Pekka Huhta
Established Member
We moved in to an old timber framed house six years ago and I have been renovating it since. This year I got the last bits finished on the outside, now there is still only some interior work left.
Last things to be done were the front door and the balcony. The "before" image has been taken on the first winter after moving in and the "after" one just a few weeks ago.
The house has been built from recycled timber in 1919. It has been very common over here to move and modify timber houses: the house is just taken off from one end of a bigger building, all the floor boards, windows and doors have been taken from the old building.
I have old pine beams that have been roof beams of the original building. there are several of them in the house, and a sauna building was also made from the same beams. When the sauna was demolished, I saved the beams for repairs in the house. So, most of the parts of the balcony were also cut from the old, 7x7" beams.
I made mock-ups for the ends of the beams and handrail posts. The beams were so heavy that it was much easier to fit the ends of the beams to the wall with the mock-up. I climbed up the wall with the mock-up, made all modifications needed to fit the beams to the holes on the wall and then copied the modifications to the actual beams.
I made bevels to both the beams and the supporting diagonals (rafters, maybe?) both for looks and also for letting the rainwater pour out to the sides of the diagonals, instead of directing the water to the joint between diagonal and the wall
After the beams were completed, I used a rope and tackle to lift them to place one by one just to check the fit. At the same time I tried to search the best angle for the diagonals (the joints were not yet cut at this stage).
The diagonals on both the balcony and the canopy were fitted with a mortice and tenon. First the tenons:
...and then the mortices. I know most people do it the other way round, but I usually make the tenon first and just use it to mark the mortice. The bigger mortices were cut with a pigsticker, the smaller ones for the canopy with japanese chisels.
While discussing the mortices, I'm jumping to the handrails of the balcony: there were about 40 mortices in the handrails. The handrails were joined to the wall wih pocket hole screws. I don't have a jig for those, but it's just as easy with a block of wood clamped to the handrail.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the assembly. I had all the parts painted before assembly, so I only have to touch up the paintwork afterwards.
The handrails have a drawbored m&t joint to the corner posts. Also the horizontal battens are morticed to the corner posts.
The beams extend about 15 cm through the wall. They are secured with hot dip galvanized angle irons.
One of the most important things is a bitumen felt collar that's nailed both to the wall and the beams. This prevents any water seeping in the wall.
The diagonals were just bolted to the wall. As the house is timber framed, two 12x180 mm wood screws per diagonal is more than enough to hold them together.
As you can see on the pics, I still have to touch up the paint on the balcony next year. I use only traditional paints on all my work, so these were primed with a primer mixed from zinc oxide and boiled linseed oil, followed by two coats of traditional linseed oil paint. I do mix the primer myself, but mainly use ready-made paints for surface paintings. I only buy white paint and mix the colours myself.
The canopy was made as a pair for the balcony, I tried to keep the same visual idea on that as well. In addition to the mortice and tenon, there was also a dovetail joint on the upper corner and a lap joint on the upper end of the diagonal.
The finished frames were glued together:
The canopy was so small that I did not want a separate gutter for it. I made an integrated gutter instead. I don't have a clue of the english therminology for that kind of a gutter, but those are pretty common in Finnish houses. The roofing is just red bitumen felt
Now all the exterior work is done for this year - they promised the first snowfall for today
I'm also trying to use these as a good excuse for skipping this year's competition. I had good intentions to get that finished during the summer, but these things always take much more time than expected...
Pekka
Last things to be done were the front door and the balcony. The "before" image has been taken on the first winter after moving in and the "after" one just a few weeks ago.
The house has been built from recycled timber in 1919. It has been very common over here to move and modify timber houses: the house is just taken off from one end of a bigger building, all the floor boards, windows and doors have been taken from the old building.
I have old pine beams that have been roof beams of the original building. there are several of them in the house, and a sauna building was also made from the same beams. When the sauna was demolished, I saved the beams for repairs in the house. So, most of the parts of the balcony were also cut from the old, 7x7" beams.
I made mock-ups for the ends of the beams and handrail posts. The beams were so heavy that it was much easier to fit the ends of the beams to the wall with the mock-up. I climbed up the wall with the mock-up, made all modifications needed to fit the beams to the holes on the wall and then copied the modifications to the actual beams.
I made bevels to both the beams and the supporting diagonals (rafters, maybe?) both for looks and also for letting the rainwater pour out to the sides of the diagonals, instead of directing the water to the joint between diagonal and the wall
After the beams were completed, I used a rope and tackle to lift them to place one by one just to check the fit. At the same time I tried to search the best angle for the diagonals (the joints were not yet cut at this stage).
The diagonals on both the balcony and the canopy were fitted with a mortice and tenon. First the tenons:
...and then the mortices. I know most people do it the other way round, but I usually make the tenon first and just use it to mark the mortice. The bigger mortices were cut with a pigsticker, the smaller ones for the canopy with japanese chisels.
While discussing the mortices, I'm jumping to the handrails of the balcony: there were about 40 mortices in the handrails. The handrails were joined to the wall wih pocket hole screws. I don't have a jig for those, but it's just as easy with a block of wood clamped to the handrail.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the assembly. I had all the parts painted before assembly, so I only have to touch up the paintwork afterwards.
The handrails have a drawbored m&t joint to the corner posts. Also the horizontal battens are morticed to the corner posts.
The beams extend about 15 cm through the wall. They are secured with hot dip galvanized angle irons.
One of the most important things is a bitumen felt collar that's nailed both to the wall and the beams. This prevents any water seeping in the wall.
The diagonals were just bolted to the wall. As the house is timber framed, two 12x180 mm wood screws per diagonal is more than enough to hold them together.
As you can see on the pics, I still have to touch up the paint on the balcony next year. I use only traditional paints on all my work, so these were primed with a primer mixed from zinc oxide and boiled linseed oil, followed by two coats of traditional linseed oil paint. I do mix the primer myself, but mainly use ready-made paints for surface paintings. I only buy white paint and mix the colours myself.
The canopy was made as a pair for the balcony, I tried to keep the same visual idea on that as well. In addition to the mortice and tenon, there was also a dovetail joint on the upper corner and a lap joint on the upper end of the diagonal.
The finished frames were glued together:
The canopy was so small that I did not want a separate gutter for it. I made an integrated gutter instead. I don't have a clue of the english therminology for that kind of a gutter, but those are pretty common in Finnish houses. The roofing is just red bitumen felt
Now all the exterior work is done for this year - they promised the first snowfall for today
I'm also trying to use these as a good excuse for skipping this year's competition. I had good intentions to get that finished during the summer, but these things always take much more time than expected...
Pekka
