Tag: roundwood timber framing

using round wood to timber frame a natural building.

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Debarking Cedars, Oaks, and Madrones

After we cut the timbers, the next task was to debark them.  We had a small window to accomplish this.  Most conifers have lots of moisture under their bark at the end of spring.   After the last rain, your clock starts ticking.  In most parts of the northwest, you will be able to debark relatively easy until mid June and if your lucky mid July at the latest.

Debarking a Cedar after spring rains is fast and easy

The other thing to remember is that once you cut down your timber, its best to debark the tree right away.  The longer you wait, the more the sap will dry, and the harder it will be to debark.  We had a chance to debark a tree that we cut down a week before, and one that we cut down the same day.  I will never wait more than a few days again.  It was 10 times faster to debark the same day, and in most cases, we were able to pull the bark off in one long piece from top to bottom.  In fact we made a slide out of them.  When debarking cedars and madrones don’t wait more than a week after cutting them down.  Debarking an oak, is best done within a few days of cutting it down.   In the order of easiest to hardest, madrones are the easiest, then cedars, pine, doug-firs, and the hardest are the oaks.  Even when the oaks are freshly cut, it takes a lot of energy.  But it’s well worth it.

Oak tree after it’s been debarked, you can see the stringy lines, it looks and feels a bit hairy. Nothing a sander can’t fix after it dries.

Oaks are different, you will need the flat bar to be a bit sharper, and you will just shave small pieces at a time.  The under coat of the oak is stringy, so be prepared to use your gloves to pull the strings off once you are done.  The oak will need to be sanded once it dries, so do the best you can while it is still wet to save time once it dries.

A flat bar, a small hammer, and gloves are the best tools to use when debarking a tree.  You will need to use the hammer and the flat bar at the end points to get the bark started, but then your hands and gloves will do the rest.  After you get used to it, you will be able to pull a long piece of bark from one end to the other.

Wesley sliding down several long strips of cedar bark that came off in long strips. The sap on the bark was very wet, and made it easy to slide down hill.

The next step after you debark is to use vinegar water, in a 1 to 5 ratio, (one part vinegar to five parts water.) Spray on the vinegar solution once the tree has been debarked.  This will clean off most of the sugars found in the sap, and will protect it from dry rot and mildew. Another way to avoid dry rot and mildew is to get the trees off the ground.  You can sticker them with other logs.

Miguel, Wesley, and Pablo relaxing after debarking and cleaning off the sap from the Cedar trees

Words of caution, don’t use a sharp chisel to debark, or a draw knife unless you are being very careful.  When using a flat bar, don’t press too hard on the tree, it will scar it.  Let the end of the bar and your hands do the work.  If you do scar it, it’s okay, you can sand it out later.  But the less sanding the better.  The wood is beautiful as is, the less you need to sand, the more it’s natural beauty can shine.  Other natural builders use wooden knifes to debark.  I’ve heard that wooden knifes scar less, but I haven’t found that to be true.  Anything sharp, will scar it.  It’s all about being careful.  I prefer the metal bar because I don’t have to take time to make a wooden knife and the thin handle of the flat bar makes it easy to use.

Till next time……..

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Sourcing Round Wood Timbers From the Forest

It’s been several months since I’ve written.  The main reason is because we were overwhelmed working on the natural building, and hosting the many great souls that joined us this summer.  Anyway, now that our building season is over, I would like to take this time to fill you in on all the events and processes during our last three months.  Let us start at the beginning.  The week of May 22nd.

The first week started off with the arrival of Miguel, our first 2012 apprentice.  He was joined by Wesley a week later.  The weather was great, not too much rain, not too cold, and not too warm.  

Miguel after debarking one large cedar tree

The main task during our first weeks was to source the lumber for the timber framing, so the timbers would have 60 days to dry before we put them up.   We spent three days in the forest shopping.

Shopping in the woods is one of my favorite things to do.  There is nothing like walking into the woods among the giant oaks, doug firs, ponderosa pines, madrones, and cedars… all the while respecting the poison oak’s space on the forest floor. 

Shopping in the woods, Cedars, Oaks, Doug Firs, and Madrone trees

The objective was to source only the trees that were crowding an older tree, giving the established trees room to grow.   The other objective was to make sure that when we cut the tree down, there would be the least amount of damage to the forest.  We needed to make sure that we were not going to take down large branches from older trees, or damage any smaller trees on their way to maturity.

We were fortunate enough to locate several cedar trees in two locations not too far from a road on the property.  Felling trees near road access is helpful so that we cause the least amount of damage dragging the tree out from the forest.

