Ok, I’m still waiting on receiving some of the many photos that were taken during the reciprocal roof-raising the other day, so I’ll wait on the ultimate rundown of the details of that day and the frame itself.
Though I will say that things are now progressing again. I am using the original poles as secondary rafters, one between each main pair. That means I will have a total of 28 trees sitting on my cob walls! Yikes.
That makes me wonder how much wood goes into a traditional gable roof. Granted these are very small trees, and you would hardly get but a couple of 2x4s from each were they to be milled, but still…. 28 trees sounds like a heck of a lot wood. It’s weird to translate pole wood to milled lumber construction.
Also, I want to say I am now a big fan of black locust. It is an incredibly hard wood and very rot-resitant. It is something of a “weed tree” (farmers usually like to get rid of it), and it grows quickly and easily. The bark is very thick but incredibly easy to peel off, and because black locust oftentimes has few knots, the peeling is just that much easier, too. Black locust is solid. Also, it smells almost like green beans when you strip the bark.
I wish we had some black locust around here, it sounds beautiful. I wouldn’t feel too bad about using trees. You saved a lot of trees by not building a plywood framed stick frame with suspended, wooden floor. We have to use some wood, especially for the roof, and we should. We use what’s available. I’m using reclaimed/salvaged lumber because that’s what I’ve been able to score. It might not be enough, however…
Cool interview.
Brian I’m so impressed! Great interview on blogosphere–I think this blog is going to be hugely popular. Get ready for questions from all over the place!
Cheers,
Suzanne