Traditional Timber Frame Homes. Eco Friendly A-Frame House Plans Online

When most people think about building their dream home, some may desire to build a home that blends natural and sometimes historic beauty with its environment. Timber frame homes do just that, and there are available plans and blueprints on-line that will suit most people's needs and fit within their budget, or, that can be custom crafted into timber frame house plans of any size and layout desired.

Traditional timber frame homes, known primarily as Tudor homes ( half timbered buildings) were built with a solid flexible hardwood frame, which was usually oak. When the A-Frame is erected, locally found materials like wattle (made from branches and twigs), bricks, daub, and even animal hairs mixed with dung, etc., are used to fill in the gaps between the load bearing timber frames.

Today, the timber framed house is a skeleton of softwood, enveloped within other building materials like bricks and mortar. This helps in supporting and protecting the building's structure.

Timber, The Medieval Builder's Main Building Material.

Timber was basically all the medieval builder had to erect their homes, and wood was used for virtually everything that goes into a homes' construction. It is said that yesterday's timber is sort of the equivalent of today's plastic.

Timber was extensively used for:

• Gutters
• Drains
• Roof tiles
• Interior partitions
• Door and window frames
• A building's timber frame

Timber was such a valuable building material that house occupants most times will take their timber hardwood floor boards with them when they move house. Contrary to popular belief about timber frame homes being built using timber found in naval shipyards, timber was sourced from local forests which had an abundance of wood.

These forests supplied the locals with every thing they required, from willows, to weaves found between the timber frame panels. There was oak for the mighty posts, the sills, wall plates and the 'bressumers' of the timber frame itself. There was also alder poles for farmers' drains, and elm wood for the coffin makers.

The simplest timber frame homes were erected using pairs of curved timber or (crucks), starting out like the frame of an upturned boat. The design of the A-Frame timber homes was no coincidence because the timber frame tradition probably originated in Normandy, made popular by sea-faring Vikings  who, in the 9th century, beached their broad wooden boats at Northmannia, as the region was called then.

The Viking boat builders knew a lot about working with wood, judging from the fact that their main profession was ship building. These people knew how to hew a hardwood tree with a wedge and beetle, to form matching uprights for the cruck frame.

Once these frames were formed, thatch was used to cover the whole house, making it resemble a giant teapot cosy. The sides of the timber framed building may then be filled with coppiced staves woven into a wall which was in turn rendered using a mix of whatever was available around them, such as mud, daub, clay or domestic animals' dung mixed with animal hair.

A-frame timber homes are mostly known for a particular region, and are more common in certain regions than others. They usually invoke the ideal getaway cabin, holiday resort or mountain home where the home-owner can commune with natural settings.

But that doesn't mean there aren't timber frame houses in the suburban areas, desired by those living in the suburbs.

The timber frame homes were very popular in the 60's and 70's. The sleek and beautiful A-Frame home layouts set the standard for dramatic, contemporary vacation homes back then. These eco friendly timber frame homes are often constructed using cedar with a combination of natural stone to blend into a natural serene settings.

These A-shaped homes are named for their steep pitch of a two-sided roof line that extends right down to the building's foundation. They are a bit limited in living spaces with just a few vertical walls. They come as one-and-half or two storey buildings and offer open and inviting interiors with amazing soaring ceilings.

There are the masonry fireplaces and comfortable half floor lofts, 2 to 4 bedrooms with storage space at the attic (within the peak ), of the home. They come with wide decks and impressive ceiling high windows that open to the front and back of the building.

These homes are designed so the homeowner can take full advantage of a great view of a mountain, lake, wooded area or the ocean, depending on where the timber frame home is erected.

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• A-Frame House Plans

A-Frame house designs are a rustic yet refined choice for those who want to enjoy minimalist modern-style in a country setting.

Build the home you’ve always wanted from scratch.

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A-Frame house designs are a beautifully rustic but sophisticated choice for those who want to enjoy living a minimalist modern style, but with a country setting.

Today's softwood timber frame homes are like match wood when compared to the traditional timber framed house. Oak in many ways, is the perfect building material due to qualities it possesses. For example, if there is an unfortunate fire incident, there is a protective layer of charcoal that forms around the outer body of an oak beam which will delay damage to the timber's core. Whereas an unprotected steel beam will buckle  under intense heat, and this can bring the building down.

Modern wind tunnel tests have indicated that the half timbered frame (Tudor) is capable of standing up to a tornado's awesome might.

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For those still undecided on whether or when to take the plunge, it's encouraging to know that a lot of first time home buyers and many other prospective home owners will be on their way to building their own individual homes, when things start to improve with the economy generally.

And for those who've always wanted to self build their own timber framed homes from the ground up, there is tremendous savings in both costs and time by purchasing designs, estimates and complete blueprints of timber frame home plans on-line.

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