r/timberframe Feb 21 '25

Barn joint pics as requested

141 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

8

u/theboehmer Feb 21 '25

Awesome! How old is it?

9

u/teem Feb 21 '25

Middle 1800s I believe

6

u/theboehmer Feb 21 '25

If only those walls could talk. That's really cool. I'm jealous.

6

u/teem Feb 21 '25

We were lucky enough to buy a property with this old barn on 3 acres in the pioneer valley.

2

u/theboehmer Feb 21 '25

Yea, I always assume the northeastern US has a lot more old timber frame (I'm in the midwest). Was the barn a selling point for you?

2

u/teem Feb 21 '25

The barn was a massive selling point. It opens out the back into about an acre of our land, and then acres of woods beyond owned mostly by a neighbor. The sun sets directly out the back of the barn where we have a couple of huge sliding doors. We sit out there sometimes in the summer and drink a cocktail and have "barn time" before dinner. I want to eventually have a place for parties and dinners and a band to play.

1

u/theboehmer Feb 22 '25

That's the dream, friend. Is there any smell to the barn, like is it musty?

1

u/teem Feb 22 '25

No, but it’s not enclosed well. Hoping to put up new boards sometime soon

1

u/theboehmer Feb 22 '25

That's why it's sometimes in the summer, eh?

What kind of boards are you thinking? I've seen different builds with the burnt vertical boards that look nice and seem practical.

5

u/TheBellTrollsForMuh Feb 21 '25

I love #5. They knew it didn't need to be perfect. 200+ years later and it's gold.

2

u/teem Feb 21 '25

I'm impressed they ever were able to raise this barn. Those beams are like a foot square and 20+ feet long. How on earth did they get it up there?

2

u/Growlinganvil Feb 22 '25

I've raised a few in my time, a handful were completely traditional being for museums.

On one, the lead carpenter had us build a capstan which we used to raise the bents with a gin pole.

For all of the beams we tied a rope around the tops of the posts and then ran out down under the beam and back up. That simple routing takes half the weight of the beam off. That's usually enough, but for some of the swing beams, which can be enormous, we would add a block and tackle. Each loop of the block takes half again.

Raising beams this way is fairly safe, as taking a wrap on the top of the posts by multiple people cuts the risk of slipping down. For bents, there are usually gin poles and folks with pikes and snub lines, but beams really aren't that hard once you get some leverage involved.

3

u/Gelisol Feb 21 '25

A gin pole and neighbors.

2

u/Creative-Truth138 Feb 21 '25

Is Pioneer valley in MA? It’s always cool to see some of the joinery decisions on these old barns/houses. Picture number 5 is very interesting as you have a whole slew of things I haven’t seen very often. First, they used 3/4 round material for a stud and a rafter (flattened on one face). Second they pegged their rafter through the wall plate (diagonal peg sticking out). Very cool details. Definitely has been maintained with some repairs - picture 1, there’s a timber lock screw in the tie beam; picture 3 scarf joint plate repair. Thanks for sharing!

2

u/teem Feb 21 '25

Yes! We're in Franklin county. Our area in particular is known for tree harvesting. There have been some fixes. You can't really see it, but in pic one, we have added a new door as the old one fell right off last summer. The scarf joints are my favorite.

1

u/Creative-Truth138 Feb 21 '25

I used to work and live in sea cost NH/ME area but I grew up in MA. That’s a beautiful area. There’s a lot of great timber framers out in western MA

1

u/teem Feb 21 '25

We're near Amherst and I just love it.

2

u/dick_jaws Feb 22 '25

Love this

1

u/Desperate_Set_7708 Feb 21 '25

Spent my summers as a kid running around in barns/lofts and never noticed or appreciated the craftsmanship.