Timber frame checking & shrinkage

charlesj · February 28, 2011, 05:49:04 PM

Hello....I've just came for a little info. I'm a care taker of a Red Oak timber frame house. It's 5 yrs old. The timbers were cut, milled & put up green. It took about 2 yrs before there was a constant heat. The house is in Maine. Over the past 2-3 yrs it has dried & checked considerably to the point of some of the girts almost falling out. Is it customary to use Red Oak green when putting up the frame. I'll attempt to add a few pics. I guess I won't be right now. Can't figure it out....

Jim_Rogers · February 28, 2011, 05:55:38 PM

Charles, welcome to the forum.
There are instructions here somewhere how to post pictures.

Hopefully you and find them and upload some to your own gallery so we can see what you're talking about, and help you.

Jim Rogers

witterbound · February 28, 2011, 06:22:40 PM

I've heard that oak timbers might check for 5-6 years, while pine will take only a couple.

laffs · February 28, 2011, 07:49:47 PM

a year to the inch on soft woods 2years to the inch on hard woods is what ive always heard. im not a drying expert. there is also a process for timber frames and log cabins to use humidifiers and dehumidifiers to condition the logs or timbers, again it takes years. if a timber is going to check there isnt much you will do to change it. you can reduce it by not overheating.

jamesamd · February 28, 2011, 09:19:13 PM

Checks and shrinkage,are normal in green wood,if You have GAPS over a 1/4" at load bearing joints,You may,I said MAY have lost some relish at the pegs.that would not be good.But does not mean the death of the structure.Try to pry the joint open with a wrecking bar,if it opens,You will need to resecure that joint,steel plates,new pegs,whatever will reenforce the joint.Just keep an eye on all of it and Don't sweat it,unless they are all failing.
Jim

Brad_bb · March 01, 2011, 12:07:09 PM

Yes, framing with Green wood is more common than not. Oak, and all hardwoods for that matter will check, the question is how much. There are some things you can do to try to minimize it somewhat. Some things are to seal the end grain, before milling, after milling, after cutting for the frame. Seasoning the timbers somewhat before cutting the frame may also help(getting some of the moisture out slowly. Checking occurs mainly from uneven drying. This occurs among other reasons, because one area of the timber dries faster than others, creating stresses. Water evaporates out of the end grain faster, causing the open end grain areas to dry quicker than say the middle. By sealing the end grain, you are forcing moisture to escape out sides of the timber, which is a much slower process. Slow and even is good. Applying excess heat will only make the uneven drying more intense. You will get checking now matter what, but you can affect how much it checks. As long as the checks are kept small enough, and the checks are discontinious, and not running all the way through, or the length of the timber, it won't compromise the strength of the timber significantly, provided they were sized with enough safety margin to start with. Location of checking must also be evaluated as jamesamd indicated. If you are concerned enough, get good timberframer, like a member of the timberframers guild from your area, to inspect it for you. There are a bunch up in Maine too. Do you know who build your frame?

Pics posted in the FF, must be uploaded to your photo album on the FF. They do not want pics that are hosted elsewhere(this allows the site to keep stuff indefinitely for the archives). In your photo album, there are two uploaders, the old one where you have to resize your pics first to be 40K or smaller. Then there's the newer Java uploader, which automatically does it for you. I had to download the Java plug in, which I think there's a link right when you go to use that uploader. So the first time i had to download that and now it's all good. Have your pics on your desktop or a folder on your computer, and the Java uploader has an easy browse function. It seems like a hassle at first, especially if you have another place where you host pics, but once you get used to it, it's not bad.

charlesj · March 01, 2011, 04:32:21 PM

Hopefully some pics may show up......No good...I get the pics in the Java Uploader & there is no upload button. I can just see the top of it but it doesn't work..... >:(

beenthere · March 01, 2011, 05:19:28 PM

charles
Welcome to the forum. Be sure you have your own gallery set up. Then java uploader will load your pics there (in one or more albums that you have named). Scroll down in java uploader to see the upload button.

Once in your gallery/album, click on the pic and scroll down below it to see two choices for putting it into your post.

Brad_bb · March 02, 2011, 10:43:47 PM

I feel your pain Charlesj, I had a bit of a time with the download at first. I had to restart my computer, check some things etc. Finally got it to work correctly.