Small Housebuilding Class May 2008

We began our one-week small housebuilding class on Monday May 26th, 2008. We have ten students from all over the country gathered for five days to learn how to balance design themes with insulation value, passive solar elements, efficient and effective construction techniques, cost-saving strategies and the function of a small structure.

Timber Frame Kit

The simplicity of the 24x48 timber frame makes it an affordable and stunning structure to be used as a home, barn, garage or workshop. We built this home in Coastal Maine in November 2007. The homeowners have nearly completed the interior and we'll post finish shots shortly! Keep your eyes peeled for an update!

What to Look for in a Home

by Pat Hennin, Founder

I was recently asked by the local media for a sound bite: “What should a prospective house buyer be looking for in today’s market?”

The short answer is a series of questions to consider and whether you can live with the answers:

1. Can you afford to make the payments on a thirty year mortgage, increasing payment to pay it off in 15 years?


2. Is it air tight or does the heat blow out when the cold blows in?
   Insulation, insulation, insulation: What is the quantity and quality of installation of the insulation?


3. Does it have double or triple pane windows?


4. Does it have window shades sealing three sides of the window and are those shades easy to draw every evening – they should last at least twenty years.


5. Is it oriented to take advantage of passive solar (windows on the south wall comprising 15-20% of the wall)


6. Is the fuel choice consistent with local supplies? Solid fuel, oil, gas, propane, electricity. Electricity would be the most expensive per BTU, solid fuel would come from your own lot and be the least expensive. If two thru six are done well than solid fuel will be a small problem.

The longer answer is also a series of questions; more detailed and perhaps more critical. The real answer here is to understand what is important in today’s world of housing, as well as what is truly important to you.

1. Does this house work? Are the kitchen, bathroom, and master bedroom stacked so that only one small part of the house needs to be heated?


2. Is the garage door such that you can automatically drive in and have ample room to empty the car into the kitchen with the door closed?
   
3. Does the building shed water or does it have so many dormers, siding variety, porches, decks, chimneys, angles and corners that it will be a nightmare to maintain? These features catch water in hundreds of places causing rot. This is the base point for me: The entire exterior must be dry shortly after the rain stops. None of today’s "McMansions" meet this criteria and will be neither maintainable nor saleable.


4. And last, but really first, do you like it? It takes us sixty hours to teach this encyclopedia, to understand the substance of what “liking” a house really means.

I write this with Patsy in mind and the many ideas she and I developed together.

The Best Timber Framing Plane

by Gaius Hennin

It is uncommon to think of timber framers using hand planes, much less that one is particularly well suited to timber framing. Well, I’d like to introduce you to Lie-Nielsen’s number 10-1/4 Bench Rabbet Plane, patterned after the old Stanley number 10-1/4. Rabbet planes have a plane iron that is exactly as wide as the plane body, allowing you to plane an inside corner, or plough a dado as wide as the plane. Lie-Nielsen’s version has a Bedrock frog (patented by Justus Traut at Stanley in 1895) instead of the Bailey frog which had been the standard for about 40 years. The frog attaches the plane iron to the plane body; a solidly held plane iron is critical. Anyone who has ever dug a whole on the coast of Maine knows that bedrock is solid, and that is why Stanley chose the name for it’s improved frog; it all but eliminates blade chatter.

Lie-Nielsen’s plane body is made from iron, with a bronze cap and frog, and cherry handles. It exemplifies the plane makers’ precision, understanding of the art of planing, and ability to make the mundane, beautiful. When I first saw it, my mouth went dry and my hands got sweaty; I knew I had to have it. The smooth cherry handles (which almost feel soft), the gleam of the bronze, the ductile iron body, the movable knickers on each side just kept calling my name.

The plane is well suited for timber framing for several reasons, the first being it’s size: at 12 ¾” long with a 2 1/8” wide iron, it tips the scales at 5 pounds, which gives it plenty of momentum when planing the tenon on an 8”x12” carrying beam. What’s even more exciting, is that both the front and rear totes (handles) pivot both right and left. When you are planing the tenon on the right-hand end of a beam, pivot the handles to the right and your knuckles now comfortably clear the hard corner of the tenon shoulder, or any other tall inside corner. On each side of the plane body, perfectly flush, just ahead of the iron, are knickers which slide up and down and are affixed with a single screw. When planing a right hand tenon, simply drop the left hand nicker down 1/32” and it cleanly cuts the cross grain in the corner between the tenon face and shoulder.

The plane is stealthy enough to chamfer tenon ends, yet long enough to knock down planer snipe or true up a two foot scarf face, and I have even used it to ‘erase’ layout errors (on other peoples work.)

Lastly, being a timber framer myself, I know that some of us suffer from bouts of vanity. Owning and using this plane is guaranteed to make you look professional, plane a dead flat, bragging-rights grade tenon (at 90 degrees to the cheek), and look even more handsome.