Timber framed buildings

Timber framing and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. It is commonplace in wooden buildings from the 19th century and earlier. If the structural frame of load-bearing timber is left exposed on the exterior of the building it may be referred to as half-timbered, and in many cases the infill between timbers will be used for decorative effect.

The method comes from working directly from logs and tree rather than pre-cut dimensional lumber. Hewing this with broadaxes, adzes, and draw knives and using hand-powered braces and augers (brace and bit) and other woodworking tools, artisans or framers could gradually assemble a building.

Since this building method has been used for thousands of years in many parts of the world, many styles of historic framing have developed. These styles are often categorized by the type of foundation, walls, how and where the beams intersect, the use of curved timbers, and the roof framing details.

A simple timber frame made of straight vertical and horizontal pieces with a common rafter roof without purlins, the term box frame is not well defined and has been used for any kind of framing other than cruck framing. The distinction presented here is the roof load is carried by the exterior walls. Purlins are also in a simple timber frame.

A cruck is a pair of crooked or curved timbers which form a bent (U.S.) or crossframe (UK), the individual timbers are each called a blade. More than 4,000 cruck frame buildings have been recorded in the UK. Several types of cruck frames are used; more information follows in English style below and at the main article Cruck.

Half-timbered houses, Marbach am Neckar, Germany

Half-timbered houses, Miltenberg im Odenwald, Germany

Rural old railway station timber framing style in Metelen, Germany

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Wikipedia