Garden retreat

I rather flippantly called this structure a ‘shed’ in my previous post, which does not really do it justice. Nestled at the back of the grounds, this is to be a garden retreat / man cave!  (one of three in the pipeline!).

tcback

The frame is what I would call ‘complete’, in that it has studs, curved braces, proper roof trusses (king post), purlins and common rafters, all from locally sourced green oak.

tcfront

There is one single large opening to allow access for larger items if need be. Not sure on the window arrangement as yet.

passingbrace

The frame is to be insulated, so the studs and the braces have been set in by 50mm to maximise timber on show and improve the insulation envelope. Shown above is the trenched studs to keep the braces flush on the outside.

longpegs

The oak pegs have been left long (normally they are cut off to ½” or so) as might be useful for hanging stuff! Once they are cut, it’s quite hard to make them long again!

cleat

A first for me are these cleats below the side purlins, probably a bit excessive, but a nod to the design in the house nearby.

A little more on detail.

For the scale, this frame has a spectacular amount of detail. So I thought I’d elaborate

scotches

The above workshop picture shows how the common rafters are connected to the wall plate. This type of joint (called a scotch) is typical in medieval roofs, but never before have I constructed a new frame with them. Due to the irregular dimensions of green oak, each rafter was uniquely cut to suit it’s housing.

grain

A close-up of one of the corner posts, once again one of the benefits of using locally sourced timber.

double

Another hidden detail is this double tenon in the extra wide (10″) sole plate. I hope this will restrict twist potential, plus it was more fun to cut!

timber

Finally a picture of how the timber comes  to the workshop. Note the ‘slabbed’ material to the bottom right ends up as braces.