A House/Barn raising

[zipper]

Some of you already know that we built a Timber Framed Home on top of a hill overlooking the Champlain Valley in 2001. I have posted some of what we see, the Lake, sunsets behind the Adirondacks, etc. What you may not know is that all the timbers for the frame were once trees on our property. I hugged, feld, skidded all of the Red Oak, Black Cherry, Maple, Ash and pine out of the woods with a winch on the back of my tractor. Before we bought a winch, I used (2) 20' lengths of 3/8" chain. Once out of the woods I would cut up the tree to useable lengths per the "cut list", requiring 20'+ timbers, posts. Some trees are straight, others are bent. We try to straighten out the bent logs by cutting into shorter lengths for uses as knee braces and short timber pieces. I try to pick the straight ones, for my Woodmizer LT40hd-D42 sawmill with 21' bed, because although you can cut the bend out of a log, there are still a lot of forces in the "cant", a squared off log, that will show as twist or bend in multiple directions, once the log starts to dry. So I cut about 10-15% over the cut list. All the joinery was done by Liberty Head Post and Beam Co. Below are some of the pictures of the build.





















I have a lot more pics of the build. The next step was getting the frame closed in and the chimney built. All of the stones for the chimney were picked from stone piles that previous settlers had stacked just after the Civil War to clear the fields. Futile efforts on a place named Hardscrabble Hill.

 

[J-RAD]

While going thru the construction management at program at Utah Valley University. I had an instructor make an interesting statement while discussing different home construction types. Most, as in nearly all, of our homes here in the US are built using a method called sick framing. Whereas in countries like Europe timber framing is a lot more prevalent, also a higher concentration of much older homes. Even if you exclude those homes that predate the colonization if the Americas.

His statement was, "here we built homes to last a lifetime, maybe two. There, homes were built to last forever." Referencing timber frame homes.

I respect the investment and effort that go into building homes like this. It impresses me. Nice and beautiful work!

 

[zipper]

Aside from Farming, I have been building conventional "stick" framed buildings since I was 18. One of my barns, our cheese plant/sugarhouse and the garage/apt. are stick framed. But I always wanted to build a timber framed home, or at least most of it on this site knowing it would resist the wind better than the apartment that would get rocked by the winds. The timber frame/house protects it now. I "stick built" the exterior/interior walls. The exterior has 8" walls, but not built with 2x8's but a double row of staggered 2x4's built on the outside of the frame which is either 8x8 or 8x10 timbers of Oak. Both walls are tied together at plates, headers and window jack studs so the walls do not separate.
This construction minimizes thermal loss thru the studs. It also made it real easy to run wiring thru the walls, very little hole drilling.
Below I am installing the 1st floor ceiling, T&G oak boards.

 

[Weeb]

That’s an awesome build.

 

[Gym]

Love the fact that you're keeping some of the old yankee skills alive @zipper.

 

[zipper]

The house was built around a 3 flue chimney that, with the stairway, occupy the middle bay of the frame and rise up thru the middle of the house to about 35'. We chose stone over brick because we had a free stone source, just had to put some labor in collecting it. The chimney does transition to brick above the roof outside. It is easier to install lead flashing around brick than stone. I don't have too many pictures of this build, I was working offsite at the time. Some pics. of the guys installing the living room mantle, a piece of fresh sawn oak, 6x12 12 feet long. These guys built the stone chimney, I built the hearths that the stoves sit on.



This is what the stonework looks like around the house.

Living room


3rd floor balcony and railing still a work in progress


Dining/Kitchen View






Master bedroom


3rd floor view no balcony railing

 

[Liveto99]

I see a few houses that spray foam a inch of the outside wall cavity to tighten everything up and then use fiberglass on the rest after the trades are done.

 

[AboveTheBest]

That’s a beautiful Vermont home @zipper

The people of your state have always amazed me with their industriousness and can do attitude, and I’d like to think I brought a little of that with me when I left.

 

[Trevor Shipman]

Badass! Well done.

 

[zipper]

I see a few houses that spray foam a inch of the outside wall cavity to tighten everything up and then use fiberglass on the rest after the trades are done.

Ya, there are days in the teens below zero and the North wind blows I wished I had built it tighter. I did not want a heat exchanger and in 1991 spray foam insulation was hard to come by around here. Two layers of R13 in the walls, R40 in the roof. We stay warm or I'd hear about it. 3°F tonight outside 74°F inside.

 

[Liveto99]

It was 25 years later I saw that.