American historic carpentry is the historic methods with which wooden buildings were built in what is now the United States since European settlement. A number of methods were used to form the wooden walls and the types of ''structural
carpentry'' are often defined by the wall, floor, and roof construction such as log, timber framed, balloon framed, or stacked plank. Some types of historic houses are called plank houses but ''plank house'' has several meanings which are discussed below. Roofs were almost always framed with wood, sometimes with
timber roof truss
A timber roof truss is a structural framework of timbers designed to bridge the space above a room and to provide support for a roof. Trusses usually occur at regular intervals, linked by longitudinal timbers such as purlins. The space between each ...
es. Stone and brick buildings also have some wood framing for floors, interior walls and roofs.
Background
Historically building methods were passed down from a master carpenter to an
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
verbally, through demonstration, and through work experience.
[Noble, Allen George. ''Traditional buildings a global survey of structural forms and cultural functions''. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007. 7. Print.] Designs, engineering details, floor plans, methods were time tested and communicated through
rules of thumb
In English, the phrase ''rule of thumb'' refers to an approximate method for doing something, based on practical experience rather than theory. This usage of the phrase can be traced back to the 17th century and has been associated with various t ...
rather than scientific study and documents. Each region of the world has variations on traditions, tools and materials. The carpenters who found themselves in the New World based their work on their traditions but adapted to new materials, climate, and mix of cultures. Immigrants to America were from all parts of the world so the history of American carpentry is very diverse and complex, but it is only four or five centuries old, a fraction of the history of many other regions.
Notable examples of structural carpentry which were not used in America include
cruck
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...
framing.
Definitions
Carpentry is one of the
traditional trades Traditional trades (known also as traditional building trades and preservation trades) is a loosely defined categorization of building trades who actively practice their craft in respect of historic preservation, heritage conservation, or the conser ...
but is not always clearly distinguished from the work of the
joiner
A joiner is an artisan and tradesperson who builds things by joining pieces of wood, particularly lighter and more ornamental work than that done by a carpenter, including furniture and the "fittings" of a house, ship, etc. Joiners may work in ...
and
cabinetmaker
A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (s ...
, in general, a carpenter historically did the heavier, rougher work of framing a building including installing the sheathing and sub-flooring and installing pre-made doors and windows. Joiners did the finer work of installing trim and paneling.
Plank and board are not consistently defined in history. Sometimes these terms are used synonymously. ''Board'' means a piece of
lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
(timber) to thick and more than wide.
''Plank'' generally means a piece of lumber (timber) rectangular in shape and thicker than a board.
Gallery of wall types
File:Barn raising - Leckie's barn completed in frame.jpg, A ''timber frame'' barn during the barn raising in Canada
File:Balloon frame.jpg, In ''balloon framing'' the key defining features are the full height studs with the joist
A joist is a horizontal structural member used in framing to span an open space, often between beams that subsequently transfer loads to vertical members. When incorporated into a floor framing system, joists serve to provide stiffness to the su ...
s landing on a ''ledger''.
File:Log Cabin (University of Pittsburgh) -IMG 0800.jpg, A common form of ''log cabin'' wall in America.
File:MuskegonStateParkBlockhouse.JPG, Log building called a '' blockhouse'' with tightly fitting beams.
File:Capt Timothy Hill House VA1.jpg, The style of ''planked log building'' called a plank house after the rectangular shape of the wall timbers.
File:Bohlenwand.png, ''Corner post construction'' using plank infill
File:Fort Robinson adjutant office.jpg, A reconstruction of the Fort Robinson
Fort Robinson is a former U.S. Army fort and now a major feature of Fort Robinson State Park, a public recreation and historic preservation area located west of Crawford on U.S. Route 20 in the Pine Ridge region of northwest Nebraska.
The fo ...
adjutant office in Nebraska has ''corner post construction'' with log infill.
File:Herbert M. Fox.jpg, Herbert M. Fox House in Minnesota is a ''vertical plank wall'' house and is missing one of the structural planks which shows the interior lath and plaster
Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior dividing walls and ceilings. It consists of narrow strips of wood ( laths) which are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster. The ...
