Post And Beam Construction And Identifying Timber Framing

When identifying timber framing and post and beam construction you probably are wondering why did those buildings of the past last so long?

The answer is inherent in the frame.

If you were to remove shingles, plaster, and sheathing from most barns and houses built before the middle of the 1800s, you would find a frame build from very large timbers, the biggest usually being the posts, or uprights, and beams, which connect and give stability to the posts.

You would also find something seldom used in modern buildings--braces, the diagonal members that connect posts and beams and give the frame rigidity before sliding is applied.

In old barns, where the skeleton is exposed on the interior, the framing is more obvious.

What can’t be seen usually are the ways these timbers are joined.

The most common joint is called the mortise and tenon. Joinery, one builder has said, is the heart of post and beam.

Pieces are carefully fitted together and locked into place with pegs.

Made from hardwoods, these pegs were used as fasteners long before the introduction of nails to carpentry.

Using the combination of joinery and large timbers, even the biggest frames have resisted, with remarkable rigidity, the forces of wind and even earthquakes.

This method of post and beam construction has other appeals.

One of these is craftsmanship, cabinetmaking on a grand scale, with large timbers notched out to accept the reduced ends of others, a mating that is done so perfectly that no trial fitting is necessary.

Yet another is interior design. While from the 1700s on, the massive timbers were plastered over, today they are usually exposed inside.

Some call this rustic. I prefer to describe it in terms of strength, warmth, and an honest of construction.

And, since the beams carry so much weight that interior bearing walls are not necessary, the result for this post and beam construction can be larger rooms

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