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Find out what's going on behind the scenes in Ambridge |
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Building on History
by Dr Michael Benfield
1 July 2004
This is an important week for the Carters and their new home. Like most self-builders in the UK, Neil and Susan have opted to build their house using the timber frame method, and this week their ‘kit’ of panels arrives and is erected. Timber-frame expert Michael Benfield (left) has been advising us on the storyline. He tells us that it's a construction method with a long history.
You might be surprised by the age of some timber frame structures still in use today. The Golden Hall in Ikaruga, Japan was built over 1400 years ago and in the UK the stave church at Greenstead in Essex dates from the 11th/12th century. There are also many examples of timber tithe barns of up to 1000 or more years old.
Throughout the British Isles you will find many ancient market towns built predominantly of timber frame. Ludlow and Shrewsbury are just two 15th century examples - 600 years old and still going strong. In fact, of all the buildings in Britain that have survived from pre-Reformation times, 90 per cent are timber framed.
Black and white
Timber frames come in many forms. Perhaps the most commonly recognised in the UK and across Europe, are the boxed half-timbered ‘black and white’ Tudor buildings of our mediaeval towns and villages, like Stratford-upon-Avon, Hereford and Chester in the UK, Colmar in France, or the ‘Pied Piper’ town of Limburg, in Germany.
These heavy timber constructions were not only used in framed houses, like Anne Hathaway's Cottage, but also in public buildings, such as William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, and even in massive timber barns throughout the countryside. The framing timbers used were often oak, which is still being used for ‘green oak’ house framing today.
Log cabins and beyond
Since the first settlers arrived in North America in the 1600s, ‘post and beam’ adaptations of these massive structures have become commonplace. Today the lumber used for framing timbers has exceptionally high strength to weight and size ratios, rivalling those of steel and concrete, and can be used for extremely large structures and wide spans.
Canada and the USA also saw the adaptation of Scandinavian solid log structures, using the natural insulation qualities of round wood logs to form the walls and roofs of log cabins. Modern technology has improved upon these by developing interlocking channels to secure the logs to one another and minimise air leakage.
Balloons and platforms
As the numbers of immigrants to North America increased, faster and lighter forms of ‘balloon frame’ and ‘platform frame’ constructions developed for housing. Still widely used in North America, these have been refined for the factory production of structural panels for ‘kit’ houses, hospitals, schools, hotels and many other forms of building. It is these that are now commonly referred to in the UK as ‘timber frame’. Outside Britain, 70 per cent of new houses are built using timber framing.
Self-builders like Neil and Susan are attracted to the timber frame method because of speed of construction, high energy efficiency and flexibility. Timber frame houses also show good resistance to earthquakes, although this was probably less of a consideration!
Further information
Benfield ATT
The Timber Frame Company
Selfbuildit
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Pics: Benfield ATT; Carol Dowe Davies
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