. Photo credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, MINN,71-SAGO,1-3
File:TransylvaniaTheRainAreFallin.jpg, Similar to vertical plank walls, ''box houses'' rely on vertical boards for much of their structure.
File:Wildfell - Plank Construction.JPG, ''Stacked plank construction'' in Wildfell, a historic home in Darlington, Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Stacked board construction is similar but with thinner lumber.
File:Ibex mine ore bin, CO.jpg, ''Inside-out framing'' has the studs on the outside and is typically used for material storage structures like this ore-bin at a mine.
File:Aframe2.jpg, An ''A-frame'' house, the simplest framing but long rafters are needed.
Wall types
Timber framing
![John Ward House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/John_Ward_House.jpg)
Timber framing, historically called a ''braced frame'', was the most common method of building wooden buildings in America
[Hawkins, Reginald R., and Charles H. Abbe. ''New houses from old: a guide to the planning and practice of house remodeling''.. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1948. Print.] from the 17th-century European settlements until the early 20th century when timber framing was replaced by balloon framing and then platform framing in houses and what was called plank or "joist" framing in barns. The framing in
barn
A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...
s is usually visible, but in houses is usually covered with the
siding material on the outside and
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
or
drywall
Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gypsum board, buster board, custard board, and gypsum panel) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thic ...
on the inside. Variations of timber framing are described based on their nature at the
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
,
sill plate
A sill plate or sole plate in construction and architecture is the bottom horizontal member of a wall or building to which vertical members are attached. The word "plate" is typically omitted in America and carpenters speak simply of the "sill". Ot ...
,
wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including:
* Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the sup ...
,
wall plate
A plate or wall plate is a horizontal, structural, load-bearing member in wooden building framing.
Timber framing
A plate in timber framing is "A piece of Timber upon which some considerable weight is framed...Hence Ground-Plate...Window-plat ...
, and
roof
A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of te ...
.
Posts which were dug into the ground are called earthfast or
post in ground
A post in ground construction, also called earthfast or hole-set posts, is a type of construction in which vertical, roof-bearing timbers, called posts, are in direct contact with the ground. They may be placed into excavated postholes, driven ...
construction. This technique eliminated the need for bracing. Some buildings were framed with the posts landing on a foundation with ''interrupted sills''. Most buildings were framed with the posts landing on a heavy timber sill, the sills (rarely) laid on the ground, supported by stones or, late in the 19th century, concrete.
The structural carpentry of the walls are of several types and are discussed in detail below. French settlers called placing studs or posts on a sill spaced slightly apart
poteaux-sur-sol
Poteaux-sur-sol ("posts on a sill" – sol is also spelled sole and solle) is a style of timber framing in which relatively closely spaced posts rest on a timber sill. Poteaux-en-terre and pieux-en-terre are similar, but the closely spaced posts ...
which is similar to the English
close studding
Close studding is a form of timber work used in timber-framed buildings in which vertical timbers ( studs) are set close together, dividing the wall into narrow panels. Rather than being a structural feature, the primary aim of close studding is to ...
. These are examples of ''half timbering'' where the framing is ''infilled'' with another material such as a mud mixture, stones, or bricks. Half timbering in America is found in limited areas, mostly of German settlement, including
Old Salem
Old Salem is a historic district of Winston-Salem, North Carolina that was originally settled by the Moravian community in 1766. This small city features a living history museum (operated by the non-profit Old Salem Museums & Gardens, organize ...
, North Carolina, parts of Missouri, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Much more common was to build a framed building and add brick nogging between the framing which may not be considered half timbering. Half timbering is an architectural element in
Tudor and
Tudor Revival architecture
Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...
.
One of the earliest descriptions of how to build timber-framed buildings in America was in a publication titled ''Information and Direction to Such Persons as are Inclined to America, more Especially Those Related to the Province of Pennsylvania'' attributed to William Penn in 1684. Described is an earthfast,
hewn
In woodworking, hewing is the process of converting a log from its rounded natural form into lumber (timber) with more or less flat surfaces using primarily an axe. It is an ancient method, and before the advent of the industrial-era type of ...
frame "filled in" (half-timbered) with riven
clapboard
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...
s for the
siding,
roofing and loft
flooring
Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface ...
