This week I've designed and built a small timber framed screen porch which will attach to a barn that I built a few years ago.
The design took a few hours and the off-site cutting and fitting has taken a few days. Again I'll mention that I believe that designing in a digital modelling environment
is far preferable to designing something in a person's brain and then representing it with lines and text. 
In designing in a 3D modelling environment, a design is compiled from 3D digital objects, much as a building is a collection of 3D objects. 
The resulting views are actual views of an actual digital building, as opposed to lines and symbols designed to give an impression of a building that only exists in someone's imagination.





Here are a couple of pics of the porch in it's final resting place.

One situation where I find 3D modelling really beneficial to the design process is; in constructing stairs in a difficult or confined space.
It's relatively easy to construct the existing situation in 3D digital space, and solve the design problem in as close to real time as you can get on a computer screen.
This is also a situation where I feel that an integrated design-build process really shines in efficiency, as opposed to the designer and the builder being seperate.
The following photos should demonstrate what I'm talking about. Designing the stairs took a couple of hours and building them at my home took about 2 days.
I will bring them to the barn that they were built for tomorrow morning (dis-assemble and re-assemble).

Here are the finished stairs in a barn that I built a few years ago.

I have a fascination with shipping containers and try not to miss any opportunities to incorporate them into things that I build.
Basically; a container is a recycled steel structure that is both a watertight box and a massively strong beam - $8000 worth of steel that you can have delivered to your site for about $2400, depending where your site is.
Here are two examples of my uses so far, one is a two story cottage and the other is a two car garage with lots of storage space.
The two car garage can be built for well under $20,000, depending on how it's finished and mechanical systems.
I like to set containers on geo-thermal piers, which serve as both heating ballast and foundation.
The drawing of the two stacked containers which form the base for the cottage were done with Vectorworks Architect in under an hour -
a totally accurate representation of a complex object drawn in 3D. The other drawings were made in Sketchup, which I used to use for schematic drawings,
before I became efficient in Vectorworks.

A couple of years ago I was drowning in a need for more storage space. Being a typical american consumer,
I rejected the idea that I merely had too much stuff and decided to look for affordable ways to increase my space allotment.
One solution was to buy a shipping container, which holds a bunch of stuff, is watertight and secure, was inexpensive ($2400 delivered),
but which really annoyed my wife. I rebounded with a method of turning 2 containers into an inexpensive 2 car garage that looks like a traditional barn -
but I'll save that for a later blog.
My second solution was to look for a small, inexpensive building. After looking at chain lumberyards and a local supplier of little buildings
I found that these small buildings were expensive (over 5K for an 8x12) and not particularly elegant. This produced a flash of creativity "I can do better".
The following is the result of this idea - which turned out to be elegant IMHO, though not inexpensive.
I went to the drawing board (a pc with vectorworks architect software installed in it)
and concocted an 8x12 timber framed structure with very simple and traditional lines. I want to plug my software here as I believe it's on the leading edge of architectural design.
BIM (building information modelling) defines the future of design, as software that duplicates pencils is on it's way out.
I want to also plug the guy that writes the manuals that make this software usable - Jonathan Pickup of Achoncad.

With a design in hand that I felt good about, I proceeded to cut a timber frame out of locally sawn hemlock.



I let the frame sit out in my yard for a couple of months before covering it, as I like the look of a weathered frame.
It attracted quite a bit of attention from passing motorists, as there is something about a traditional frame that moves people.
I've noticed that there is also something about small buildings that attracts people, much as a puppy attracts cute girls at the beach.
After a couple of months I put a roof on it, pine roof boards spaced 1-1/2" apart covered by red cedar shakes. Cedar had just taken a price hike
so the roof cost over $1500 with cedar fascia boards and ridge board. When I use cedar on a roof, I give it plenty of air and this roof breaths in all directions.
After the roof, I added a 12 over 12 double hung window to one end - oversized for the building, but I wanted plenty of light without needing more than one window.
With the window in place I built and hung a door made from fir wainscotting painted a traditional red.


Finally I added simple corner boards, door and window trim, and novelty pine siding. I painted the novelty siding on both sides
before installing, as it comprises the entire wall covering. I particularly like the contrast of painted wood against the natural weathered timbers
and believe that people go far wrong in designing their houses with too much natural wood and no contrast, ending in a muddy colored mess.



I finished the eave overhangs in a way that I felt was simple and pleasing to the eye. For some reason, many builders seem to trip up on this area.



Door hardware is simple and functional and made by a local blacksmith.



As I wanted this building to be self-sufficient, I added two 60 watt solar panels, a voltage regulator, deep cycle battery, a couple of 12 volt lights, and a 110AC converter. Total cost was about $1500.





The building has taken on a true multi-use function for us. It's main job has been 3 season extra bedroom. My wife has had a couple of jewelry sales in it.
My son and his friends hang out in it. It's been a quite office space for me at times. I store my motorcycle in it in the winter (I really pamper my vintage motorcycle).
With materials and labor, including solar components, it ended up costing just south of 12K, but has been more than worth it to us.






 

Thanks for checking out my blog. I'm currently building a 16'x16' timber framed fishing cabin. I'm cutting the timber frame at home,
out of hemlock timbers, and I thought it might be interesting for some people to see the process in a step by step format. If this doesn't sound interesting to you,
please go directly to huffington post to see what strange thing that Sarah Palin said recently. If you decide to stay and check out the cabin,
I'll do my best to try and post pictures and descriptions of the building process. I particularly enjoy "timber framing", as the frame of a building
is constructed similarly to a traditional piece of furniture, with mortices and tenons, doveltails, and various other joints held together with wooden pegs.
This is as opposed to modern framing with dimensional lumber, plywood, nails, and metal fasteners - which is designed to be covered up and
never seen after it's initial construction. I have nothing against modern framing - but appreciate the ability to do both. It makes me sad
to see people who know that they want to experience a traditional timber frame, but don't have the actual knowledge and ability to do so.
Thus they go to town with timbers, bolts, simpson hangers, etc. and end up with something that is well intentioned and probably utilitarian,
but could have been so much more elegant with the application of some technologies that are thousands of years old.....

