Timber Frame Carport Project

[Cliff_Johns]

Interesting project. I like working with timbers rather than sticks (2X big-box wood), and using wood you cut yourself has to be extra satisfying. Consider writing a note with permanent marker on one of the major beams to say who you are, when you built it and the if the wood came from the property and so on. Provenance is so much fun to find in old building - and eventually, this will be an old building.

The discussion about gravel or concrete is interesting, but a lot depends on the soil and frost levels in your area. Quality PT wood lasts a long time either way. Ideally, you run the concrete in a sono tube above the surface, but that's not always what you want either.

 

[s219]

Got the gable rafters cut and put up today. Need to fell some trees to cut a bunch of 2x6 boards for the rest of the rafters.

 

[EddieWalker]

Framing is always when a building looks the best!!!!

 

[s219]

More rafters going up.

 

[s219]

Nice to see rafters bein tied in proper instead of little tin clip.

I always try to use blocking to attach them if possible. Gives a lot more lateral support too, so the rafters won't fold over during the rest of construction when climbing around on the roof. And you don't need the hurricane clips since the nails and the cross nail pattern is good for hundreds of pounds of uplift resistance (but some inspectors will want the clips anyway).

I think the hurricane clips are mainly a safety fix for when rafters are toenailed in, since toenailing has poor uplift resistance and most people butcher it. Simpson spent a lot of money and lobbying to make those clips required by code when the real problem is toenailing.

I don't like to toenail, but do it on some projects when blocking isn't practical (for instance, nailing rafters to top plates in a stick-framed wall). I always toenail with a hammer and pre-drill the rafters to get the angle right. Doing it with a nail gun just makes a mess and usually splits the wood. It's almost worthless.

 

[civilian]

I always try to use blocking to attach them if possible. Gives a lot more lateral support too, so the rafters won't fold over during the rest of construction when climbing around on the roof. And you don't need the hurricane clips since the nails and the cross nail pattern is good for hundreds of pounds of uplift resistance (but some inspectors will want the clips anyway).

I think the hurricane clips are mainly a safety fix for when rafters are toenailed in, since toenailing has poor uplift resistance and most people butcher it. Simpson spent a lot of money and lobbying to make those clips required by code when the real problem is toenailing.

I don't like to toenail, but do it on some projects when blocking isn't practical (for instance, nailing rafters to top plates in a stick-framed wall). I always toenail with a hammer and pre-drill the rafters to get the angle right. Doing it with a nail gun just makes a mess and usually splits the wood. It's almost worthless.

I like the blocking you did instead of clips. I may incorporate htat into a lean-to I am doing later. Jon

 

[wolc123]

I recently added a timber framed woodshed lean to on the back of my metal pole barn back porch. That back porch was to be my woodshed, but I acquired some more “stuff”, and it seems that you can never have too much inside or covered storage areas.

Covering firewood with tarps outside just wasn’t working out well for me, so I really needed this woodshed. The timber’s that I used were mostly hand-hewn American chestnut from a couple old barns that my great great grandad had built in 1883. I took them down when the roofs and foundations began to fail. Repair costs would have greatly exceeded the cost of the 36 x 50 metal building I put up, with (2) 25 x 10 porches.

On my lean to, I attached 9” square beams to the back porch posts. The porch posts are fabricated from pt 2x6’s and have concrete below grade. I “floated” the other end of those base beams on concrete blocks, set on top of compacted crushed stone (20” deep).

I built the 7 x 25 ft woodshed at a cost of less than $ 20 in materials (bought just some lag bolts and a box of nails from TSC). The steel for the roof was leftover from the pole barn. Stockade buildings shipped the bundles of grey steel for that, each topped with a same gauge sheet of green steel. I made the woodshed as big as I could with that “free” steel roofing. It has a capacity of (24) face cords of firewood, which is (4) years supply at our current burn rate.

The 6” square and 9” square beams, 3x4” sawed white oak rafters, and 3/4”x 3” pine purlins were all recovered from the old barns that I took down.