. The author called this a "first house" distinguishing that it is suitable until such time a better house can be built and then this building can be used as an outbuilding:
To build then, an House of thirty foot long and eighteen foot broad, with a partition near the middle, and an other to divide one end of the House into two small rooms, there must be eight Trees about sixteen Inches square, and cut off, to ''Posts'' of about fifteen foot long, which the House must stand upon, and four pieces, two of thirty foot long, and two of eighteen foot long, for ''Plates'', which must lie upon the top of those Posts, the whole length and breadth of the House for the ''Gists'' oiststo rest upon. There must be ten ''Gists'' of twenty foot long, to bear the Loft, and two false ''Plates'' of thirty foot long to lie upon the ends of the ''Gists'' for the ''Rafters'' to be fixed upon, twelve pair of ''Rafters'' of about twenty foot, to bear the Roof of the House, with several other small pieces; as ''Wind-beams'', ''Braces'', ''Studs'', &c. which are made out of the Waste Timber. For Covering the House, Ends, and Sides, and for the Loft, we use ''Clabboard'', which is ''Rived feather-edeged'', of five foot and a half long, that well Drawn, moothedlyes close and smooth: The Lodging Room may be lined with the same, and filled up between, which is very Warm. These houses usually endure ten years without repair....
The lower flour looris the ''Ground'', the upper ''Clabbord'': This may seem a mean way of Building, but 'tis sufficient and safest among ordinary beginners...
Earthfast construction is still used for buildings and structures such as in
pole building framing
Pole framing or post-frame construction (pole building framing, pole building, pole barn) is a simplified building technique that is an alternative to the labor-intensive traditional timber framing technique. It uses large poles or posts bu ...
and
stilt houses.
Log building
Log building is the second most common type of carpentry in American history. In some regions and periods it was more common than timber framing. There are many different styles of log carpentry: (1) where the logs are made into squared beams and fitted tightly. This style is typical of defensive structures called a
blockhouse. The walls needed to be thick and strong and not have gaps in-between; (2) Round logs are left spaced apart, often with the gaps filled with a material called chinking; (3) Planked log buildings have the wall timbers shaped into rectangular thus called planks and ''plank houses''.
The
C. A. Nothnagle Log House, located in
Gibbstown, New Jersey
Gibbstown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Greenwich Township, in Gloucester County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the CDP's population was 3,739.[New Sweden
New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden f ...]
.
Balloon framing
Balloon framing originated in the American Mid-west near
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
in the 1830s. It is a rare type of American historic carpentry which was exported from America. Balloon framing is very important in history as the beginning of the transition away from the centuries-long method of timber framing to the common types of wood framing now in use.
Corner post construction
Corner post construction is known by many names listed below, but particularly as pièce sur pièce and it blurs the line between timber framing and log building. This type of carpentry has a frame with horizontal beams or logs tenoned into slots or mortises in the posts. Pièce sur pièce en coulisse: Literally piece on piece in a groove is a widespread type of carpentry that blurs the lines between log, plankwall and framing techniques, thus is classified as any of the above.
"The support of horizontal timbers by corner posts is an old form of construction in Europe. It was apparently carried across much of the continent from Silesia by the Lausitz urnfield culture in the late Bronze Age." Examples also persist in southern Sweden, in the Alps, Hungry, Poland, Denmark, and Canada. Usually the origin of corner post construction is credited to the immigrants of the far-Eastern French in Canada and Alpine-Alemannic Germans or Swiss in the U. S. This technique is best known in German as standerbohlenbau or bohlenstanderbau.