Back to the cabin: I was approached by some folks who had a general idea of a building that they wanted.
After spending some time listening to their wants and needs for this building, I submitted some schematic  drawings to them for consideration.

After some minor tweaks and changes, the clients approved a cabin design. At this point I started detailed drawings of the frame.
I design in a software environment called "vectorworks architect", which I believe to be the wave of the future for designers and architects. I
nstead of making 2D multiview drawings, as I would on paper or on autocad, I build a 3D digital model of the building and building site.
I then extract views of that model for plans, elevations, sections, and 3D renderings. This is a more intuitive process than 2D drawing
and I believe accesses creative design solutions that other methods would not tend to encouage.


After designing the frame in detail, I developed a "cutting list" of timber and called my local lumber supplier to cut my timbers.
These were hemlock 5x6's, 5x5's, 4x5's, 3x4's.... The biggest pieces were 5x6x18' top plates - which weighed in excess of 200 lbs. apiece in their wet state.
This frame has about the biggest timbers in it which I can handle by myself. The lumber was ready 2 days later and I headed off to pick it up.
It was 3 trips of about 3 hours apiece and in retrospect it would have made sense to have them deliver it.



With the timber here, framing design complete, and level spot to erect the frame as I cut the pieces, I was ready to start laying out the frame.
I started with the deck and I planned to erect each section as I cut the pieces - so as to ensure the final fit of the joints. With buildings with larger timbers, I don't usually have this luxury.



After laying out the deck timbers (sills, summer beam, and joists), I started cutting the mortices, tenons, and dovetails.
The layout and the cutting needs to be very accurate (within 1/32), as the frame will be not only structural, but also asthetic.



After cutting all of the deck timbers, I start to assemble - fine tuning joints where necessary. Eventually I assemble the entire deck.
Rough times that I have into the frame up to now are: meet with clients and talk back and forth - 3 hours, schematic drawings - 3 hours, final design
12 hours, get timbers 9 hours, set up building site 3 hours, layout deck 6 hours, cut deck 16 hours, assemble deck 2 hours. total - 54 hours






I should mention that since this frame will be dis-assembled once it's completed, to be delivered to the client's house, all joints are clearly labeled.
There are 172 joints in this frame, so labeling is pretty important. After fitting deck together, I go through layout, cutting, and assembly of the posts,
diagonal braces, and tie beams - basically completing everthing below the top plates.

After 4 days of dodging showers, working in light rain, and heinous heat and humidity, I have the 3 rows of posts up, along with their diagonal braces and tie beams.
The last step for this frame will be top plates (5x6x18') and rafters (4x5). If you look at placement of the braces and tie beams,
you'll see that it's an exercise in having enough of them to stabilize the building, while keeping them out of the way of doors and windows
and not taking too much meat out of critical parts of the frame.




 I've gotten some questions about why the joists are tapered at the ends. The reasons are: 1- They need to be reduced in depth
so that where they knotch into the sills and summer beam doesn't remove too much structure from sills and beam, 2- By tapering back gently instead of a stepped cuts,
the joists are less likely to split, 3- The main force that the joists need to counter is deflection, which is most pronounced in the center of spans,
and thus they need to be thickest in the middle.
When I get the frame together, I'll take a picture of each of the joints and explain why I used them. FYI,
the best music to listen to while cutting a timber frame is Gypsy Jazz - Django, Oscar Aleman, Jimmy Rosenberg....

Because this building is relatively simple, there are a limited number of types of joints. These include: housed mortice and tenon,
cog, dovetail, slip joint, dovetail, bridle joint, rafter to top plate knotch, and tie beam joint. Most of the joints mentioned work best
where the main stress to the joint is compressive or shear. Most timber frame joinery doesn't hold up well to a tensile (pulling) load.
In "tie beams" (the 3x5's that run horizontally from front to back of this frame) the load is at least 50% tensile. A relatively good joint for this
is a 1/2 dovetail. The 1/2 dovetailed tenon is placed in the mortice and then wedged into place and pegged. The added friction of the
1/2 dovetail more than doubles the tensile strength of the pegs in the tenon.
 

My friend Dave stopped over this morning to help me put the top plates in place. He's a famous TV star, so I can't say his last name
without sounding like a name dropper. Fortunately the plates dropped right in without mishap - always a tense moment when putting something heavy,
with lots of joints, in place. It's 90+ and humid in the shade - another sweaty august day in the Berkshires. I have the first 2 rafters cut and in place.
They are knotched into the top plates and held to each other with bridle joints. The following pics should illustrate the rafter knotchs, the bridle joint,
and the posts morticed and tenoned into the top plate. I will also mention that when finally assembled on site, the frame is "draw pegged" together.
The holes through the mortices and tenons are offset (in this case about 3/16") so that the peg going through the holes pulls the joint tight.
The flexibility of the white oak pegs keeps the joints tight as the frame drys out and all the timbers shrink.

As I look at this relatively small and simple frame, I'm reminded that even a small timber project tends to have a variety of joints. In this one I'm counting at least 8.
This next joint forms the outside bottom corners of the frame. The 2 sills come together in a slip joint, or open mortice and tenon
and the corner post comes down with a tenon into a mortice in the middle of the slip joint. The post sits in a 1/2" deep "housing",
which helps to keep it in place and straight, and the tenon from the corner post locks the slip joint together. Here's a drawing that should show you what's going on.