We just accomplished one of the more exciting items on our remodeling to-do list — we raised a timber frame between the kitchen and living room. Before the frame went up, we methodically removed the original 2×4 wall. The intention here, of course, was to really open up the space and facilitate a better interface between the living and cooking areas, provide more light to the kitchen, and allow the heat of the (not yet installed) cook stove to move more freely though the house.
I’d say it’s lookin’ pretty good right now. I managed to capture a little video of the actual timber frame raising… watch the video above to see how smoothly the frame fits right into place in the opening we created by removing the stud frame. The video also illustrates some of the steps we took to ready the house for the new frame.
Click ahead for some photos of the new wall, as well!
Indoor Timber Frame Raising
I’m a day away from leaving on a three week trip, so forgive me… I’ll have to postpone my verbose documentation for another time. I hope to write about this process a bit more in-depth. This indoor frame raising was a first for us, and we had good success with the process. Actually, it was surprisingly easy. There were no ceilings falling on our heads, thankfully.
Freshly assembled poplar timber frame, in position to be raised
Here’s the living room with the original stud wall, seen on the right side
The timber frame in its final position… much better…
The new timber frame provides a much needed aesthetic boost to the otherwise conventional interior of the house. (The red oak flooring will also help with that… which you can see above.) It’s also a functional addition, too… having the living room and kitchen more open to each other is great for creating positive social interaction. I can’t wait to finish up the rest of the interior work now!
So glad to see this post! We’ve been slowly renovating our house for the past couple years, and I’ve been meaning to install a bent in our lofted living/dining room, so add a bedroom upstairs. I’m curious what size those timbers ended up being, or what “ideal” size timber you are working with in them? 6×6, 7×7 or 8×8? I’ll be working with an 11′ span, and fortunately don’t have to worry about the foundation stuff, as a footer is already in one location, and the exterior foundation wall in the other.
I’m also curious how long you dried the timbers before working in to them? I’m thinking maybe i should order mine now, so season somewhat slowly over the winter, and work them come April. We’ll see. If anything, the biggest challenge is going to be passing everything through the permit office, as I am “adding to the listed square footage” of my structure. fun!
Hey Johnathan:
We used 6×6 sawn poplar. The material was used green. It is impractical to wait to use seasoned wood when doing timber framing… Some folks dry timbers but it’s a very complex and expensive process. Green timber has been used for thousands of years… it works well. (It’s actually much easier to cut joinery in green wood, too.)
That being said, it could be nice to wait a few weeks once the timber has been sawn to give it time to “settle”. You can use it straight off the mill, but giving it even a few weeks will reveal the checking patterns in the wood and can help you determine how to orient your material.
Good luck!
Looking good. How did you attache the frame to the floor / ceiling and how will you handle shrinkage of the logs?