Once again, the weather this month has been changeable and unseasonable, though that seems to be the case so often these days, perhaps we should reconsider what is "seasonable"!

Anyway, today sees us in bright sunshine working on a large bungalow frame for a client in Hertfordshire that is due to be delivered to site later this month.

© Mark Simpson, Structural Timber Design

This particular frame is "U" shaped with the front frame having two wings extending to the rear.

This frame has 10 cross frames and an interesting quadrant detail where one of the wings meets the front frame.

© Mark Simpson, Structural Timber Design

We are dealing with over 300 pieces of timber that have a combined weight of about 20 tons. It will take about 4 weeks to cut, fit and stack the frame ready for delivery to site.

Here you can one of the cross frames being cut and fitted in our Yard. Each frame is identified by a number. You can see the metal framing pins used to hold the timbers in place while fitting the timbers to check the measurements.

Typically, the Cross Frames are numbered sequentially 1, 2, 3 and so on along the length of the building. Each timber and joint is further marked, so that once the timber arrives on site, we can tell exactly where each timber goes and which other timbers it will join with.