Frame building

“ If, in erecting a building, we can so use our materials that every strain will come in the direction of the fibre of some portion of the wood work, we can make inch boards answer a better purpose than foot square beams, and this application of materials is one reason of the strength of Balloon Frames.
Fig. 108.—Floor Plan.
The Balloon Frame belongs to no one person; nobody claims it as an invention, and yet in the art of construction it is one of the most sensible improvements that has ever been made. ”

“ Fig. 14.—Outside Brace. The frame-work of a building is often revealed in the room in a way that would delight the heart of an Eastlake. Irregularities in the form of a stick are not looked upon as a hindrance in the construction of a building. From the way such crooked beams are brought into use, one is led to believe that the builder prefers them. The desire for rustic effects leads to the selection of odd-shaped timber. Fig. 7 represents the end of a room, wherein is seen a crooked cross-piece passing through a central upright, which sustains the ridge-pole. ”

“ Although not difficult to construct, the upright corner requires considerable mechanical skill and accuracy. A good carpenter can frame the entire building on the ground before any logs are placed on the foundation, after which it can be erected in a very short time. Next to the round-notch corner the upright, or groove-and-tenon corner, probably has the best appearance. ”

“ One problem in the construction of a great building arises from discrepancies in the rates of expansion and contraction of various materials used. In the Coliseum the concrete seating construction is attached to the steel frame of the building by a device operating on the principle of a hinge. It is so designed that when the steel and concrete expand at different coefficients, the hinge moves to adjust to the disparity. ”

“ To the front of an old frame building about 16 feet by 28 feet has been built a neat, well lighted concrete block room, about 16 feet by 16 feet, carrying the building to the lot line and affording ample space for the generating set and switchboards, and such desk room as is needed for the ordinary office business of the company. ”

“ When the building is supported on posts, heavy sills are necessary, and the frame should be securely nailed or spiked together. The bents may be 16, 24 or 30 inches apart, and covered in the usual manner. The thrust of both the rafters and contents of the building are outward; the tie, 1 by 4, is abundantly strong, as each one will practically sustain, in the direction of its fibre, three tons. The floor joists are nailed to studs at each end. No one need fear any lack of perfect security, as these ties exceed in strength any hold that tenons could have. ”

“ First developed as a city in the thirties, the need for rapid building in timber had led to the invention or development of what is called ‘balloon-frame’ construction, in which relatively light studs or scantlings, rising wall high, form a cage or crate whose members are fastened together by a liberal use of machine-made nails. ”

“ Fig. 40.—Leading Frame for Constructing Side Wall Masonry.
Leading Frames. —As already stated, leading frames are the patterns, or molds, used in building the side walls of the lining. Like the ground mold they are usually built of plank; one side being cut to the curve of the profile, and the other being made parallel to the vertical axis of the tunnel section. The vertical side usually has some arrangement by which a plumb [68] bob can be attached, as shown by Fig. 40, to guide the workmen in erecting the frame. The combined leading frame and ground mold shown in Fig. ”

“ The inside of the exterior frame is roughly ceiled around with hemlock boards, which are thoroughly nailed to the studding, bringing them “into line,” and making them firm. The method of inclosing the sides of the building is shown in fig. 129. A is the foundation; B the water-table; C the brick wall; D, inside boarding; E, E, E, timber of the frame. The water-table, of dressed stone, is laid on the foundation in cement mortar. The brick are laid in “stretchers,” in good lime and sand-mortar, with close joints. ”

“ Bring the square ends of the boards flush with the openings for door and window, and nail to corner posts and studding with eight or ten penny wire nails.
Finish the two sides, sawing off the sheathing along the top of rafters. Cover front and back clear up to top of rafters, and bring ends of boards flush with outside of the side sheathing.
Several methods of finishing corners of frame buildings are shown in Fig. 223. At a is shown the corner of this chicken house. No corner boards are used over the outer sheathing, as the whole structure is to be covered with roofing paper. [447]
Fig. ”

“ In concrete buildings just referred to, our preference in style of construction is either of the mushroom type, that is, flat ceilings without girders; or secondly, with girders extending in one direction only. An inexperienced engineer in his efforts to minimize the quantity of steel and concrete requirement will invariably wish to carry girders from column to column and cross beams between girders, making the ceiling look like a checkerboard, losing perhaps twenty inches or more head room on every story and making a much more expensive building to construct and operate. ”

“ The lesser buildings for the farmers, artisans, and traders follow the temples and yashikis in plan, and may be described as an outer framing of solid posts and rafters, in lieu of walls, supporting a heavy overhanging roof of tiles or thatch; the roofs are elaborate and heavy, to weight the framing, and as it were to balance the building, and better to resist the shocks of the earthquakes. The exterior skeleton framing is filled in with easily moved sash frames or sliding panels. ”

“ At the springing or foot of the arch on either side of the transept there is a range of louvre-frames to assist in the ventilation of the building, and on the top of the arch externally a narrow passage is formed to give access to the different parts of this roof. On the inner side of the arch diagonal tie-rods are introduced between the main ribs, which, while they serve to increase the strength of the construction by tying together all the parts from end to end, produce an agreeable play of lines forming a kind of network over the whole of the surface. ”

