which is to say, ready for windows, mechanical systems, and roofing. The shell in this case would be with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs).
The timber frame can give the home owner the ability to make a creative statement through the use of design and specialty touches like carvings of favorite quotes and incorporating timbers from heirloom structures, like a barn from a family homestead.
In North America heavy timber construction is classified by the building codes as Type IV, a special class reserved for timber framing the recognizes the inherent fire resistance of large timber, and its ability to retain structural capacity in fire situations. In many cases this classification can eliminate the need and expense of fire sprinklers in public buildings. Citation: http://www.tsib.org/pdf/technical/10-101_Building_Codes.pdf
Disadvantages
Because the structure is made from wood, it inherits any disadvantages wood exhibits as an engineering material. Some possible disadvantages of wood as opposed to some other building materials include:
- Noise from footsteps in adjacent rooms above, below, and on the same floor in such buildings can be quite audible. Often resolved with clever built-up floor systems involving clever sound-isolation and absorption techniques, and at the same time providing passage space for plumbing, wiring and even heat and cool equipment.
- The possibility of infestation by insects such as termite
The termites are a group of eusocial insects usually classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera . Along with ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate order Hymenoptera, termites divide labour among gender lines, produce overlapping generations and take care of...
s, cockroachCockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria. This name derives from the Latin name for the insect, Blatta....
es or powderpost beetleTrue Powderpost beetles are a group of woodboring beetles in the insect subfamily Lyctidae and the false powderpost beetles, the family Bostrichidae. These, and other woodboring beetles Anobiidae , all fall in the superfamily Bostrichoidea...
s, or by other pest animals such as miceA mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. The American white-footed mouse and the deer mouse also sometimes live in houses. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common...
and ratRats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s.
- Various types of rot
Decomposition is the process by which tissues of a dead organism break down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for new growth and development of living organisms because it recycles the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to...
including dry rotDry rot refers to the decay of timber in buildings and other wooden structures caused by certain fungi. In other fields, the term has also been applied to the decay of crop plants by fungi and the deterioration of rubber. It would appear to be a paradoxical term seemingly indicating decay of a...
.
- Other fungi
A fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. The Fungi are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants, animals and bacteria...
that are non-destructive to the wood, but are harmful to humans such as black moldAspergillus niger is a fungus and one of the most common species of the genus Aspergillus. It causes a disease called black mold on certain fruits and vegetables such as grapes, onions, and peanuts, and is a common contaminant of food...
. These fungi may also thrive on many "modern" building materials.
- Wood burns
Combustion or burning is a complex sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat or both heat and light in the form of either a glow or flames, appearance of light flickering.Direct combustion by atmospheric oxygen is a reaction...
more readily than some other materials, making timber-frame buildings somewhat more susceptible to fire damage, although this idea is not universally accepted: Since the cross-sectional dimensions of many structural members exceed 15 cm × 15 cm (6" × 6"), timber-frame structures benefit from the unique properties of large timbers, which char on the outside forming an insulated layer that protects the rest of the beam from burning.
- Many older timber-frame buildings, especially those built before the 1950s, are more vulnerable to damage during an earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
. Many design improvements were made in the latter half of the 20th century that improve the earthquake resistance of this type of structure.
See also
- Norman architecture
The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture...
- German Framework Road
The German Framework Road is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to Lake Constance in the south. Along the road you can find nearly 100 cities and towns with remarkable timber-framed houses. It is divided into seven sections, leading through the following states of...
- Weatherboarding
Weatherboarding is the cladding or ‘siding’ of a house consisting of long thin timber boards that overlap one another, either vertically or horizontally on the outside of the wall. They are usually of rectangular section with parallel sides...
- Framing (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
- Platform framing
- Balloon framing
- Carpentry
External links