oak frame completed at last

We have finally completed the oak frame for the back porch - still have the roof to put on it, but this is a start.  Most of the frame is either jointed or fastened together with oak pegs. We have found that any screws used to hold stuff together temporarily tend to shear off when we try to get them out again. Apparently this is because of the tannin in the wood.

I always imagined that oak frames would be fairly simple, but here is one-half of one the corner window sill joints. We have routed out a groove for the window units, and will fit the units so there is apparently no extra 'frame' showing, ie the window units fit directly into the oak frame. They won't, of course, but that is what it will look like.
The gaps under the window sills will be filled in with stonework to match the back wall of the house, which will also stabilise the whole structure. We are going to use slate paving slabs from the garden to lay on the floor.

oak posts and windowsills going up

We have cut the windowsills to fit into the notches on the upright posts for the first side.  Here is the first in position:

Then the second:

 

and the third:

 

 In the picture below, you can see the groove we have cut in each sill for the DGU windows. We will be using softwood packing, the thickness of the DGU, backed by a thinner piece of oak on the inside sides of each window. That way there will be no extra frame around each pane.

 Gertie has taken to sleeping on top of the tool shelves. When she wants to get down in the morning, she waits for Pete to supply a 'ramp' for her elegant descent onto his shoulder!

 

more oak frame put up

The oak posts for one side have been put up temporarily (three only shown here). They will need to be cut down to the right height and marked-up for the position of the windowsill pieces. This has to be done 'in situ' as the oak is changing shape just about by the day and no two gaps are the same. Each post is sitting on a nut and washer on a length of studding set into the concrete foundations (you can see the front corner one) to allow a bit of rotation to happen with drying out. This also keeps the wood off the ground and will allow a tiny bit of vertical adjustment if necessary. We have taken lots of advice from our friend John W. (ex building foreman for the Shakespeare birthplace trust before he retired to France), and who has probably forgotten more about oak construction than we will ever learn!

Pete sawing...

and me cutting one of the slots for the windowsill cross-pieces (not a bad tan for early June eh?). These will also be mortice & tenoned into the uprights. Next we will have to make lots of oak pegs to fix it all together... Don't use screws says John, they will fall apart in months, says John. So the whole edifice will be held together with oak pegs. I now need a piece of metal with a hole in it, the proposed diameter of the pegs, so I can hammer roughly-shaped bits of oak through it, to make the correct-diameter pegs - that's how its done!

See how wet the oak is once you get a centimeter-or-so into it!  Cuts like a dream though!
Its funny, but I'm really enjoying having a bit of interesting building work to do again. We are now talking about building a whole house using green oak one day perhaps, as it's such lovely stuff to work with, and relatively affordable, here in Brittany.
Keep looking - will update again soon.

re-start for the back porch

After a couple of years delay we have eventually found the time and funds to go ahead with the porch we planned in 2006.
Here we have close to two thirds of a cubic metre of green oak, which is more than ample for the frame, but because of the cutting required had to be that much - suggestions will be sought for the spare stuff later....
Pete hard at work measuring up. Not much to show yet but will keep progress updated.