Horizontal wood pieces (poles, beams, planks) tenoned into grooves in posts. This type of construction allows shorter timbers to be used and a building can be extended an indefinite length by adding more bays, typically measuring ten feet. Similar methods of construction are found in most if not all Viking settled regions and was common in Scandinavia. It is one of the earliest building types of French-Canada used extensively by the Hudson's Bay Company for trading posts across Canada. It became a common, widespread building method in Canada. Other French names reflect the shape of wood (bois) used between the posts such as planche en coulisse, madriers-, or pieux-. Also recorded in French as bois en coulisse, poteaux en coulisse, madriers en coulisse, poteaux entourées de pieux, charpente entourée de madriers, poteaux entourés de madriers, en poteaux et close de pieux, en pieux sur pieux. (Lessard and Vilandré 1974:117) and “pièce-sur-pièce de charpente“ (French Canadian). Pièce sur pièce literally means piece on piece and also describes log building with notched corners or any kind of stacked construction.
Used in the United States predominantly in early French forts and settlements along the Mississippi River, though examples also occur in other states including Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Wyoming, Maryland, and Michigan where it is the construction method of oldest house in the state (
Navarre-Anderson Trading Post, 1789). A particularly interesting example is the Golden Plough Tavern (c. 1741), York, York County, PA, which has the ground level of corner-post construction, the second floor of fachwerk (half timbered) and was built for a German with other Germanic features
"This sophisticated system, which uses carefully constructed mortise-and-tenon joints, was common from the 1820s to the 1860s and represents some 5 percent of the log houses built in western Maryland.” Occasionally these buildings have
earthfast posts. James Hébert incorrectly presented it as “an entirely Canadian style". Also known other parts of central Europe, Medieval British Isles, including (Switzerland, Austria and S. Germany),. The Norman French were credited with the introduction of this building technique to Canada, though this technique is found in northwest Europe, the Alps to Hungry. It was used in Pennsylvania and North Carolina by German immigrants.
There are many names for corner post construction in many languages:
* French: Pièce sur pièce poteaux et pièce coulissante (piece on piece sliding in a groove) Pièce sur pièce en coulisse, poteaux et piece coulissante, pieces sur pieces,
* German, (Southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria): blockstanderbau, standerblockbau, ständerbohlenbau (post plank construction), bohlenständerbau (plank post construction)
* Polish: sumikowo-latkowej (planks sumiki, sumikami, palcami, post latki)
* English: Corner-post log construction, corner post construction, corner posting technique, post cornering, vertical-post log construction, post and log, post and panel, Red River frame, Hudson's Bay style, Hudson's Bay corners, Rocky Mountain frame, Manitoba Frame, “Métis” style, the “French” style, slotted post construction, panel construction, section panel, running mortise and tenon (or tongue)
* Swedish: Sleppvegg (slip wall?), skiftesverk (shift work)
* Danish: bulhus (bole house which means plank house)
* Spanish: a ritti e panconi
An example of corner post construction is the
Cray House in Stevensville, Maryland.
Plank-frame houses
Plank-frame house construction has a ''timber frame'' with the walls made of ''vertical planks'' attached to the frame. These houses may simply be called ''plank houses''. Some building historians prefer the term plank-on-frame. Plank-frame houses are known from the 17th century with concentrations in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony and
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The carpentry consists of a timber frame with vertical planks extending from sill to plate. Sometimes there are studs at the doors but mostly the vertical planks replace the studs. Both wood shingle or clapboard exterior siding and interior
lath and plaster
Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior dividing walls and ceilings. It consists of narrow strips of wood ( laths) which are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster. The ...
attach directly to the planks.
[Garvin, James L.. ''A building history of northern New England''. Hanover: University Press of New England, 2001. 21. Print.] Some examples of plank frame houses are the oldest house in New Hampshire, the
Richard Jackson House,
Thomas and Esther Smith House in Massachusetts.
Palisade construction
![Drawing of Poteaux-en-Terre in the Beauvais House in Ste Genevieve MO](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Drawing_of_Poteaux-en-Terre_in_the_Beauvais_House_in_Ste_Genevieve_MO.png)
A
palisade is a series of vertical pales (stakes) driven or set into the ground to form a fence or barrier. Palisade construction is a palisade or the similar use of timbers set on a
sill; an example in England being the original portion of the ancient
Greensted Church
Greensted Church, in the small village of Greensted, near Chipping Ongar in Essex, England, has been claimed to be the oldest wooden church in the world, and probably the oldest wooden building in Europe still standing, albeit only in part, since ...
and the early type of stave church known as a
palisade church A palisade church is a church building that is constructed with palisade walls, standing split logs of timber, rammed into the ground, set in gravel or resting on a sill. The palisade walls form an integral part of the load-bearing system.
