Timber Frame Home more pictures up May 3

[leeelmer]

Hi Guys,
We my wife and I have decided that we are going to sell our mobile(I know terrible time to sell anything)
And we are looking at building a Timber Frame home. We are building it ourselfs, my father built log homes for many years, and he is going to help.
10"x10" white pine timbers, everything on the house except the roof will be wood.
Does anyone on here own a timber frame?
Things to look for? to do? Not to do?
I will be doing all the joint work in Mortise and Tendon joints with oak pins.
32' wide by 40feet long, with a half loft, 10'walls, and 14' from top of the wall to the ridge.
I have a local saw mill that has some great wood to mill all my lumber and my beams. So that part is taken care of.
Thanks

[fordtruckin]

I’m no help but it sounds cool and please post pictures of your progress. Timber framed structures are works of art!

[Hawkeye]

Is the wood properly dried and seasoned?
I would imagine that would be critical to reduce cracking and perhaps bending.

Do you plan to have exposed wood walls visible both inside and outside. I realize that looks amazing but the insulation value is not spectacular (I recall 1 R value per inch of wood, but that likely varies with kind of wood).

You will need to carefully plan how to run wires and plumbing pipes.

About 50 years ago I was quite enthusiastic about living in a log house, though have not done that...….yet.
Good luck
Hawkeye

[CNP]

I don't have anything to say that would assist in your build, I don't have a timber frame, but I love it! Cheers to your successful build. Say tenon from now on as opposed to tendon

[leeelmer]

So a timber frame home differs from a log house, as my 10"x10" timbers will be sitting vertically with 8foot to 10 foot spacing between them, then timbers sitting ontop of them all the way around. The rafters are also large beams 10x6 and get birds mouth jointed to the wall timbers, and sit ontop(notched) on another huge beam 12x9 that runs the length of the ridge.
The walls then get framed in with 2x6 in the dead center of the 10x10 beams, insulated,wired, and plumbing,
On the inside and outside will be stacked horizontal 2x4 and other width of boards, with a gap between them, sealed with log home chinking. Effectively giving us 10 inch thick walls.
The timbers will be seasoned naturally, this helps as then the entire structure drys evenly and shrinks together(you can not use some kiln dried and some natural wood together) as this will cause problems.
I am planning on hand hewing the beams, and burning them to give a old look to them. Again a ton of work, but the end result is beautiful.
We are trying to do most if not all the work ourselves as then I will not have to borrow a thing from the bank, I hate the bank.
Also this allows us to build it the way we want, not the way a lender tells you that you must build it.
It will all be built on steel piles, with a insulated 3 foot crawl space.
When I am in the process, I plan on updating this thread with pictures so those that are interested can fallow along.

[hayseed]

I'm with a couple others, no experience on it, but do look forward to following this thread.

Good luck!!!

[357Maximum]

Originally Posted by leeelmer

So a timber frame home differs from a log house, as my 10"x10" timbers will be sitting vertically with 8foot to 10 foot spacing between them, then timbers sitting ontop of them all the way around. The rafters are also large beams 10x6 and get birds mouth jointed to the wall timbers, and sit ontop(notched) on another huge beam 12x9 that runs the length of the ridge.
The walls then get framed in with 2x6 in the dead center of the 10x10 beams, insulated,wired, and plumbing,
On the inside and outside will be stacked horizontal 2x4 and other width of boards, with a gap between them, sealed with log home chinking. Effectively giving us 10 inch thick walls.
The timbers will be seasoned naturally, this helps as then the entire structure drys evenly and shrinks together(you can not use some kiln dried and some natural wood together) as this will cause problems.
I am planning on hand hewing the beams, and burning them to give a old look to them. Again a ton of work, but the end result is beautiful.
We are trying to do most if not all the work ourselves as then I will not have to borrow a thing from the bank, I hate the bank.
Also this allows us to build it the way we want, not the way a lender tells you that you must build it.
It will all be built on steel piles, with a insulated 3 foot crawl space.
When I am in the process, I plan on updating this thread with pictures so those that are interested can fallow along.

Give serious thought to a 4' crawl space, I have a 4' crawl space at our place at the lake, there are days I wish it was 5' .

Can't wait to see pictures of your progress.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Is the wood properly dried and seasoned?
I would imagine that would be critical to reduce cracking and perhaps bending.

Do you plan to have exposed wood walls visible both inside and outside. I realize that looks amazing but the insulation value is not spectacular (I recall 1 R value per inch of wood, but that likely varies with kind of wood).

