Timber FramingUntil the 17th century England was blessed with an abundant supply of oak, which was the most common material used for timber framing.

Unlike modern framed buildings where the walls are installed outside and inside the frame, in half timbered buildings the walls are filled in between the structural timbers.

Oak is hard an durable which in part explains why so many medieval buildings half timbered buildings have survived

Timber framed houses are essentialy big boxes,“with upper boxes“ (stories) set upon lower ones. Often the upper floors project out over the lower ones.

By the Jacobean period wood for timber framing was in short supply in England. For too many years wood had been used for building, heating, and for making charcoal. Also, the great expansion of the British merchant fleet after the medieval period used up large quantities of wood.

Uses of wood

Sloping and slanting floors we see today in half-timbered buildings are the result of natural warping of the wood as it aged.

HISTORY AND TRADITIONHalf-timbered construction in the Nortern European vernacular building style is charatteristic of mediaval and early modern England, Germany and parts of France, in localities where timber was in good supply and building stone and the skills to work it were in short supply.

Recently it has become common to surround the timber structure entirely in manufactured panels, such as S.I.Ps (Structural Insulating Panels). This method can only of enclosure means that the timbers can only be seen from inside the building, but has the benefits of beeing less complex to build and offering more efficent heat insulation.

S.I.Ps

SIPs are a sandwich contruction of two rigid composite of materials usually wood with a foamed insulating material in between.