Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of a Forgotten Art

This book is written by some one who clearly has tons of experience but doesn’t make the information difficult to understand. I think some twelve year olds could read this book and understand all of the concepts. The illustrations are amazing and I personally find them beautiful( all hand drawn like in old books). This book challenges you to learn a skill and do it well. The really great thing also is that it gives you step buy step instructions on how to do it as well. I love this book.The only problem I have at all with it is that the paper back cover is very thin. I’ve read it and studied the pictures so much that I bent huge flaps on the corners. The paperback book itself is not great quality. I thought about buying a hard back copy just to have in the family library long term but I believe it costs a lot more. If I could do it over I would just buy a hard copy in the first place. I just wasn’t sure it was a good book.

The book illustrates specifics on laying out joinery, structual design, and assembing timbers.

So well written and organized! Very informative and terrific illustrations. I will update when the house is built.

I'm building a 8x10 shed using timber framing joinery. This is my first attempt at timber framing. The book offered a good overview and very good information on the types of joints and why you would want to use a particular one. What I really like was he showed how to actually lay out some of the cuts, like the angled end cuts on braces.

easy to understand and helpful

This book is one of the classics on Timber Framing for those who want to get into this type of construction or build their own house. It is a very easy read. Though sometimes the author tends towards to much philosophy about life, construction and wood working.This book has very useful sections on joinery, design, raising, engineering, load physics, etc. Very easy to understand even if, like me, you are not a professional carpenter, contractor or mechanical engineer. I know nothing of contracting or building and understood the whole book.The book does not mention anything about Scribe Rule and Square Rule techniques and the differences between the two. These old techniques may not have been widely known when this book was written, although they were well known by early timber frame carpenters, before Timber Framing was replaced with cheaper, but faster Balloon Framing.A book that does go into Square Rule in a more structured way and is equally easy to read is Buid a Classic Timber-Framed House, by Jack Sobon.

If you are doing any kind of timber frame work this is one of the best books to have on hand. Every single page of the book has plenty of photographs and/or drawings (with explanations) of how to make joints and build a timber frame house.My friend and I have been using this book for 10 years to build a couple timber frame cabins deep in the middle of the Rockies here in Colorado. There are a couple of design plans, but with a little imagination, and a lot of hard work, the possibilities are endless. It is 'the' must have reference for building anything from tree's.

Really informative book which includes the history of timber framing.

This is the best book for learning to timber frame. This is my second copy as the first I have worn out.

Great book. Includes step by step guides on how to cut joints.

C'est un livre comme savent en faire les Américains : on va droit au but, on ne perd pas de temps à faire des cours approfondis de physique des matériaux et une introduction de 40 pages qui semble destinée à décourager les lecteurs les plus assidus. Ici, on se contente de montrer ce qui marche (les différents assemblages de charpente traditionnelle, c'est-à-dire sans clous ni vis, que du bois), avec force schémas, pas-à-pas de réalisation des découpes ardues, trucs de métier pour la réalisation, présentation rapide des outils, photos d'exemples... bref c'est du pratique de chez pratique, sans bla-bla et sans chercher à montrer une érudition savante.Au sortir de ce livre, un amateur averti de bricolage normalement constitué se sentira une irrésistible envie de construire quelque chose, de ressortir les outils à main dans son atelier, bref de se lancer au corps-à-corps avec la matière première pour mettre en pratique ce qu'il aura lu/vu dans ce livre. La fierté que l'on peut ressentir lorsqu'on a a réalisé son 1er assemblage un peu complexe avec succès est un sentiment très agréable !Donc en gros un livre qui va à l'essentiel, avec tout ce qu'il faut pour un bricoleur averti pour se lancer dans une construction de charpente traditionnelle (attention, on n'est pas dans l'optique d'une ossature bois dont les méthodes sont très différentes) plus ou moins complexe (de l'abri de jardin à la maison familiale !). Tout ça dans un seul livre, grâce aux détails techniques de réalisation de chaque assemblage, les abaques de dimensionnement des poutres, la mise en place... Parfait pour moi !La seule chose à signaler est que, naturellement, le livre n'existe pas en version française, et il faut donc se débrouiller en anglais, avec l'aide d'un traducteur technique (IATE sur internet par exemple), mais c'est loin d'être insurmontable tant les dessins parlent d'eux-mêmes et le vocabulaire spécifique est relativement restreint.Bonne lecture !

Très bien fait, très clair (pour peu qu'on parle anglais) et très complet.C'est devenu mon livre de chevet en ce moment pour la préparation d'une construction bois traditionnelle.

I built a 4000sq ft home with this book!! ..... Not really. But I did build a 4000 sq ft timberframe house after I read this book. It's a great read. A little behind in modern techniques but very useful. This book really helps you think in three Dimensions. It's the hardest part in laying out timbers. It was a very fun read.