Author Topic: Sketchup Timber Frame House (Read 2503 times)

outbackbrandon · « **on:** May 09, 2014, 01:59:52 PM »

Hey,
This is my first post. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, Northwestern Ontario but am currently living in Toronto with my wife (she's finishing her degree). I can't wait to get out of the city! But while I am here I've been using the time to plan out a home I'd like to build with the timber of a norther property. I've been doing research and finally stumbled on this fantastic forum! I don't really know what I'm doing, but I've got the time to learn. If anyone can give me some advice on the plan, and just general things to think about at this point, that would be so great! I've been leaning towards wrap and strapping the house. There is a front porch that is hidden in the sketch up plan. This forum has been so great, all the responses I have seen are very informative!

razor · « **Reply #1 on:** May 12, 2014, 07:19:53 PM »

Pretty ambitious first timber frame! And valley rafters too.
I would recommend you sign up for a TF course or two beforehand.
If you don't mind the drive the Heartwood school down in Mass has a whole slew of courses going on this summer. There is even one on TF design if I recall.
There is also the TFG conference in August. Lots of TF smart people at that.
Good luck.

timberwrestler · « **Reply #2 on:** May 12, 2014, 09:43:40 PM »

Looks good overall. It is pretty ambitious for a first project. I would cut a little frame first for practice (like the Sobon shed). I teach timber framing at the Heartwood School, so I'm a little biased in saying that it's a good place to learn.

I would put the purlins over posts, making it a principle purlin, common rafter roof. And you really don't need (and it looks a little goofy) to leave the center post in the outer bents with the aisle posts. Lastly you're going to need some interior posts where the cross gable come together. The purlins of the short (we call them adjacent in compound joinery) roofs are bearing on the purlins of the main roof, and that's a lot of load. It could be done with keyed beams or gluelams, but the whole thing would be much easier with some posts.

And timber valley rafters are fun, but they're wildly complex. I would definitely recommend taking a workshop on that subject before cutting. Timber frame shop drawings could help as well, but it's best to understand where those shop drawings came from (a whole lot of planes and triangles in the air).

Brad
www.uncarvedblockinc.com

Chilterns · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2014, 05:23:16 AM »

I don't like to be the source of negative thoughts but there are a considerable number of things about this design that are less than satisfactory:-

- Inadequate support of wall plates
- Inadequate tieing of main frames (bents) at plate level
- Too many connections at the foot of valley rafters
- No sidewall bracing at wall plate level (all at first floor)
- Rafters birdsmouthing into inside of wall plate
- main post tops weakened by purlin connection
- main post weakened by 3 brace mortice connections all at the same first floor level
- no windbracing
- No sills

Chilterns

outbackbrandon · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2014, 10:08:04 AM »

Awesome! Thanks for the responses. Ya, I know it's a huge project. I'll definitely be doing a test project on a shed, then maybe a two story garage to live in while I work on the house. TF courses would be awesome! I'll do some research into that (don't know if I can make it down to that neck of the woods, but I'd love to). I've done a little more to the structure. I've added 2x4 studed walls inside the frame. I would assume that it would help support the frame, easing the load on the longer supporting beams. Thanks for the critiques, really appreciated. Still really new to this, only heard of timber framing about two weeks ago. This project would only start (if it actually happens) in three or four years, so I'm just going to keep learning and designing until then. Thanks again!

frwinks · « **Reply #5 on:** May 14, 2014, 01:19:10 PM »

welcome aboard! You missed the May 10th class but Mark has an early June class you can still attend

http://www.wpltree.ca/classes.html

Super fun classes and Mark is the best teacher I've ever met. You might just be inspired enough to skip the garage and dive right into cutting the house frame

ask me how I know

outbackbrandon · « **Reply #6 on:** May 14, 2014, 02:07:05 PM »

frwinks, that looks AMAZING! I just contacted Mark to see if there's room in the class. Will you be attending that class? I'm so stoked right now! Also, tell me more about your project.

frwinks · « **Reply #7 on:** May 15, 2014, 04:15:32 PM »

just look up some of my old posts on here and over on TFGuild

Enough material out there to keep you entertained for hours

zelpatsmot · « **Reply #8 on:** May 15, 2014, 05:59:51 PM »

I second mark at whippletree.

Great teacher, I wish I took his courses earlier.
I was/am learning by mistakes.

zelpatsmot · « **Reply #9 on:** May 15, 2014, 06:01:33 PM »

Also, if you need a place to crash I am 15min west of him

outbackbrandon · « **Reply #10 on:** May 21, 2014, 03:38:19 PM »

So I'm signed up for the weekend course! Well I started from scratch because I found a way to do a slab foundation up here in the north. Apparently if you insulate below the slab and around the edge (like in my sketchup file) the ground below the slab won't get below freezing, thus making it possible to do a slab foundation. If you peal back the layers you can take a look at the layers in the foundation and the sill. I guess my first point would be to ask if the way I've laid the flooring on the slab is going to be doable or if it's over kill. Should I just lay the flooring right onto the sills? It seemed weird to place flooring onto the sills, so I put an extra layer around the edge (the 2x8's, plus I need something to nail my T&G into from the outside) and stood the 2x4 sleepers upright. Don't know if this is something I can do or not. The roof needs help. Not sure if I should do common rafters or what. This roof is going to take a bit to figure out. Also, I started doing some joinery. Let me know where I'm going wrong.

The layers and quite polished. They're mainly correct, but some stuff is on different layers.

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #11 on:** May 21, 2014, 05:14:35 PM »

It's not a big deal, but we have a section on this forum for sketch up plans. It is at the top of the timber framing section.
The limit there for uploading a plan is larger, I believe.
And that is where these posts and plans should go.

Jim Rogers

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