Timber framing (German: Fachwerk, literally "framework"), or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction and post-frame construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs (larger versions of the mortise and tenon joints in furniture). It is commonplace in large barns. The methodology comes from making things out of logs and tree trunks without modern high tech saws to cut lumber from the starting material stock. Using axes, adzes and draw knives, hand powered auger drill bits (bit and brace), and laborious woodworking, artisans or farmers could gradually assemble a building capable of bearing heavy weight without excessive use of interior space given over to vertical support posts.
In architectural terminology it can be defined as:
a lattice of panels filled with a non-loadbearing material or "nogging" of brick, clay, or plaster, the frame is often exposed on the outside of the building
Read more about Timber Framing: Naming, Structure, History and Traditions, Netherlands, Americas, Advantages
Famous quotes containing the words timber and/or framing:
“As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. Let not your right hand know what your left hand does in that line of business. It will prove a failure.... It is a greater strain than any soul can long endure. When you get God to pulling one way, and the devil the other, each having his feet well braced,—to say nothing of the conscience sawing transversely,—almost any timber will give way.”
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