“ Fig. 229. Roof framing
The hip roof is the more pleasing and the more difficult to make. It reduces the attic space, if that is a consideration, and is harder to cover, or rather it consumes more time, as the question of whether a piece of work is difficult or not is really a question of whether or not you know how to do it.
[467] The method of fitting the rafters is shown at Fig. 230. To find length of rafters, make a drawing to scale, in which a-b is the height above plate level and c-b half the width of the building measured on the plate or sill. ”

“ I like better the notion of letting the material of which brick walls and partitions are composed form the actual finish inside as well as outside. The floors, too, should be bare, and the beams that support them ought to be visible, and in case of a wooden house, the posts, braces and other timbers should be left in sight when the building is finished. It is a sad pity that modern modes of building, like modern manners and fashions, conceal actual construction and character, making a mask that may hide great excellence or absolute worthlessness. ”

“ Roof framing can be done about as many different ways as there are mechanics. But undoubtedly the easiest, most rapid and most practical is framing with the “square.” The following cuts will illustrate several applications of the square as applied to roof framing, and all who are interested in the subject can, by giving it a careful study, be able to frame any ordinary roof the mechanic comes in contact with. ”

“ The bricks walls of the building are not called upon to resist any portion of the thrust from the roof, as the side frames through which the gallery floor passes form a self-contained system of steelwork in which the thrust is ultimately conveyed to the ground. The screens which close the semicircular ends of the roof are of vertical ridge and furrow construction, as can be clearly seen in the illustrations, this form offering great resistance to wind pressure while at the same time requiring a minimum amount of material. ”

“ For this purpose a very ingenious apparatus was devised by the late Mr. Field, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for testing the stability of the galleries in situ, and on being applied over the greater part of the building not a single bolt or girder gave way under its action. This apparatus consisted of eight square wooden frames divided into thirty-six compartments, each just capable of containing and allowing to rotate a 68-pounder shot. ”

“ The vividness of the expression of mechanical forces in architecture depends, moreover, upon the kind of materials employed; it is greater in marble than in wood, and less in our modern constructions of steel and glass, where the piers move in single vertical lines from the bottom to the top of the building, than in the old forms, where the upper part of the building is frankly carried by the lower. ”

“ These causes have led to the erection of buildings of excessive height (Fig. 224) ; the more recent among them constructed with a framework of iron or steel columns and beams, the visible walls being a mere filling-in. To render a building of twenty stories attractive to the eye, especially when built on an irregular site, is a difficult problem, of which a wholly satisfactory solution has yet to be found. ”

“ This is accomplished when building self sustaining walls by constructing a set of columns adjacent to the walls with girders from column to column and supporting floor slabs upon the girders, not permitting either columns, girders or slab to be in contact with the exterior wall. In a skeleton construction design there are twin columns, girders and beams, the inner set carrying the floor loading and the outer the building walls, the insulation lining being unbroken between them. ”

“ Earth is put in by small quantities, which the workmen beat with rammers, and occasionally moisten with water to give it consistency. Having filled the frame or trough, they remove it and continue the same operation till the whole shell of the house is completed, taking care to leave vacancies, and put in the window-frames, door-frames, and beams as they proceed. The mass, in course of time, becomes indurated, the walls are pared perfectly smooth inside, and take any color the owner chooses to give them; they are generally enriched with very ingenious devices. ”

“ Should additional chambers be required, partitions may be set over those or the second story, duplicating that plan, with rooms having the same hight of ceilings. The stairs are placed immediately above those of the lower stories, are ceiled in, and have a door at the foot.... Construction.—The durability, general abundance, and substantial appearance of stone, make it the most desirable and appropriate material known for the exterior walls of any building. The cost of cutting and dressing such material ready for use is the principle barrier to its general adoption. ”

“ With the growing scarcity of lumber the "half frame" of Fig. 18 became common. This latter type, it will be seen, makes less use of heavy timbers and wooden pins, and more use of planks and nails. To-day the vast majority of buildings, where wood is the material used, are constructed by what is known as "balloon framing" in houses and "plank framing" in barns, Figs. 19 and 20. In view of this, attention will be directed to balloon framing only. One who is able to frame a house should have no trouble with plank barn framing, where drawings show the details. ”

“ Due to the architectural design of some windows or doors it is necessary for a wood frame to be used, and for the same reason it is often wiser to use a metal frame. Wherever metal frames can be used they are the best to buy, as they will stand up longer, and, if the best be bought, they will need less renovation, as they can be made rigid at only half the width of the wood screen. ”

“ The scheme of construction is thus curiously like that of the modern American steel-framed building, though the external form may be derived from the tent of primitive nomads. The roof, being the preponderant feature, is that on which the art of the architect has been concentrated. ”

“ The value to a beginner of a carefully made plan of a roof to be framed with necessary data such as rafter lengths and positions indicated thereon, cannot be too strongly emphasized. Architects not infrequently prepare elaborate and complete framing plans for the use of the carpenter. Upon intricate plans, experienced men -49- prepare plans before attempting to frame the same. Fig. 43 illustrates a framing plan ready for the placing thereon of the necessary data, such as measurements along the plate for spacing the rafters, lengths of rafters, ridge pieces, etc. ”

“ Other first signs of the Transition are the diagonal or catercornered fireplace, the hipped or "pyramid" roof, the gambrel roof, and the open-well stairs, which mount up the sides of a room—an arrangement which Britons at home complained of as "wasters of space." In short, it may be said that while these features may earmark a building as of the Transition, they are only thus when combined with certain house-forms and floor plans. A diagonal fireplace by itself is no criterion of a building being Transitional. ”