| TYPE OF FRAMING FOR COLONIAL OF FIRST PERIOD | BRACED FRAME AS DEVELOPED FROM NEW ENGLAND COLONIAL |
Even the custom of calling in the neighbors and feasting them when a house-raising was celebrated came directly from English traditions. The old post-and-truss construction of the early English houses required framing on the ground and then lifting into position afterward. Records show that the people from the surrounding countryside were called in to help, and their wages of hire were paid by the house owner with a huge feast. In early Colonial days the nearest neighbors were likewise called in to help raise the frame, and the host was supposed to feed the gathering, after the work was finished, and make a jolly party of eating and drinking—a sort of social debt, but not looked upon as wages, as in older days.
The hard climate which the earliest American colonists had to face and also the abundant supply of wood which lay at their very doors were factors which slightly altered the traditions of building. After the house had been framed and the spaces between the timbers filled with plaster or masonry, the exterior was covered over with clapboards or shingles as an extra covering against the weather. The use of clapboards or shingles as an exterior covering of course was not new, for many English farmhouses show that it was used in that country. But with this difference in exterior appearance, the framing underneath was the same as shown in [Fig. 7].
Revolt against New England Traditions
It was only a matter of time when the thinning-down process began to make itself evident in the traditions of Colonial carpentry, and from its clumsy beginnings it evolved into the more or less standard form of construction which we call the brace-frame.
The difficulty of securing good labor in the West, and also the increasing use of the power sawmill, made it possible and necessary to standardize a quick and easy method of building which would meet the great demand for houses in rapidly growing communities.
Quoting from the New York Tribune of January 18, 1855, we have a very interesting account of the conditions which were then prevalent that brought about this later variation of the wooden frame structure. The conditions there described seem almost like our modern difficulties with labor and materials.
“Mr. Robinson said: ... I would saw all my timbers for a frame house, or ordinary frame outbuilding, of the following dimensions: 2 × 8 inches; 2 × 4; 2 × 1. I have, however, built them, when I lived on the Grand Prairie of Indiana, many miles from sawmills, nearly all of split and hewed stuff, making use of rails or round poles, reduced to straight lines and even thickness on two sides, for studs and rafters. But sawed stuff is much the easiest, though in a timber country the other is far the cheapest. First, level your foundation, and lay down two of the 2 × 8 pieces, flatwise, for side-walls. Upon these set the floor-sleepers, on edge, 32 inches apart. Fasten one at each end, and perhaps one or two in the middle, if the building is large, with a wooden pin. These end-sleepers are the end-sills. Now lay the floor, unless you design to have one that would be likely to be injured by the weather before you get on the roof. It is a great saving, though, of labor to begin at the bottom of a house and build up. In laying the floor first, you have no studs to cut and fit around, and can let your boards run out over the ends, just as it happens, and afterward saw them off smooth by the sill. Now set up a corner-post, which is nothing but one of the 2 × 4 studs, fastening the bottom by four nails; make it plumb, and stay it each way. Set another at the other corner, and then mark off your door and window places and set up the side-studs and put in the frames. Fill up with studs between, 16 inches apart, supporting the top by a line or strip of board from corner to corner, or stayed studs between. Now cover that side with rough sheeting boards, unless you intend to side-up with clapboards on the studs, which I never would do, except for a small, common building. Make no calculation about the top of your studs; wait till you get up that high. You may use them of any length, with broken or stub-shot ends, no matter. When you have got this side boarded as high as you can reach, proceed to set up another. In the meantime other workmen can be lathing the first side. When you have got the sides all up, fix upon the height of your upper floor, and strike a line upon the studs for the under side of the joist. Cut out a joist 4 inches wide, half inch deep, and nail on firmly one of the inch strips. Upon these strips rest the chamber floor-joist. Cut out a joist 1 inch deep, in the lower edge, and lock it on the strip, and nail each joist to each stud. Now lay this floor, and go on to build the upper story, as you did the lower one; splicing on and lengthening out studs wherever needed, until you get high enough for the plate. Splice studs or joists by simply butting the ends together, and nailing strips on each side. Strike a line and saw off the top of the studs even upon each side—not the ends—and nail on one of the inch strips. That is the plate. Cut the ends of the upper joist the bevel of the pitch of the roof, and nail them fast to the plate, placing the end ones inside the studs, which you will let run up promiscuously, to be cut off by the rafter. Now lay the garret floor by all means before you put on the roof, and you will find that you have saved 50 per cent of hard labor. The rafters, if supported so as not to be over 10 feet long, will be strong enough of the 2 × 4 stuff. Bevel the ends and nail fast to the joist. Then there is no strain upon the sides by the weight of the roof, which may be covered with shingles or other materials—the cheapest being composition or cement roofs. To make one of this kind, take soft, spongy, thick paper, and tack it upon the boards in courses like shingles. Commence at the top with hot tar and saturate the paper, upon which sift evenly fine gravel, pressing it in while hot—that is, while tar and gravel are both hot. One coat will make a tight roof; two coats will make it more durable. Put up your partitions of stuff 1 × 4, unless where you want to support the upper joist—then use stuff 2 × 4, with strips nailed on top, for the joist to rest upon, fastening all together by nails, wherever timbers touch. Thus you will have a frame without a tenon or mortise, or brace, and yet it is far cheaper, and incalculably stronger when finished, than though it were composed of timbers 10 inches square, with a thousand auger holes and a hundred days’ work with the chisel and adze, making holes and pins to fill them.