“We have to raise Weigand by the second cutting.” To a slicker like me, Arron was exhorting the crew to finish repairs on the enormous Brasen Hill Farm barn in time for some mysterious Pagan ritual. He was right. As soon as the roof was sheathed and papered, and before it wore metal roofing or…
Hey, real quick! We’ve been cutting scarf fixes for enormous post feet, and fitting teleport pads for octagonal lanterns. Updates on Chestnut St Lantern, Brasen Hill Barn, and Jennison Barn, below. Teleport Pad, Photo by Jacob Imlay Chestnut St Church Lantern, Camden, ME: This cute little lantern was cut and fit at the shop, and is…
We all have illusions about longevity. Many people think that a building’s strength is derived from its foundation, made of stone, or brick, or concrete, but that’s only partly true. A good foundation is a blessing, but a bad foundation is not damning. We’ve seen so many foundation failures that in a well-designed timber frame, we…
I write a lot about our unusual jobs: a deserted island, an elevated dance floor, or a building-sized jewelry box, but most of us got into this to do jobs like the Jennison barn. The job incorporates so many of PTF’s defining motifs: barn preservation, adaptive re-use, local history and creative clients. The Jennisons called in early…
The First Parish Meetinghouse of East Derry, NH is preparing for a big anniversary, its tricentennial. What does one even get for a church on its 300th? Wood? Copper? Both, as it turns out. Beginning with a thorough assessment and rehabilitation plan in 2011, the congregation has been working steadily to repair extensive damage throughout…
The client’s wedding was in a week, and the barn in which he’d marry was in pieces on the ground. It was crane day, and a Friday, two things that don’t usually go together. In the worst case, a crane day on Friday means you don’t have an additional weekday in case you hit a…
Over this long spring, we’ve been so elbow deep at the Pennell project in Brunswick that I’ve been remiss in writing about it. The James Pennell House, on Pennellville rd., is a two-story Greek Revival house built in 1838. It is a high-style home, with the later addition of cupola and ell. The project…
Here’s one to please our 11-year-old selves, and the folks over at Low-Tech Magazine: we raised the Carpenter’s Shop using a gin pole. This is a simple and traditional method for raising a timber frame by hand, and straightforward solution to a site with little crane access. It’s constructed from a long, straight pole with a block…
If forced to choose, I think most of the PTF crew would choose hand-tools over machines, our chisels and mallet. Fortunately, we don’t have to choose, and one of the pleasures of our job is that we have a broad range of woodworking tools with which to solve the problems we face in the shop and in…