French House, c. 1804. Kingston, NH, Front Elevation. Photo by Charles Foley
If you are prone to feeling lazy, you’ll have to ignore the Foleys. In addition to their intense day jobs, they care for four horses, a flock of sheep, chickens, and a pack of wild dogs (it’s only two dogs, but they have a lot of energy). The French frame is the third frame we’ve raised on their farm and they finish the projects after sheathing. Sheila dug the footers for the solar array herself. At the outset of our most recent project, the couple was so involved in the design process that it wasn’t really a PTF design job at all. And that worked well for us. I’m happy as a draftsperson.
The French Frame, built in 1804, is L-shaped, two stories, hip-roofed, and always has been. It was also remarkably intact for two centuries of adaptation and use. The posts are tapered gunstocks and varied widely in dimension. Each leg of the L is 18′ wide; the front eave is 38′ long and left eave was 36′ long. The house was built with three full length plates – front (south) eave, rear (north) eave and left (west) eave – but the rear plate was damaged at the rear interior corner, and required a long scarf repair. Assembling the plates made us wonder at how they did it without a combustion engine. We added three bents off the rear (north) end of the ell, bringing its overall length to 68′. We also added an additional bent between the two original ell bents because 18′ is way too long a span for contemporary floor load requirements.
French House, Left Elevation. Photo by Charles Foley
PTF came aboard after the frame had been dismantled in Kingston, NH, transported, and stacked into temporary quonset huts in Poland, ME. I described our process for deciphering the frame here and a little bit here. Our first day back on site we inventoried and assessed the frame’s condition and I drew a 3D model using SketchUp. There are a number of other 3D modeling programs used by design professionals, but SketchUp has so far been best at meeting our timber framing needs. The next time I approach a project like this, I will model each timber to its exact specifications from the get-go. This will make it harder to establish the building’s overall dimensions initially, because hewn timbers vary and joints loosen, but it would negate the need to go back and make tedious changes to the model at cutting time.
Tie Level Hip framing
It’s not always a pleasure to work with a client who wants to share the work load. Scheduling can be a challenge. The arrangement requires both a clear delineation of tasks and flexibility to address problems as they arise. We have been lucky in our partnerships, but in this case, the design collaboration was ideal. Charley had a very specific vision and was able to convey it using an iPad floor plan app, in addition to teaching himself a little SketchUp. He has strong preservation aesthetic, and wanted to preserve the building’s original elevations and roof overhangs as close as possible within the bounds of modern building codes.
Simplified First Floor Plan
The Foleys retained a traditional floor plan within the original frame, and sequestered newer elements to the three bent extension off the ell. The building has a center stair layout with a chimney stack is built into either end of the main body of the building and a fireplace on each floor. In the ell, a third chimney mass is the focal point of the kitchen, with a traditional cooking hearth and beehive oven. George Libby of G.M.Libby and sons masonry designed the chimneys and provided guidance on their integration within the frame. The company specializes in traditional masonry and we have been very impressed with their work on previous jobs.
In contrast with a house museum, a house needs to meet contemporary building codes even if it is trying to maintain NPS-level standards. Balancing insulation requirements within a traditional frame is always a challenge. Usually, the client must decide between building out and building in. Building out means that an insulating exterior skin will be applied to frame like with SIPs or shop-made insulated panels. The advantage of building out is that the frame is visible to the interior. The disadvantage with a traditional frame is the exterior no longer resembles its original proportions. For our shop in Berwick, Arron chose to insulate to the outside, using a shop-made sandwich of pine shiplap and denim insulated batts. He achieved a fairly traditional look, but the walls are certainly thicker than the original barn wore. For this project, the Foleys wanted to insulate to the interior, and retain views of frame to the extent possible. This results in elevations that are much more true to the original building. At the first floor level, the clients will see the interior face of many of the posts and more timber in the second floor framing than the 2013 pop charts. On the second floor, the impressive tie and dragon beam configuration will be visible as well as most of the posts where they flare to meet the tie beams. Unfortunately, insulating to the inside will obscure the principal rafters. In most of Maine, code requires R-49 in the roof, resulting in 13.25″ of the preferred insulation, Roxul batts.
Y-stair section, simple-style
Fitting stairs is always the other big squeeze. In many buildings of this age, stair rise is taller than run is long. An 9″ rise and 8″ run is not uncommon. At my in-laws house from 1840, my size-tens ascend the stairs sideways, like a crab doing the grapevine. In order to approach the original layout of the French house, the front stair rises directly from the main entrance and doglegs to the left. The rear stair behind the beehive oven was my favorite design challenge. It was similarly limited by an overall 18′ run, with 3′ landings, minimum, on either end. Due to the second floor plan, the rear stair is Y-shaped, leading left to the master bedroom and right to a hallway that accesses the bath and music rooms. The master bedroom is private, being sequestered from the second floor family space, and accessible from the kitchen and frequently used rear entrance.
South Elevation, just the basics
For fenestration, we followed traditional lite divisions and window proportions. We selected the largest lite size commonly found in Federal-era windows in order to accommodate fire egress required for the bedrooms and to maintain a consistent window size throughout. The clients ultimately chose a wood window manufacturer to contain the cost over custom wooden sash. Although we didn’t use them here, there are a number of competitive sash manufacturers in New England if traditional sash is your priority.
Second Floor Framing, just the sticks
Once the floor plan and fenestration was established, we hired an engineer to review the framing plans. Due to the 17′ open span across the first floor and the spans between bents, this resulted in gargantuan floor girts, 10″x12″ and 12″x12″ in cross section. Big timbers can be fun to find in an original frame, but these seemed out of proportion with the rest of the frame. And then we didn’t even hear a peep from the code enforcement officer. It was both good fortune and a little disappointing that he wasn’t more concerned.
Jake and the Big Floor Girt. Photo by Timothy Sweeney
It’s been more than six years since fate matched up Charley and Arron at a decrepit barn in West Poland, ME. The teenager who chauffeured Arron that day, in preparation for his driver’s license, is graduating college in May. Since then, we’ve stabilized a dairy barn, moved a carpenter’s shop, and erected a horse barn just in time for Charley’s wedding. There is something specifically rewarding about collaborating on a home for such long-standing clients. We get to bask in the glow of our friends achieving a dream.
Foley Frame in February
Next up, scarf repairs and some exquisite hip joints.
