The Timber Frame Pavilion
I knew I would need a structure to house the wood-fired kiln necessary to create a studio, and a timber framed pavilion seemed like the perfect project. The problem was, I had zero experience with traditional wood joinery, and building a wood-fired kiln was still a project I was not ready to tackle.
The answer came from Goshen Timber Frames in Franklin, North Carolina. Driving 14 hours straight from my home in Wisconsin, I arrived in a January snowstorm somewhere in the Smoky Mountains. As luck would have it, I made it into the owner's driveway around midnight and slept in my Jeep until morning. I remember David (one of the owners) wiping away the snow and hollering at me to come inside and warm up. What followed was a month of careful measuring and cutting, living with others in the apprentice cabin up in the mountains. It was a fantastic experience, and I came away with the knowledge and necessary skills to plan and make my own simple frame.
These are a couple of the books that proved incredibly helpful in the planning process:
For a brief two years, I had the opportunity to live and teach in a small town in northern Japan. I came away with many friends, fantastic memories, and an appreciation for sushi, amongst other things. Two traditional art forms captivated me and helped turn my life in a different direction: wood joinery and wood-fired pottery.
The time I spent at Kusakabe Masakazu's farmhouse studio was educational, relaxing and inspirational. The studio is housed in the converted traditional farm house on the right. The kilns are sheltered behind the house, bordered by a small rise topped with a thicket of bamboo. On the left you can see a tower constructed by the teacher/artist designed exclusively for his other passion: stargazing.
Please keep in mind that for this project the space is not for living. At every joint, I beefed up the dimensions a bit, shortened the spans, and added a few members to over-engineer the project. For zoning purposes, it is a big shed.
This was the first diagram I created to figure out where each post should be positioned, and then the six concrete forming tubes:
After this, I began to draw each timber in the structure, using as precise dimensions as possible. I designed the roof with a 12:12 pitch so that all the angles in the frame would be 45 or 90 degrees. This made the trigonometry much easier. I can't tell you how many times I recited, "SOA, CAH, TOA!" to figure out lengths of each tenon, mortise or cut.
I found immense benefit in drawing up my own diagrams and figuring out the dimensions of each aspect. This close relationship with the project wouldn't have been quite the same had I used someone else's drawings.
I sourced my white pine from a local sawmill, Woods Run in Colfax, WI, and delivered each member to my parents' driveway in a borrowed pick-up. For the 14' rafters, I had to look elsewhere, and I ended up with red pine. Only after cutting the timbers did I learn that red pine can twist like crazy, and man, did they! It took all of my extremely limited framing skills to keep the gaps to a minimum.
Here the wood is stacked, and I am sealing the ends to slow the drying process and limit checking in the timbers. For this project I went out of my way to find a special wax to coat the ends, but for subsequent projects I have been using up old paint from around my house which seems to work just fine.
This is Calvin, in December of 2012, climbing around the stacked timber. He was my good buddy and skijoring partner for many years.
The wood was stacked and stickered. I used hard maple stickers as using pine stickers on pine timbers could create discoloration. We rotated the two piles once or twice to keep everything drying uniformly with as little warping as possible.
As a practice project, I cut two timber framed sawhorses. There are many plans online. I used 8"x8" timbers and planned things out on my own. Setting them in between the two stacks allowed me to move timbers around by myself, hefting one end first, and then the other.
I am extremely thankful for the understanding of my parents who allowed me the use of their newly blacktopped turn around for the two years it took me to cut and test fit the frame. When we moved everything to NottaLottaWatta, the 4"x4" posts I used as temporary footings left big depressions in the driveway. Once again, I have to stress that "extremely thankful" part!
Even with all the careful measuring and cutting, there are still adjustments to be made. I moved the timbers, one bent at a time, to the flattest place I could find, the cement apron of the driveway.
Trucker straps borrowed from a friend allowed me to pull the frame together as tightly as possible. My 1-1/2" framing chisel, small plane and large "Persuader" were essential to this process. I may have worn out a tape measure at this point, trying to get everything to sit as perfectly as possible.
Here I am trying to fit together the king post, collar tie and two very warped rafters. It wasn't easy to figure out which joints needed adjusting to make everything fit. As all parts of the frame are connected, one small alteration in one part affects parts I didn't even think about someplace else.
Once things are as tight as possible, it is time to drill holes. I drilled 1" bores using an old barn beam boring machine. It allowed me to make perpendicular holes regularly without too much fussing around. As the bore began to peek through the timber, I stopped. When each hole had been bored to this point, each timber was flipped over and I finished off the holes with the 1" auger mounted in a cordless drill.
At this point I made the pegs from 7/8" maple stock. I cut 1" strips and then ripped 45 degree cuts on each corner to make super long octagonal prisms. The pegs were then cut to 10" so they sit 1" proud on both sides.
This was a good day. We moved the frame out of the driveway and over to NottaLottaWatta. It took us about four or five trips with the trailer.
As the frame was intended to sit outside, exposed to the elements, I opted for an exterior stain my parents had used on their house. The gray color blends in well with the surroundings. We stained one bent with two coats and strapped it together.
In the foreground you can see one of the footings. My brother was instrumental in helping me do these right. We fabricated towers out of rebar, and sunk them four feet deep in each of six holes. The cement was mixed in a wheelbarrow and shoveled into each hole. We used an old garbage can with the bottom cut off to create a slipform. This saved us a lot of concrete! As we made our way to the top of each hole, we added a 3' concrete forming tube to the top of each column. The tubes extended 16" above ground. Here they have eroded away, leaving only the concrete.
