![]() Mill construction, a designation for fire code requirements, calls for structural timbers cut to a minimum of eight inches per side. According to standard lumber classifications, a timber is a length of solid wood with a cross-section greater than five inches on a side. Owners often pay a premium for the unique appearance and qualities of aged or “antique” timbers. Wood that is salvaged intact from older timber-frame buildings such as barns, mills and factories, and is then reused or recycled into a new structure. Sometimes, timbers are air-dried in weather-protected enclosures to remove moisture and reduce them to nominal finished size, or kiln dried in a heated environment to almost furniture-grade condition. The joinery used in such a frame is designed to tighten and become stronger as this green wood dries and shrinks in the framework. Wood used in timber framing is often built into a frame soon after it is cut, when it is still “green,” without any intermediate drying period. Although chamfers are essentially decorative, they are often placed where occupants may come into contact with sharply cut, exposed timber angles and edges to prevent injury. A 45-degree flat edge planed or routed along the outer, or “leading,” edges of a timber. Bents are usually built flat on the ground or floor deck, then raised to their vertical position with a crane (or many willing hands).ĬHAMFER. ![]() Like individual slices in a bread loaf, bents extend completely through the structure from one end to the other, and from the foundation base to the topmost ridge, and serve as the major load-bearing assemblies in a timber frame. For efficiency in both construction effort and material use, timber-frame structures are typically erected in boxlike sections, called bays, consisting of two bents (one on each end) along with additional frame members that connect the bents and form the structure.īENT. And although architecture evolves over time and frame designs may vary widely from one house to another, the technical names, or nomenclature, used to identify each of these critical components are unchanging, having been handed down by frame builders through the centuries.īAY. ![]() Where conventionally built homes usually contain thousands of individual wood parts, all of which disappear from sight as interior finished surfaces are applied, timber frame homes may contain fewer than 200 key structural components that remain visible to occupants when the home is complete. Most owners quickly learn these terms because they take great pride in their homes, which are often composed of signature arrangements of posts, beams, trusses, embellishments and other framing options. ![]() You don’t have to be a timber-framing expert to be able to identify the various parts of your home’s structure, or to appreciate the unique beauty of its various components. ![]()
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