i am trying to restore and livein the old school house i bought but i can’t seem to find the right website for info on old school houses and possibly the framing of it because the previous people did some strucal things that are not structal sound and i need info on …. inthe one room school house you have your beams that span the building and in between them you have supports with a mortise cutout does anybody know what they are named or called
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I'm interested - a one room school house (brick) was the sales room at the big orchard - did a bit of work on it - (It was well and truly messed up over the years) -
but we need better info and hopefully a picture of two -
'supports with mortice cuttout' -
vertical posts with a mortice cut in them? - mortice for 45* bracing to prevent racking, maybe?
What part of the country are you in and when was the school built?
my home is a former 2 room stone school house built in 1873
when i bought it it was being used as a barn & came with about 200 rabbits
we gutted it and have turned it into a 2 floor 15 room home including a stone fireplace , 4 baths ( 2 full & 2 1/2 ) a 26 x 32 stone garage with loft storage
also i built a 30 x 40 barn with loft that i use as a office with also a shop and 4 stalls for the horses
the front of the barn is bricked to the peak ( 12 :12 pitch )
i bought a second all brick in a nearby town and renovated it also and sold it
in both buildings i raised the bottom cord of the trusses to give me 2 full height floors
the upper floors have opening skylights in the knees which are actually a part of the roof
the one i live in has a actual school bell in the bell tower now as it took me 30 years to find one as the origional was sold long ago
when people ask me why i bought a school i tell them its my way of getting revenge for the school system having flunked me years ago so i bought them out and butted them out
Need a bit more information about the place. Some of the other folks here have already asked about the location so I'll ask about the age, the size, the height and the exterior finish.
A lot of your answers will tell us what is there and what can be done. You mentioned a mortise joint so I'll make the assumption that the main structure is heavy timber (?). Is it brick or stone faced? Does it have a slate roof? Any existing interior rooms? How about the utilities? You can fill in the blanks from here =).
Hope to see some pictures.
ciao, ted
Depending on the age of the structure you may be able to find some original photos at your county historical society.
I have a book that shows almost all of thee original schools here in my county. Some interior shots, mostly exterior.
Many old schools were built without a set of prints , simply erected by the locals using what knowledge they had.
dohammer
It sounds like you have a timberframe. The mortice pockets are for rafters or braces.. There are several web sites devoted to timberframing. Go to those and see if anything looks similar.. If not there are several books at most libraries..
This is likely to be something someone will have a set of blue prints for you to copy..
For example my timberframe doesn't have blueprints.. I simply measure from here to there and filled in the required parts (and No I'd never built a timberframe before)
If you aren't handy seek someone who has experiance with timberframing.. If you are you should know that your source for wood will be the local sawmill Not a lumberyard! http://www.woodfinder.com or go to http://www.woodmiser.com to find a source for the wood you will need..