Const ...
. It was common for Native Americans and Europeans to build a palisade as part of a fort or to protect a village. Palisade construction is alluded to as a method of building of early dwellings. The nature of planting one end of a timber in the ground is called earthfast or
post in ground
A post in ground construction, also called earthfast or hole-set posts, is a type of construction in which vertical, roof-bearing timbers, called posts, are in direct contact with the ground. They may be placed into excavated postholes, driven ...
construction which was a common way to build worldwide. A benefit of earthfast construction is the ground holds the posts from swaying which eliminates the need for bracing and anchors the structure to the ground. The French settlers called this carpentry ''en pieux'' or ''poteaux en terre''
[ Whiffen, Marcus, and Frederick Koeper. ''American Architecture''. Volume 1: 1607-1860. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1983. 25. Print.] and ''log on end''. This type of carpentry may not considered ''framing''. The French method of poteaux en terre was different than palisade construction in that the timbers were hewn two sides and spaced slightly apart with the gaps filled with a material called
bousillage
Bousillage (bouzillage,McDermott, John Francis. "bousillage, bouzillage, n. m.". ''A Glossary of Mississippi Valley French, 1673-1850''. St. Louis: , 1941. 34. Print. bousille, bouzille) is a mixture of clay and grass or other fibrous substances us ...
Palisade construction is similar in concept to vertical plank wall construction.
Vertical Plank wall
![Wooden stave silo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Wooden_stave_silo.jpg)
Vertical plank wall buildings are sometimes also called ''plank houses''. In Australia houses with vertical plank walls are called
slab huts and the technique is similar to the American counterpart except in America these buildings may be two stories.
Some plank-wall houses or
creole cottage
Creole architecture in the United States is present in buildings in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South, and also in the U.S. associated territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. One interesting variant is Ponce Creole style.
Cre ...
s in the New Orleans area are called ''bargeboard'' or ''flatboat board'' houses because the vertical planks used to build the walls were reused planks from barges (
flatboat
A flatboat (or broadhorn) was a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States. The flatboat could be any size, but essentially it was a large, sturdy tub with a ...
s) floated down the Mississippi River loaded with cargo and then broken up and the lumber sold. (Note the possibility of confusion with the different carpentry element called a
bargeboard
Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...
).
Stacked plank and stacked board construction
Another carpentry method which is sometimes called ''plank wall'', ''board wall'', ''plank-on-plank'', ''horizontal plank frame'' is the stacking of horizontal planks or boards to form a wall of solid lumber. Sometimes the planks were staggered or spaced apart to form keys for a coat of plaster. This method was recommended by
Orson Squire Fowler
Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was an American phrenologist and lecturer. He also popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Early life
The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he w ...
for
octagon house
Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round. Their unusual shape and app ...
s in his book ''The Octagon House: A Home for All'' in 1848.
Fowler mentions he had seen this wall type being built in central New York state while traveling in 1842.
Box houses
![Row of shacks, 1906 earthquake in San Francisco](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Row_of_shacks%2C_1906_earthquake_in_San_Francisco.jpg)
Box houses (boxed house, box frame, box and strip, piano box, single-wall, board and batten, and many other names) have minimal framing in the corners and widely spaced in the exterior walls, but like the vertical plank wall houses, the vertical boards are structural. The origins of boxed construction is unknown. The term ''box-frame'' was used in a reconstruction manual in 1868 after the American Civil War.
''Box house'' may also be a nickname for ''Classic Box'' or ''
American Foursquare'' architectural styles in North America, and is also not to be confused with a general type of timber framing called a box frame.
