I’m interested in attending a timber framing class or workshop somewhere on the west coast. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and see that most such classes are on the East Coast. Does anyone know of one in the California, Oregon, or Washington part of the country? Something like a one week workshop is what I’m after.
Any information would be greatly appreciated!
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Replies
I know this isn't what you're looking for, exactly, but these guys might have a recommendation. In MI, there is a wonderful and unique organization dedicated to preserving rural history and applying it to the challenges of developing nations.
Email Dick Roosenberg for a recommendation.
http://www.tillersinternational.org
Look in Timber Frame Homes magazine for an ad for the Timber Framer's Guild, or look for them online at /http://www.tfguild.org/.
builder29
Why do you need a timberframing class? , Not trying to be smart aleck but I simply picked up some tools and started building mine.. there are plenty of books and videos which will give you all the information you need..
Frency, no offense, your house is extremely cool, but it's more of a post and beam than a timberframe. You didn't have any true compound timber frame joinery that I could see. If everything is bolted together it can't, by definition, be a timber frame.
jesse,
Virtually everything is mortice and tenioned. There are half laps and birds mouths a-plenty. No dovetails are present because every dovetail that I've seen loosens up as the timbers dry. These timbers were drying for three years prior to erection and still in spite of extreme care making all joints as tight as possible they opened up far more than I anticipated..
The lags are used because there are two timberframes that must be connected for maximum strength. Interior and exterior timberframe.. There are also lags where the building inspector called for an engineers drawings and stamp or lags.. a few hundred dollars for lags or a few thousand for an engineers stamp.. Hmmm let me think!
Finally if you look at european building codes all timberframes must have metal connections due to the first failure in a fire is the pegs, when the pegs fail the timbers fall.. They do like I intend to do cover the metal connections with pegs.. As you can see my home is not yet finished.. when the pegs are in place covering the lags, then you can say my home is finished.. (last step)
Well, I guess it might just be a difference in terminology. You call something a mortise and at the timberframe shop it would just be a pocket. How long are the tenons that connect your roof trusses to your posts? Aren't they lagged through the back of the post into the end grain of the bottom/scissor chords? How long are the tenons in your wall assemblies? Could you remove all the lags in each part and still have structural integrity?All I'm saying is that if bolts hold it together, it's a post and beam. To be a modern American timber frame, pegs must hold it together. But that is just my opinion.
jesse,
In most cases I've replaced wooden pegs with steel pegs according to european fire codes) there will be wooden plugs covering those steel pegs so the look will be that of a tradional timberframe..
If I removed every single lag bolt in my whole house only the buttress braces (which were an afterthought) would fall. You can see some of those mortice and tenions if you look closely at the pictures of my home.. How deep are my mortice pockets? about 4 inches in most cases. (in some applications the tenions go all the way through a 12 inch timber and project into a second beam) Most tenions are 4 inches by 4inches exceptions are where I have a 12x12 timber or 6x12 timber
Modern timber frames should conform to fire codes.. there are no American fire codes with regard timberframes that's because they are relatively scarse and they tend to be lumped in with stick built homes for most purposes..
Any timberframe will hold up longer than a stick built house in a fire but they could be so much better if America would adapt the European fire codes.. the pegs are the first to fail in a fire. If the wooden pegs were replaced with lags or steel rods as required according to european codes you could then put wooden plugs in the holes and have the same look.
Yes there are lags as secondary connections, I could buy a 12inch by 1/2 inch stainless steel hardened 18/8 lag bolt for $1.06 when I started.. (I just bought 40 at a cost of $12.95 each!) so I used a few of those rather than spending the thousands of dollars it would cost to get an engineers approval stamp on the drawings.. In any case you won't see any steel connections when finished they will be "pegged" The true purist would not accept any metal fasteners I've seen shakes installed with small little wooden pegs..
Now if you claim to be a tradional timberframe purist I can accept that you accept only wood as a connector.. but if you do then I assume that you have a program to teach the homeowners the proper tap the peg in in the fall and loosen the peg out in the spring, due to shrinking and swelling of wood during the heating season .
<If the wooden pegs were replaced with lags or steel rods as required according to european codes you could then put wooden plugs in the holes and have the same look.>
i think i heard a couple of my timber framing buddies just cringe.
Every day is a gift, that's why it's called the present.
arnemckinley,
the reverse then would also be true! but if it catches fire and the timbers fall down because you replaced them with wood you'll have to live with the consequences
frenchy, timberframes have been around for centuries, i myself have seen them 200 plus years, still standing.
are you saying that whomever built these buildings did something wrong? LOL.
no self respecting timber framer would insult the frame with metal lags!!!!
Every day is a gift, that's why it's called the present.
arnemckinley,
Do you mean to tell me there are no self respecting timberframers in Europe? Then what prey tell do they do with all those Mafell timberframing tools?
If you read back issues of Fine Home Building you'll discover the reason and application of steel in timberframes..
I really can't help it if some timberframers don't keep up with all the safety issues regarding timberframes..
There are purists in this world. heck in some respects I'm one of them.. However I do go along with self starters in my cars,, even that Model A Ford I own has one! ;-)
(what's more I might put seat belts in it too!)
<Do you mean to tell me there are no self respecting timberframers in Europe? Then what prey tell do they do with all those Mafell timberframing tools?>
frenchy,
as you said, they are juristicted by code, not practicality. any timber framer worth their salt would not use metal lags to hold together their frame,...by choice. obviously nobody has control over what code is.