After we sourced over 40 trees, we sat down and went over our shopping list to make sure we had everything we needed and more. Then we walked around the property and made sure that the trees we picked were okay to cut.  After the final approval, we started harvesting our timbers for the project.

After cutting down the cedar it is best to debark them right away
A tall cedar grown on the north side can generate two posts and a rafter
Get the most out of one tree; find long trees that can give at least 3 usable timbers

We started with the largest cedars, because we found that these conifers will yield at least 4 logs per tree.  Once we finished harvesting these larger cedars, we reassessed our shopping list and started harvesting the next largest trees.  The idea was to harvest the cedars that yield at least 3 usable per tree.

The other task we did the first week was to assemble the two inch water line to the building site.  Because California building codes now require water sprinklers to be installed in any new building, we needed to make sure there was enough water getting to the site.  A two inch water line is what they recommend to be compliant.

Stay tuned ……

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This Year’s Natural Building

The idea of this year’s natural building project hatched many, many months ago.  Since then we have been working tirelessly as a group to finalize the design, so we can start building this season.

We first started with the idea of building a cluster of detached bedrooms with a shared bathhouse and a separate common building with a kitchen, dinning room, and lounge.

The idea was to build in phases, first starting out with the bathhouse. as shown below.

The Bathhouse included 3 showers, and 4 bathrooms, (Drawing created in Google sketchup)

We went to the county planning office to see if we could do this, and they said, “no.” The main building has to be attached to the bathrooms and the bedrooms, otherwise they would each be considered separate dwellings, which we couldn’t do on this particular parcel of land.

So we all went back to the drawing board and came up with a design for an organic shaped community building that could be built in phases, but then there were some concerns about the roundness.  The reason argued against a rounded building was that cabinets and furniture would be harder to fit, and would need to be custom made.  Also squaring off the corners increases the square footage and makes it more affordable to pour a concrete stem wall, which will be required when building to code.

One of the second generation designs, you can see the squaring starting to come forth.

These are all valid reasons, but from our experience a well designed organic shaped building feels bigger and is more functional. Especially if the custom cabinets, built in’s, and furniture are designed to optimize the available space.  It was also suggested that we use prefabricated conventional building materials, like trusses, plywood, and sheetrock, to speed up the construction and make it easier to budget the costs.

Third generation design, the squaring off is more prevalent

In the end, we had to pick our battles and decided to focus on using as much natural materials as possible and compromise on a more conventional shaped building.  After all, who would want to come and learn how to build a standard conventional building with some straw and cob here and there.  Not us!

After many discussions and drawings we were able to collaborate on a design for the community living space that works for everyone.

Hopefully in future building projects we can find opportunities to demonstrate the practicality, beauty, and benefits of building with more organic shapes.  For now, we are excited to be creating a beautiful building with roundwood timbers from the land, strawbales from the valley, and clay from the building site.

The next step was to find an engineer that works with natural materials.  I contacted SunRay Kelly, one of the most renowned natural builders on the west coast, and asked him who he uses?  Bonny his partner, gave us a name, Jennifer Anthony, with Fearless Engineers.  She specializes in working with natural builders, and has been great to work with.

She has been helping us with the structural aspects of the building, as required by our building department.   Here are some of the newest drawings, sketched by Alex Forrester, the master planner for the Ananda Village, and our number one supporter.

The above drawing is an illustration of a schematic plan view from the top.  Most of us can’t do a drawing like this, so if you want to build to code, I highly suggest that you work with an architect, or an engineer that can also do drawings.  The Natural Living School will show you how to illustrate your ideas so a professional can covert them into data that the county will accept.

For me, one of the many things that will make this building exciting to work on is the timber framing.  We will be using beautiful oak trees to create the curved crooks that will be holding up the ridge beam.  All of the timber framing will be exposed either to the inside or the outside, and will include red cedar, doug fir, and black oak trees.

We will also be using milled lumber for the purlins, sheathing, and tung and grove ceiling.  The above drawing shows the high roof framing for the great room. This room will be the main dinning area and also be used for yoga, music, and educational talks.

The above drawing shows the framing for the west side, which is similar to the east side.  They are the two lower roof sections on the plan drawing.  The kitchen will be on the east side, and the lounge will be on the west side.  The north will have the bathrooms, storage areas, and possibly bedrooms.

The sketchup drawing above is an example of the high roof section with the two lower roofs on the wings.  The high roof will actually be lower than in the image.

We are now in the process of redesigning the interior of the building to make accommodations for a communal kitchen, dining room, lounge, and bathrooms.  The building is called Hyranyaloka, which comes from the “Autobiography of a Yogi,” by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Stay tuned, we will update you as the approval process continues.

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