Heidi's new studio, pt 2, The Timber Frame

Like I said, the foundation went fairly quickly. Using no mortar I managed to get the walls about a foot above grade. Once the frame was up, and the sills secure, I went back and filled the gaps between the stones and sill. This was done with shards of shattered stone. Some areas have been pointed, more remains to be done.

I managed to get my logs sawn into timbers in trade for some picture frames, and I went to work on the frame. Lacking electrical power and with somewhat inferior tools I set about building the frame. The progress was slow, using a bit and brace, but by the end of the season I had the floor and walls up, and had begun on the trusses. But then the snow came and I had to stop. The frame at that point looked like this.
A great deal happened, and a year and a half went by in the blink of an eye, before I returned to the frame.

Over this period I lost my horse. It turned out that Pinnochio had a brain tumor, and his feet started to go. There was quite a spectacular reunion when he was first returned to the herd. And he spent his last days in the warm barn back at the riding school.

When I returned to the frame in June of 08, it was with an entirely different approach. What I have come to think of as Phase 2.

After several years of sporadic efforts, Heidi was still painting in what we had started to call her "closet." I had long wanted to expand my shop into the other half of my building and get some new tools and machines. We looked at the situation and figured it was now or never. So we swallowed our pride and went about begging for a small business loan. When Opportunities Credit Union, Burlington, VT decided to back us, the whole project got a much needed boost. Mad props to their board! No longer dependent on found materials, I ordered timbers and 1" boards from a local sawyer. And I was off.

While I was waiting for the new timbers to arrive, I dismantled what I had up of the trusses. I was never satisfied with them, they were way too skinny, and I had 6"x7" ties coming.

I used these pieces and some left over timbers to fill in the walls. Meanwhile, my son, Orion, dug a trench from my shop for the electrical installation.He finished up right about the time copper doubled in price. Thanks George!But finally, I had power for my new Milluakee, heavy duty drill. No more bit and brace. Since the new timbers hadn't yet arrived, and I still had some wood, I went ahead and built the mudroom.

The mudroom foundation is made from 2 pieces of old electrical pole. They sit on cinderblocks 3' deep, each in a bed of gravel. A tenon is shaped, with sloping shoulders, on the top of each pole. Mortises in the sill timber fit over these tenons. This should prevent rot in this prone area. Or maybe it will increase it. Who knows when you try something new, no?Building the mudroom first afforded me an opportunity to build two small trusses as a practice run. I also got the raising sequence down a bit before tackling the main rafters. But perhaps two king post trusses for a 4'x3' space is a bit over built.

The protruding plates are left long for a very strong, cog lapped corner. Boxed in, they form a nice little overhang. I shaped a 2" cedar cap with a drip edge for the top.Working the timbers for the roof was a thrill. The new drill and onsite power really sped up mortising. With three new Robert Sorby's, I was in heaven.

I already had good saws, having reconditioned a rip and crosscut several years back. My cross cut looks horrible, but the steel is awesome, and I have a large set on it, just under 1/8” kerf in the green softwood. It's a real hog.Rain days were spent in the shop building windows and doors. I got a great deal on some clear white pine from NH. Kiln dried but stained black from being cut in the summer. I was staining all my windows black anyway so it was a good match. All the glass in the studio comes from windows that I salvaged locally. The blind motise and tenon fixed sash is all coped and sticked by hand. This is made much easier by the use of a simple 30 degree chamfer moulding.
I used an English tying joint. By leaving the ties long, they cantilever out for a substantial 16” overhang. Load from the rafter is transfered to the tie outboard of the post. I am not an engineer, but this configuration looked very strong to me. I got the idea from medieval frames with a jettied second floor. Also, I needed a large overhang on the south side to keep from overheating in the early summer and late fall. The pitch of the roof was determined by the largest 6”x7” timber I felt I could raise above my head and manipulate. This turned out to be about a 10 foot piece in green pine, so that’s where I cut them off. With 16’ ties this ended up giving me a 9 in 12 pitch or a little better. Good enough for wood shingles. Raising the trusses was scary stuff. I did it alone, one piece at a time. To aid in this I did several things which I would recommend. First I was very careful not to make loose joints. If the tenons go in and stick a little, everything can be assembled slowly. Loose tenons that drive home too quickly can also be dangerous. Secondly I cut in queen posts, which were unnecessary, structurally, but formed built in props for each rafter. These could then just be left in place.

Even so, getting those things up took everything I had. It is a good thing that by this point the work had me looking pretty buff! Ha! Also, I fully assembled each truss on the ground and had every piece well marked and labeled.

Purlins were cut with dovetails to lock the whole thing together. And the trusses are well braced to the ridge. Note the intermediate ties to support loft floor.To facilitate an assembly raising, I formed the ridge in two pieces with a stopped, mortised scarf, centered over the middle post. In an unconventional manner, I left the tops of the king posts long and squared; lots of relish is good. I also left the ridge beam square in section and cog lapped it over the tops of the outboard posts. I did this to avoid carving it and the king posts, since I only had a drawknife, and I am very lazy.

I had logged quite a bit of the local white cedar with the horse, and my sawyer had turned some of this into boards. The longest cedar logs were used for the sill. The boards had been stickered and drying for almost 2 years. When sheathing the roof and the rest of the frame, I used the cedar boards in areas that might benefit from extra rot resistance. The rest was done in local white pine.

I don’t own a circular saw, they are way too unsafe, noisy, and in my opinion a little bit lazy.

So I trimmed the sheathing by hand, just like everything else.

But, I’ll be honest and admit to contemplating a complete abandonment of my principles at times.But before you feel too sorry for me, lets put the whole thing into perspective...With horizontal purlins I was able to run the roof sheathing boards vertically. In my view, these boards are really also the bottom layer of shingles. I think a drop of water has a lot better chance of making it’s way to the eaves on boards laid this way. Also the gaps between the boards are effectively vents all up and down the roof, under the shingles.

I built the roof structure nice and strong, so that I could use cedar shingles. Wood shingles hold the snow, which is heavy, but really helps insulate the roof. Besides, when I need to reshingle in 20 years I will have some awesome kindling instead of a disposal problem. Such would be the case with asphalt shingles. Besides all that, cedar shingles are not all that much more expensive than a high end three tab. But the labor, now that's another story isn't it? I used clear seconds. You have to be very fussy with these because of the knots in the top. I would discard heavily on site and then take the discard pile into the shop. Using the table saw I would rip clear shingles from the waste. I used a 5” exposure and stainless steel nails. I used no underlayment but I debated it for weeks. In the end I could forsee no benefits and only trapped moisture, so the shingle went right over the boards.

After the roofing was on, along the top of the squared ridge beam, I ran a one inch board cap. Down the center of the wood cap, I ran a sharply chamfered spline. This raises a shaped metal cap at its center for runoff. Flashing runs up the side of the ridge beam(painted white and scalloped), and I have “wrapped” the tops of the posts with this metal flashing. All the flashing is heavy guage salvaged roofing, shaped and cut by hand then painted. In reality, the cap’s substantial overhang, with it’s metal drip edge, is sufficiently protective for cobwebs to form underneath. I am very happy with this roof, even if it looks a bit unconventional. I stained the underside of the wood cap red. It is very subtle, but quite a strong statement. Christian Louboutin's red-soled shoes were directly responsible for this idea. Why not a sexy roof?
Before I could shingle the mudroom, the bargeboards had to go up. Might as well try to make them pretty. The red flower petals are relief carved in the cedar.

So the frame was up. The roof was on and nice and tight, and the whole thing mostly buttoned up. A good thing, because the leaves were starting to change.

IW