A variation on boxed construction is used on the
Wesleyan Grove
Wesleyan Grove is a National Historic Landmark District in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Named after John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. Also known as the Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association (MV ...
cottage: cottages around Oak Bluffs (Cottage City), Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, are built of vertical, tongue and groove planks without battens usually in a gothic style. This method was “inspired by the tent frame construction” of the original "board tents" used for Methodist
Camp Meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in England and Scotland as an evangelical event in association with the communion season. It was held for worship, preaching and communion on the American frontier ...
s beginning in 1835.
A-frame buildings
An A-frame building has framing with little or no walls, the rafters join at the ridge forming an A shape. This is the simplest type of framing but has historically been used for inexpensive cottages and farm shelters until the
A-frame house
An A-frame house or other A-frame building is an architectural house or building style featuring steeply-angled sides (roofline) that usually begin at or near the foundation line, and meet at the top in the shape of the letter A. An A-frame ...
was popularized in the 1950s as a style of vacation home in the United States.
Inside-out framing
Inside-out framing has the sheathing boards or planks on the inside of the framing. This type of structure was used for structures intended to contain bulk materials like ore, grain or coal.
Plank-framed barns
![Ladviks gård 2013 11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Ladviks_g%C3%A5rd_2013_11.jpg)
''Plank-framed barns'' are different than a plank-framed house. Plank framed barns developed in the American Mid-West, such as the patente in 1876 (#185,690) by William Morris and Joseph Slanser of La Rue, Ohio, shows (several other patents followed). Sometimes they were also called a ''joist frame'', ''rib frame'' and ''trussed frame'' barns. Built of a “Construction in which none of the material used is larger than 2 inches thick.” rather than solid timbers. The reduction in availability of timber for barn building and experience with scantling framing resulted in the development of this lightweight barn framing using planks (“joists”) rather than timbers. Some stated advantages: cheaper, faster, no interior posts needed, use any length lumber, less skill, less lumber (either purchased or self-produced), “stronger”, lighter, all lumber can be purchased from a lumber yard, less labor, heavy timber getting scarce. Also, they were often similar to the Jennings barn design of 1879 (patent #218,031) with no tie beam so there were no beams to interfere with a hay fork (horse fork) on a track system (hay carrier) for pitching hay which became popular c. 1877. The gambrel roof shape lends itself to plank truss construction and became the most popular roof type. Plank frame barns were available by mail-order by 1910 from Chicago. Syn joist-frame, Shawver plank-frame and Wing plank-frame. “In large construction, such as barn framing, there are two general systems, the braced, pin-joint frame, made of heavy timbers, and the plank frame, made up of two-inch planking, either in the form of the ‘plank truss’ or the ‘balloon frame.’” (Architectural Drawing and Design of Farm Structures, 1915)
Types of structural roof carpentry
Timber roof trusses
Plank framed trusses
![Nash4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Nash4.JPG)
Plank framed truss was the name for roof trusses made with planks rather than
timber roof trusses
A timber roof truss is a structural framework of timbers designed to bridge the space above a room and to provide support for a roof. Trusses usually occur at regular intervals, linked by longitudinal timbers such as purlins. The space between each ...
. In the 20th century, it was typical for carpenters to make their own trusses by nailing planks together with wood plates at the joints. Today similar trusses are manufactured to engineering standards and use
truss connector plate
A truss connector plate, or gang plate, is a kind of tie. Truss plates are light gauge metal plates used to connect prefabricated light frame wood trusses. They are produced by punching light gauge galvanized steel to create teeth on one side. T ...
s.
Types of structural floor carpentry
Single and double floor timber framing
In timber framing a ''single floor'' is a floor framed with a single set of joists. A ''double floor'' is generally used for longer spans and joists, called bridging beams or joists, are supported by other beams called binding beams: the two layers of timbers providing the name double floor. In a double floor there may be two sets of joists, one for the floor above and one for the ceiling below.
