iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

New to Timber Framing

Started by pneese973, April 28, 2018, 02:33:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

pneese973

 Thank you for adding me to this site.  I've always loved timber frame homes and have looked at building my own a few times.  I ended up buying a property that had a timber frame barn and a house (what I believed to be a balloon framed house at the time).  I am located in Indiana so this is pretty common to find.  I am certainly no expert so I'm sure I'll have questions or need advice along the way.  I also could use some assistance with some things (like tearing down the barn for the timbers or using the timbers from the barn to add onto the house) if somebody on here is looking to assist in a timber frame project.

I wanted to do something with the barn but it was in need of a lot of repair.  I wasn't sure if I'd keep it as a barn, convert it to a house, or what when I purchased the property.  In trying to preserve it, I started by lifting it and changing the foundation since the foundation was pulling one wall down as it started to lean.  The guy who I contracted to build the foundation did not follow directions and did not take the measurements at the top of the structure like I instructed him to do.  As a result, the foundation did not match the barn and it left me unsure of how to proceed.  There's a lot of good timbers in the barn and most of the rot is concentrated to the South wall or on the first story.  Some pictures of the barn are located below:



Fast forward to last summer.  I knew there was a hand hewn beam up in the attic but that was it.  I decided to convert the single story house into a story and a half.  I started by tearing out the center wall and I found that it had a series of posts and beams.  When I started looking into the house closer, I found that the entire original structure was made from hand hewn timbers and the North half of the house had round logs for the ceiling joists.  Below are a few pictures of what was found in the house:



I found a barn that had been torn down about 100 miles away because in knew the load from the upstairs was going to be too much for the existing beams.  I plan to place the new beam under the existing with a center post.  The new beam is being notched out to fit around the existing posts.  I also plan to take one of the walls that was later added on and place the entire 35' section under it.  I have some pictures of the barn I disassembled as well as the timbers that I loaded into the house below:



One of the notches that I cut is below along with my 2" PS&W Slick and my 2" Witherby Framing Chisel:



As I hinted at above, I'm currently working on the existing structure but the next step will be to disassemble the barn to reuse the existing timbers to put a room addition onto the back of the house.  I'm going to have questions and I'm sure I'm going to need advice.  If someone is local and wants to assist, I would certainly welcome the additional help.

flyingparks

Fun project. Good luck. Keep us updated with your progress.

Thank You Sponsors!