I’m in the process of renovating a house we just bought in upstate NY, a 175 yr old beast that has had many cobby things done to it over the years. The current question I’m confronting is the plank framing, something I’d never seen as a carpenter in Portland OR. I’m thinking that the planks aren’t structural, and instead fill in between a post and beam frame that carries the load. The planks are all 10-14 inches wide or so, and over 2 inches thick (!) but seem to be there just to fill in the wall. I haven’t gutted any exterior walls to the point of verifying this; anyone have any experience with this?
Also, in cutting a 4″ hole for the dryer vent, it seemed that there was a gap between the planks and the metal lath and stucco exterior. Battens maybe? How well do these types of walls insulate?
Any and all info is appreciated!
Matt
Replies
My c1840 post and beam house has the same planking. I've never considered it structural, though I do think that without it the structural beams on these houses might have sagged a bit, much like an old barn. I do not have your gap between my planks and the exterior surface. My exterior is lap siding and is nailed directly to the planks. Lath is nailed directly on the inside. I don't find that 2" of planking insulates as well as I'd like.
This will be our first winter in this house, so we'll see how much oil and wood we burn keeping warm. It seems like there is no real way to insulate such a wall.
I just looked up the R-Value of softwood, and one site has it at 1.25 per inch – not so good!
I have worked on a house with plank framing which was structural. You could see the through mortices of the second floor framing when the siding was off. There were also no indications of a post and beam frame visible on the inside. We did not insulate this house as part of our work but you could add foam insulation boards either inside or outside. In either case there will be considerable work involved but it may be easily done while you are doing other necessary work on the house.
What was mortised into what? How much of the framing did you see?
The floor joists were mortised into the planks. All I could see were the tenons from the outside of the house. I concluded that there was no timber frame because I could see no built up posts or corners under the plaster as you would normally find in a timberframe house. I have no idea what the top plate consisted of.
Howdy Matt,
An old girlfriend of mine bought a house in Courtney, B.C. on Vancouver Island. It is an old village, a mining town, and from her description of the house it was, like yours, a sort of plank construction. Apparently the entire street of miners houses was built with this unique method.
I have only visited her once and briefly, so didn't really check out the way it was done.
Not that I was checking out anything else at the time.
Anybody out there from Vancouver Island that can add to this?
The palnks ARE structural.
In the houses I have seen built this way, the Beams are supported by the planks.
Mianly the corner planks. Which are usually 16+ inches wide and nailed togther to form an L shaped post.
then the beams are spanned between the corners.
The joists run from beam to beam.
the outside (structural) walls are in-filled with planks in a kind of board on board pattern.
The big thick planks are nailed on the ousdie face of the beams and edge joists.
the inner planks are cut to sit under the beam and cover the gap between the outer planks.
l_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_l Like this the srot dashes being the inside of the wall.
The inside gets wood lathe and Horsehair plaster and the outside gets some kind of horizontal siding.
Basically tghe whole upstairs is supported by the nails holding the planks to the beams!!!
You will find (hopefully) alot of BAN's (BIG ARSE nails) holding things together
You may want to consider having a fire:)
Oh yeah! Where in upstate NY are you, Im' in Loverly Elmira, NY.
T
I can't afford to be affordable anymore
Edited 10/30/2004 8:22 am ET by Mr T
A fire? After this summer? That would take a motherin' large amount of gasoline, likely.
So it sounds like the infilled planks have only a secondary structural role. Do I read you right when you say that the corner planks are not actually under the beams, but instead are nailed to them from the outside? I mean, I've been finding some big cut nails here and there as I work, but nothing huge. The upstairs walls are stud framed, and sheathed with a lap siding of some sort, but I haven't seen how they land on the beam yet. (It's hard to resist the urge to demo everything simply to satisfy my curiosity.)
Your description may explain why the floors throughout the house have no pretense of being flat, and the walls are as plumb as those on a houseboat. This kind of thing used to drive me nuts, but I've come to accept it, and have put my faith in the massive fieldstone foundation, as well as the sheer force of habit that builds up in a house this old.
Myself, I'm in swell West Danby.