One of the main jobs on the building this week is constructing the verandah frame.
The framing bed had to be rebuilt and extended to cope with the extra long frame. This meant extending it out over the old concrete track at the back of the basecamp.
Each frame in turn has been constructed on the framing bed, the verandah frame is the latest to be jointed together in this way. Doing it like this means the timbers can be cut, jointed and put together prior to the parts all being lifted over into their finished positions in the building.
In the picture above you can see that the uprights have been held in place with ratchet straps while the tenons have been cut on the end of them. The long beam which forms the wall plate at the top of the frame is then moved using the tripods with blocks and tackle. This allows it to be lowered and marked and then lifted to have the mortices cut prior to being lowed and attached.
This frame also has a number of windbraces in it.
They stop the building from racking, or twisting over time, and also add to the appearance of the finished structure. They are the short angled timbers in the picture above, it all means quite a bit of complicated roundwood timber joinery, which the guys on the framing team have been coping with admirably.
Once the frame has been completed it will be lifted onto its padstones.
You can see the line of stones waiting for it just to the left of willow (my collie dog).
Like the other structural timbers this frame is mainly made out of sweet chestnut from Ridden corner on Black Down. The long beam at the top is another of the larch poles we brought in from valewood, it will have a Swan Barn Farm oak under floor beam. I am really looking forward to seeing it in place as it will define the finished width of the building.