Plank and beam construction
Plank and beam construction or framing is a type of framing with no joists but widely spaced beams spanned by heavy planks. This method developed in the early 19th century for industrial mill floors but may also be found in timber framed roofs. Also known as Slow burning construction, mill construction, and heavy timber construction originated in industrial
mills
Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to:
As a name
* Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin
* Mills (given name)
*Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine
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in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The joists are eliminated by the use of heavy planks saving time and strength of the timbers because the joists notches were eliminated. The beams are spaced to apart and the planks are or more thick possibly with another layer of on the top as the finished flooring could span these distances. The planks may be laid flat and
tongue and groove
Tongue and groove is a method of fitting similar objects together, edge to edge, used mainly with wood, in flooring, parquetry, panelling, and similar constructions. Tongue and groove joints allow two flat pieces to be joined strongly together ...
d or splined together or laid on edge called a ''laminated floor''.
[Dewell, Henry Dievendorf. ''Timber framing''. San Francisco: Dewey Pub. Co., 1917. 207. Print.] The name ''slow burning construction'' was coined in 1870 by
Factory Mutual
FM Global is an American mutual insurance company based in Johnston, Rhode Island, United States, with offices worldwide, that specializes in loss prevention services primarily to large corporations throughout the world in the ''Highly Protecte ...
insurance company because large, smooth timbers with
chamfered edges ignite slower and last longer in a fire allowing fire suppression crews more time to extinguish a fire. These beams are designed to be self-releasing in case of fire, that is if they burn through and collapse the connection with the masonry wall and joint at the post should allow the beam to fall away without pulling the wall or post down.
A common way to join a beam and a masonry wall in this regard is a
fire cut, an angled cut on the end of the beam.
Wooden bridges
![Tunnel vision (Hartland Bridge)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Tunnel_vision_%28Hartland_Bridge%29.jpg)
A timber bridge or wooden bridge is a bridge that uses timber or wood as its principal structural material. One of the first forms of bridge, those of timber have been used since ancient times. Wooden bridges could be a deck-only structure or a deck with a roof. Wooden bridges were often a single span, but could be of multiple spans. A trestle bridge is a bridge composed of a number of short spans. Each supporting frame is a bent. Timber and iron trestles (i.e. bridges) were extensively used in the 19th century. A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which creates a nearly complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered wooden bridges typically have a lifespan of only 20 years because of the effects of rain and sun, but a covered bridge could last 100 years.
["Ohio's Vanishing Covered Bridges". Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved 8 January 2019.]
Other wooden structures
Other wooden structures do not necessarily have names for types of carpentry, but deserve mention. Carpenters were needed to build a variety of durable or temporary wooden structures such as a
falsework
Falsework consists of temporary structures used in construction to support a permanent structure until its construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself. For arches, this is specifically called centering. Falsework includes temporary s ...
and many other
non-building structure
A nonbuilding structure, also referred to simply as a structure, refers to any body or system of connected parts used to support a load that was not designed for continuous human occupancy. The term is used by architects, structural engin ...
s.
Traditional carpentry tools
Square, saw, hammer, and a rule are the essentials for any carpenter old or new.
Education and organizations
Timber Framers Guild https://www.tfguild.org/
The Carpenters’ Fellowship https://carpentersfellowship.co.uk/
Charpentiers sans Frontières https://charpentiers-sans-frontieres.com
See also
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Architectural conservation
Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of any immovable cultural property are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The indivi ...
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Building restoration
Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property describes the process through which the material, historical, and design integrity of any immovable cultural property are prolonged through carefully planned interventions. The indivi ...
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Vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...
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Historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
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History of construction
The history of construction embraces many other fields, including structural engineering, civil engineering, city growth and population growth, which are relatives to branches of technology, science, history, and architecture. The fields permit al ...
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List of historic houses
List of historic houses is a link page for any stately home or historic house.
Australia
*List of historic houses in South Australia
*Houses in New South Wales
**Houses in Sydney
** List of heritage houses in Sydney
Belgium
*List of castles an ...
*
Open-air museum
An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.
Definition
Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere ...
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Building materials
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man- ...
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Reconstruction (architecture)
Reconstruction in architectural conservation is the returning of a place to a known earlier state by the introduction of new materials. It is related to the architectural concepts of restoration (repairing existing building fabric) and preservatio ...
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Sod house
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Dry stone
Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
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Brickwork
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall.
Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...
References
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Building
Carpentry
Structural system
Vernacular architecture