 Practical and Inspirational
Roy brings out new home building books every year, it seems. The last few years have seen major treatments of all his basic building strategies, timber, earth, log ends. The new books are handsomely produced, up to date, and comprehensive.
With timber frames there are several major threads. The uber domestic architecture movement, based largely on church architectural norms, very difficult to home build. The modernist post and beam thread, now out of favour; And the domestic level shorter post and beams method designed for home architecture. This book is mostly towards the latter thread, with additions as required. In other words, even a person working alone with modest tools can do these builds. (Other good books in this scale are Sobon's books that cover traditional settler forms for modern makers, and Mitchell's West Coats classic The Craft of Modular Post and Beam. Sobon's diverts from simplicity in favour of some of these older forms, and Mitchell in favour of West coast style, though they are both still practical)
Often the glaring omission in timber frame books is the lack of any engineering treatment of how to size beams. This is a major stuff where the fancy frames are concerned, but it is within the realm of possibility for simpler homes. Roy covers this ground simply, and it is essential stuff for anyone who wants to do some design work before talking to the local planing office or a professional architect. This chapter can be skipped, but ads to the comprehensiveness of the text for those in need of the information.
One doesn't have to be planing a house to use this book. Timber framing is a practical form for smaller buildings like sheds, workshops, picnic shelters. Due to their scale these structures can often be timber framed within the span of only a few posts and beams of dimensional lumber, saving money with an elegant approach, and increasing interior space.
 Timber Framing for the rest of us
Author did not use enough examples, really only sited building one structure. It was imformative though.
Building Guru Strikes Again!!!
Mr Roy writes in a very understandable way. His books are both informative and entertaining. My plans for using timber framing in my next house have been finalized after reading this great book. Keep up the good work Mr. Roy.
Great Reference
This is a great reference for how to put the joints together. Not as good of a reference for structural design but if you are not an engineer you should probably consult one anyway so that isn't really a minus. Easy to follow.
 good guidance for first time builders
This book provides information needed by DYI buillders who need the why's as well as the how's. It focuses on durability and practicality rather than elegance and tradition.
|