Are you saying building a timber frame without metal lags is wrong?
Every day is a gift, that's why it's called the present.
Edited 8/3/2007 4:02 pm ET by arnemckinley
Where do you get this info that the pegs fail first? I think you should do some research on timberframes in california, earthquakes, and why professional timberframers DON'T use steel pegs.
http://www.timberframesbycollinbeggs.com/faq.htmlIs it true that Traditional Timber Frames are more fire resistant than stick built homes, post and beam homes with metal connectors and/or manufactured trusses with steel gusset plates?This question was recently answered in a letter to Timber Framing; Journal Of The Timber Framers Guild, by Ryan Gilbert who is a firefighter in Bellingham, WA. “Timber- Framed construction is significantly more resistant to fire damage than common stick framing and considerably more resistant to fire damage than construction using unprotected steel support members” (i.e. post and beam). “Solid wood is very stable at high temperatures and creates its own insulation upon contact with fire. As a result, heavy timber construction is given a two hour fire rating by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).” He goes on to say that “the beauty of timber frame joinery under fire load is that, as the outside of a beam chars, it turns mostly to carbon. Carbon is a great insulator, so the load-bearing portions of the joinery and members remain intact for much longer than in lightweight truss construction. He goes on to say that steel gusset plates fail rapidly in a fire, and engineered wooden I-beams will delaminate and collapse while the fire is still in the growth stages and temperatures are relatively low. “I always breathe a sigh of relief when arriving on the scene of a fire to find out that the building is of heavy timber construction. There is a much better chance of finding living occupants, and the officer in charge is considerably less hesitant to send in firefighters to search for victims.”
jesse,
I carefully read that, did you? If so then we are both in agreement with regard to the safety of a timberframe relative to a stick built house I said as much many posts ago..
However the leap you made.. erroneous leap! was to the true nature of steel pins in leu of wooden pegs.
read carefully where he said bolts and plates that is not what we are speaking about is it?
We are speaking about a pin sourrounded by a heavy wood beam providing the insulation qualities mentioned with wood charring forming carbon etc.
If you had done enough research in older issues of Fine Home Building you'll discover where they explained the requirement for steel pins covered with wooden pegs in eurpoean timberframing and why.
jesse,
Toss some loaded joints into a fire and see what fails first.. And I'm sorry you are wrong! Europeans have done extensive testing on just this subject and if you read older copies of Fine Home Building you'll find the source for that information..
I cannot speak for California, I live in a part of the country where earthquakes don't exist (fires do but not earthquakes) In fact most of the country fires are much more of a risk than earthquakes..
The following is pure speculation with regard earthquakes.
Most timberframes are built not with recycled wood but green timbers.. by their nature timbers tend to be green since it may take years/decades for them to completely dry out. even assuming a timber could be a year or more old prior to construction that still leaves a lot of shrinking to do while it dries out completely
Assuming a careful team builds the house and gives each peg a solid whack just prior to leaving the home for the final time and letting the various other trades do the finish work, that still may mean the wood does a lot of shrinking. In the normal run of events that's not an issue..
During an earthquake a peg that may have loosened up due to the drying and subsequent shrinking may fall out from sympathetic vibrations caused by the earthquake..
One peg and we probably won't have a collapse multiple pegs and that could present risks..
That was all pure conjecture.. I've never been in a timberframe during any of the earthquakes I experianced when I spent 7 years in Calfornia.. If you have examples of failed timberframes that used metal pins I'll be glad to look into things and if needed revise my thoughts regarding the use of steel pins in a earthquake zone..
As for why most timberframers don't use steel connections I'm certain that it has far more to do with appearance than any reasoned thought process. Heck reasoned thought process would not likely even build a timberframe since there are so much more efficent, and economical ways to build a shelter..
Timberframes usually don't appeal to the intellect, rather the viseral. Seeing those massive timbers just imparts a feeling of strength and solidarity. In addition there is a connection with the past from a timberframe which no stick built or other method of modern construction has. Seeing a modern fastner destroys that illusion.
I deeply regret showing pictures of my home prior to putting the "pegs" in place. Once they are in place that illusion will be recreated.
Finally what training do you provide your homeowners of traditional timberframs with regard to adjusting the pins with regard to changes in humidity? Or do you just give them a solid whack prior to turning it over to other trades?
arnemckinley,
Much as I regret it, (remember at heart I am a luddite) I'm afraid if there is a safer way to do things and people deliberately choose not to follow that safer way then they are doing something wrong..
Lags are not required but metal connections are.. Another words if you choose to do tradional pegged construction then the wooden pegs should be replaced with steel pins or rebar or something which fire will not cause to fail.. again to give the apprearance of tradional pegged timbers end pugs can (and should be) used.
I regret showing pictures of my home prior to putting those plugs in exactly because of the erronius assumption that somehow my place is not a true timberframe.
If I wanted a post and beam I would have built a post and beam, sure would have been easier than cutting all those mortice and tenions..
builder, check out tfguild.org, under the Learn More tab, there are a bunch of reasonably active forums. Folks there will have some info on courses, for sure.
Try contacting the Timber Framer's Guild of North America.
Yea, they're an East Coast bunch, but probably can steer you in the right direction.
There is a Breaktime member, Mike Callahan, who is a timberframe homebuilder in South Lake Tahoe. If he happens by, I'm sure he would be a good person to ask.
If you search using "Mike Callahan" you might track down some of his work, nice work indeed...
Time will do the talking, Years will do the walking...I'll just find a comfy spot and wait it out...