The Raising of the Croft
- OR -
How to Put Together a Timberframed Building in 2 Days
By Guy the Roofer
Rather than give you more information than you want, I decided to put all of the thumbnail pictures here. If you
hover your mouse over a thumbnail, you will get a little caption.
Clicking on the thumbnail will bring up a larger picture. I am trying to add all of the thumbnail pictures on this page first and then I will get the additional pages with more information on them done.
P.S. Sorry, the exposure on some of these are horrid.....must have been an amateur taking pictures.
The croft arrives on a flatbed from Thistlewood.
Charlie and Larry start to level the sand in the foundation.
Unloading the timbers from the semi.
Charlie picked up a shovel and Chuck joined in on trying to get the sand level.
The sorting process begins. We have 6 piles of wrapped lumber that have to be searched through to find each of the pieces for the sills.
The sill is completely laid out.
One side needed a little more roughing up. Who could have guessed how handy an electric planer would be?
Once the sill was in place on the concrete foundation, wooden pegs were driven into each mortise and tendon joint.
I remember hearing something once about a square peg in a round hole....
Tap Tap Tap....Charlie pounds in a peg in the foundation.
Charlie cuts the top off of the pegs so the upright timbers will set level. Larry and Scott are working on leveling the sill.
Scott behind the equipment getting the sill level.
The other half of the leveling process, Larry with the tape. (notice Charlie is still working on the same peg head...)
After the sill was level and squared, it was time to put the hammerbeams together.
Big pegs first, then the smaller ones on the supports. This really is more complicated than it sounds.
Fitting this joint here while fitting 2 other pieces at the same time is not as simple as you may think.
It takes patience and a big wooden mallet.
Chuck and Scott slide the Queenpin into place on the middle hammerbeam.
Obviously I was feeling neglected since I am taking all of these pictures and not in any...here is my knee and one of the tendon joints I am holding.
Remember the hammer I mentioned earlier.....
One of Thistlewood's thistles, or at least most of it....my camera was off a bit...
Day 2 -- The crane has arrived and it is time to start to raise the hammerbeams.
The crew look on in amazement at the crane.
Very slowly the hammerbeam is raised into place.
The tendon joints are slowly lowered into the sill.
Once the hammerbeam is upright, the truss has to be supported by guides until the 2nd truss and perlins are in place.
With the guides in place, the top of the wall is put in place and held manually until the 2nd hammerbeam can be raised.
The window sill and supporting beams go in before the top of the wall is raised.
The middle bent is raised into place and the perlins added on the roof.
The third bent is lifted up, swung around and lowered into place.
The girt (top of the wall) is lifted into place.
The front bent is secured and pegged into the sill and the wall beams.
Up, up and away.
Now we know why they call them slings.
After all three hammerbeams are in place, the front section perlins are added one at a time.
Some of the perlins did not want to cooperate. Sometimes it took extra pressure pulling the front bent out a little to get them to slide into place.
Last perlin on the east side slides into place.
What did the women do all this time, you ask? We were the ones setting up the perlins and putting them in the sling.
After the main structure is completed, it is time to add the perlins to the shed.
Next.
All 3 bents are raised. This is the view of the back wall. The hearth will go between the two center beams.
Everything in place and the crane is packing up to leave.
The beams are all in place. Time to eat!
In following with the time honored tradition, an evergreen bough is nailed to the beam at the completion of the framing.
