Thomson Timber Buildings
We create traditional timber framed buildings you dream about.
Glossary of Terms
TIMBER PIECES | |
| Beam | a main horizontal member in a building's frame |
| Braces | smaller timbers placed diagonally between posts and girts or plates to make a structure more rigid |
| Collar Tie | a timber placed horizontally and between rafters that control spreading or sagging of the rafters, usually placed parallel to the girts which connect rafter pairs at a given height |
| Common Rafters | closely and regularly spaced inclined timbers that support the roof covering, independent of the bent system |
| Found Curve | naturally occurring crooked timbers usually with two sides sawn and two sides with the bark removed, used as knee braces, posts and beams |
| Hammer Beam | a horizontal timber projecting from the top of the wall or rafter that supports a roof truss. The design creates a large roof span with relatively short timbers |
| Intermediate Wallplate | major horizontal timber that connects posts |
| Joist | smaller horizontal timbers parallel to each other to complete the floor frame |
| King Post | a central, vertical post extending from the bent plate or girt to the junction of the rafters at roof peak |
| Knee Brace | a short diagonal timber placed between the horizontal and vertical members of the frame to make them rigid |
| Plate | the major horizontal timber which runs from one end of the frame to the other and supports the base of the rafters |
| Post | upright or vertical timbers erected within the frame that provide structural support of the members above |
| Post with Teasle Tenon | a post having an increased size at its top, providing extra strength for intersecting joinery |
| Principal Rafters | a pair of inclined timbers that are framed into a bent and used with either purlins or secondary rafters or alone |
| Purlin | a horizontal member of the roof frame which runs between rafters |
| Queen Posts | a pair of vertical posts of a roof truss standing on the bent or girt and supporting the rafters or collar tie |
| Rafter | sloping main timber of the roof frame |
| Ridge Pole | horizontal timber which connects rafter pairs at the peak |
| Ridge Purlin | the beams connecting rafter to rafter at the apex |
| Secondary Rafters | smaller sized timber rafters placed between principal rafters |
| Sill Timber | major horizontal timbers which lie on the foundation and form the lowest part of the frame |
| Strut | a short timber placed in a structure either diagonally or vertically, designed to act in compression along the direction of its lengths |
| Summer Beam | a major horizontal timber which spans the girts or plates |
JOINERY | |
| Dovetail | a tenon that is shaped like a dove's spread tail to fit into a corresponding mortice |
| Half-Dovetail | this joint is one-half of a dovetail; used for joining collar ties to rafters, and braces to posts, and for other similar situations |
| Half-Lap | a joint in which two timbers are let in to each other |
| Joint | part, or the arrangement of the part, where two or more timbers are joined together |
| Haunch | the part of the whole timber beyond the shoulder which is let into another timber |
| Housing | the shallow mortice or cavity for receiving the major part of a timber end, usually coupled with a smaller deep mortice to receive a tenon tying the joint together |
| Joinery | the craft of connecting and securing the separate members of the timber frame to one another by means of specific cuts on the ends and/or sides of the timbers |
| Mortice & Tenon | any joint consisting of a projection (tenon) on the end of one timber and a corresponding slot (mortice) on the other |
| Peg | a hardwood dowel usually ranging from 5/8 of an inch to 2 inches in diameter |
| Scarf Joint | a joint used to splice two timbers end to end |
| Shoulder | the area of the void created when the waste around a tenon has been cut away |
| Tail | the end portion of a birds-mouth joint which extends beyond the plate when there is a roof overhang |
| Tenon | the projecting end of a timber that is inserted into a mortice |
| Trunnel | also known as a tree-nail, a turned and tapered hardwood dowel used for securing timber joints. See "Peg" |
| Tusk Joint | also called a tusk or through tenon, a mortice and tenon joint in which the tenon goes all the way through the corresponding mortice |
TOOLS | |
| Beetle | a heavy wooden maul or mallet used in cases in which material would be damaged by a sledge hammer |
| Come Along | a hand operated ratcheting wrench. Uses include tightening joinery during assembly, as a safety tie and for pulling frame components together during construction |
| Draw Knife | a tool having a blade with a handle at each end; by drawing it toward you, you can shave surfaces |
| Framing Chisel | large chisel with long, heavy blades strong enough to be hit with a heavy mallet |
| Mallet | a tool like a hammer with a wooden, rawhide or rubber head |
| Pike | a long pole with a pointed steel head used in raising bents; also called a barn pole |
| Slick | a wide bladed and long handled chisel pushed by hand to create flat surfaces |
DETAILING | |
| Chamfer | a decorative edging or relief made at the timber's corner |
| Pendant | an ornamental termination to the low end of a hammer post, king post, queen post, etc. |
| Stop | decorative end of a chamfer |
OTHER TERMS | |
| Bay | space between two timber bents |
| Bent | a structural section of the frame which is composed of a line of vertical posts and the horizontal timbers that connect them |
| Bent Design | the functional and artistic pattern of timbers creating the bent |
| Blue Board | weather resistant, plaster-based drywall |
| Check | a separation of wood fibers caused by the natural process of wood drying |
| Green Wood | freshly cut wood that is not dried or seasoned |
| Hand-Hewn | a timber squared off and shaped by hand |
| Hardwood | wood of certain deciduous trees (e.g., oak, walnut, ash, etc.) |
| Rough Sawn | lumber and timber that has not been planed |
| Scribing | shaping one member to the surface which it touches, for example, to fit a board snugly to a surface which is not straight |
| Span | the width of a building or overall length of a truss |
| Timber Frame | a load-carrying structure of timbers ranging in size from 4x4 and up |
| Wall Decking | lumber covering the walls usually 1" tongue-and-groove |