In the background you can see the concrete forms protruding 16" above grade. The green squares represent exactly where each post should be placed.
When the first frame was strapped together again, we pegged it, stained the rest of the timbers, laid them out to dry, and it looked a little like this:
After we pegged together three bents, I put out the word that I could use a lot of hands getting this frame put up, and wow, did friends come flying to help. We hung out in a warm November sun waiting for enough help to easily lift one of the bents. Friends came from Minneapolis, Appleton, and even from Ely, MN! Thanks to Peter from White Wilderness Sled Dog Adventures for bringing some much needed expertise and brute force to get this thing up!
To keep all of these hungry folks fed, we set up a grill and a campfire, along with plenty to drink. There was food all day long for anyone who needed a snack. This is Dad tending the grill. Mom, a retired nurse, was busy getting her first aid kit ready to go. She "joked" that she had plenty of tourniquets on hand for this day. Thanks, Mom!
We braced the rafters and collar tie to the posts to reinforce joints during the lift.
When we had enough people to lift a bent, we carried it to the appropriate footings, put enough hands and 2x4 pushers on it, and away we went.
I couldn't believe how easily the whole bent lifted up into the sky. It looked completely different from the flat and horizontal collection of timbers it had been to this point. The next step was to install the wall plates and braces to prepare for the next bent.
Here's Dad helping to prepare a support rope. You can see an "L"-shaped steel bracket nailed to the footing in front of him. This was measured carefully to receive a post. Not only do these brackets keep the frame from spreading or flying away in tornadoes, they keep the end of the post off the concrete and away from any moisture that could accumulate and rot the end of the posts.
More people arrived, and the second bent fairly flew up. Even though I was technically in charge of this whole thing, I was amazed how everyone seemed to know what needed to happen next and stepped in to fill every need. Cousins Kiki and Anna soaped every peg so they slid in easily. It was shaping up to be an amazing day.
At this point, all three bents are up and we are pounding in the pegs on the last two wall plates and braces.
The purlins, being completely identical and totally interchangeable, were hoisted up and smacked into place. At this point in the project I had decided to stray from a purely mortise and tenon frame, and used a few counter-sunk lag screws to hold each purlin in place.
This was an amazing day. Thanks to the many friends who turned out to share it with me and make it the success it was!
Here's the frame the day after the raising. I couldn't believe it was up. There wasn't much to do this day, other than walk around like I was in a dream.
The following spring we ordered tongue-and-groove 2x6 boards from Borntreger Flooring and Lumber in Augusta. Together, Dad and I laid each one in place.
Of course, they needed to be stained before we installed them. Mom is an amazing stainer.
It is always important to step back from the project and enjoy the beauty around you.
Once the wood was laid in, we covered the entire thing with roofing felt, and a steel roof. Dad handed up each pre-cut sheet of steel, and I screwed them into place.
Next we installed the ridge cap.
Here's the last of the ridge cap. I added a treated 4x4 along the peak to reinforce the spot where the roofing boards met at the peak.
Here's the finished product!
A few years later I decided to put in a cobblestone floor. I began digging out the dimensions of the floor, down to about 8" below grade. I used this contraption to sift out the sand, and to collect the rocks. The sand would be used for leveling the brick floor, and the rocks would be used for landscaping and erosion control around the timber frame.
To find good brick, I found a place along the Chippewa River where old factories and mills had once operated. There was an abundance of cast-off and abandoned brick littering the river banks and lowlands. Using 5-gallon buckets, I chose the best bricks, and hauled them up the hill to the trailer. This is one of those projects that you plan far in advance and accomplish little bits at a time. All in all, I think it took me about 10 trips with the trailer. Each trailer load took about 20, 5-gallon buckets of bricks. That's 200 buckets of bricks pulled out of the river. Uff!
This picture allows you to see the 4" layer of gravel laid down first, before the 1-1/2" layer of leveling sand. To insure a level piece of sand, I used 1-1/2" pipe on top of the gravel to keep a fairly level bed of sand. I used the sand sifted from the floor both to level the pavers and to sweep in between to lock them in. A perfectly flat floor was not the goal, and this allowed me to skip purchasing leveling sand. I did order about three yards of 3/4" washed rock for the drainage bed.
The bell was a project from an idea I picked-up at an art gallery. The tanks, cut in half made two bells. The hanging oak log serves as a great clapper to announce when things are starting, and when food is ready. I can't wait to ring this bell when the wood-fired kiln is lit for the first time.
Luckily, my brother and sister-in-law moved into a new house and didn't care for the candle chandeliers. Each one hangs from a barn pulley attached to the peak. By lowering each chandelier, we can light the candles and change them out when necessary. During windy spells, I crank them up high to keep them from swinging.
A farmer friend brought in a truckload of huge rocks for the price of gas. It was a job sorting and washing each, but it was worth it. The same farmer allowed me to pick the largest rocks from a dump pile near his farm.
Rocks of all sizes were placed around the roof's drip edge to minimize erosion.
A 250+ gallon rain barrel collects rainwater from the north side of the roof. A hose provides running water for washing hands, mixing concrete, and mixing mortar for the kiln. Until a well is drilled, we will continue to carry fresh water, but this water gets used all the time!