You will need to carefully plan how to run wires and plumbing pipes.

About 50 years ago I was quite enthusiastic about living in a log house, though have not done that...….yet.
Good luck
Hawkeye

Yup to all the above and a lot of work and specialized tooling to boot. You'll want planed lumber for consistency as well. I'm betting there's an engineer in your future. Very impressive though, when it's done.

Grizz

[Slowburn]

Sounds like a great project Lee, I wish you all the luck. I tried hewing a couple logs this spring and it’s quite the challenge. Will it be an axe hew or an adze hew for your finished look?

[ghfalls]

So are you going to spend a bunch of time prefabbing all of it then just hire a crane for a day to put it all up? Sip panels for the roof might be worth looking into for efficiency. Pricey but good. Not sure it’s worth it for the walls. Sound like a very time consuming project. But a fun one

[Zrunner]

Originally Posted by leeelmer

Hi Guys,
We my wife and I have decided that we are going to sell our mobile(I know terrible time to sell anything)
And we are looking at building a Timber Frame home. We are building it ourselfs, my father built log homes for many years, and he is going to help.
10"x10" white pine timbers, everything on the house except the roof will be wood.
Does anyone on here own a timber frame?
Things to look for? to do? Not to do?
I will be doing all the joint work in Mortise and Tendon joints with oak pins.
32' wide by 40feet long, with a half loft, 10'walls, and 14' from top of the wall to the ridge.
I have a local saw mill that has some great wood to mill all my lumber and my beams. So that part is taken care of.
Thanks

We built a Timber Frame inn 05-06, all Douglas fir posts a 10x10, beams are 10x12. Exterior is stucco with steel roof. Roof pitch is the only change I would make, it is12/12 I wanter 8/12 but architect thought it would be more spectacular. I should have listened to my self. All the material had laid for three years before being milled and we still had a few beams check, as wide as an inch.

[leeelmer]

Ridge Beam scarf joint cut. These are huge timbers

[ghfalls]

Not sure if you have one but look up a slick chisel. It’s basically just a very large chisel but will make your life a lot easier. Looks like an awesome project. Nice joint. Will you use a hardwood for your wedges?

[CDNOutdoorsman]

I love timber frame homes and hope to build one as my dream home some day. I will be watching this thread closely for all your updates and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[leeelmer]

Originally Posted by ghfalls

Not sure if you have one but look up a slick chisel. It’s basically just a very large chisel but will make your life a lot easier. Looks like an awesome project. Nice joint. Will you use a hardwood for your wedges?

Yes i have several. Just layed the small chisel on there for scale.
Yes i am using red oak for my wedges.

[colt45]

That’s going to be a nice place
Thanks for posting the pics
Enjoy your new place when you better done

[NCC]

We built a timber frame cabin about 5 years ago. Vents went up quick, finishing it was a PITA. A coworker built a beautiful timber frame home and went with SIP panels on the outside of the beams for the walls and roof.

Lee, are you building a true timber frame or a post and beam structure? I’m a little late to the party, but I have a good book on joinery you’re welcome to borrow and my neighbour has a bunch of timber framing tools that he would probably sell.

[Jim Blake]

Originally Posted by leeelmer

Ridge Beam scarf joint cut. These are huge timbers

You are doing an excellent job. The timbers we used inside our house were fir radio frequency kiln dried from BC. Timbers sure make the house look awesome!

Keep posting and thanks!

[Rig-Rat]

Looks great. Will be nice once done to say you did it yourself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[leeelmer]

She is locked up now
Working on plumbing
Heres some more pictures

[AB2506]

I'm wishing you had poured a gun room when you poured the cold storage.

I'd love a concrete vault.

Nice looking house LeeElmer!

[Stinky Buffalo]

That's gorgeous! Nice work!

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by Stinky Buffalo

That's gorgeous! Nice work!

X2, looks Classy.

Grizz

[C-Lublinkhof]

Very nice work! Are you at the finishing phase now?

[leeelmer]

We have water and power now, floor is finished, finished the kitchen, and now working on boarding up all the walls.
Bathrooms are finished as well.
Will post up some more pictures shortly

[leeelmer]

More pictures

[Ackleyman]

Nice job ! Always wanted a home like that. I hate drywall.

[Sloughsharkjigger]

Building a beautiful home is time well spent. Congrats.

[fishtank]

Oh god , that’s beautiful . Living the dream !!

[urban rednek]

Looking good!
Make sure you have a workable Plan B for when the biometric lock system eventually fails. You do not want to completely disassemble a wall to access the hidden electrical components just to get the door open.