I. Troy, lifted. Photo by Tim Sweeney

Sill Life with Woodpecker

Frames rot from the bottom up. Water condenses on the foundation and rots the sill from below, or enters at the eaves and runs down the wall framing, rotting the sill from above. Some sills are sunk by splash back. In the dead of night, sill rot can haunt you; it seems catastrophic. But rotten…

Roof framing, exploded

No Worms in this Birdsmouth

Last week, Arron and I saw a neat roof framing detail at a Greek Revival home in Brunswick.  The rafter was joined to the tie beam with a birdsmouth and pinned with a trunnel, the tie overlapped the plate and supported a flying purlin, and the plate ran past the gable end post to create…

In the shop, Seth fitting brace tenons

New Castle Gaze Bo

Preservation in the field can take many forms.  Most of the time, preservation is the most practical and reliable answer to a client’s needs, but there are times when pure preservation isn’t feasible, or reasonable (see Demeritt-O’Kane).  The New Castle Congregational Church and gazebo offers an alternate model.  The congregation has endeavored to preserve the…

O’Kane Notebook VIII: Joinery, Exposed!

On Friday, Scott finished removing the trim from the Pink Parlor, pictured above.  I had eagerly anticipated the joinery surrounding the fireplace, given our recent work on another fireplace surround.  The displaced surround, turned upside-down, is below: When I think about the era in which this house was built, in a relatively new country, with…

Carpentry Workshops at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village

For the third summer, the North Bennet Street School is collaborating with the Shaker Museum and Library to offer a range of workshops in preservation and traditional woodworking at Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, in New Lebanon, NY. A number of PTF employees graduated from the Preservation Carpentry program at North Bennet and can vouch for…