Why was half-timbering such a common construction method in late

File: Mendel_I_039_r.jpg (348KB, 705x961px) Image search: [Google]

348KB, 705x961px

Wasn't it harder to make planks back then because saws were harder to come by? It's fairly easy to cut down trees and hew the wood with axes alone. Sawing the hewn wood would take an additional step.

>>3369246

they look wonky now centuries later, they didn't fucking chuck up wonky houses, we still use wood to build house frames now

>>3369246
They still stand don't they?

>>3369246
Because tax then was calculated to the square of the first floor.

>>3369677
I've read about this too, I wonder to which extent it's true though. It definitely makes more efficient use of space though as it allows for wider roads and more space at street level while making use of the otherwise unused space above.

File: Amriswil-Hagenwil-Weiherschloss.jpg (2MB, 1800x1200px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1800x1200px

>>3369246
>>Gaps between beams are filled with bricks, mortar, and plaster
Thats where you are wrong, the gaps where originally filled with wicker and mud and then plastered. .
Those houses where cheap and fast to build, and they withstood European weather for centuries. also, they are light, thats why they where often used for fantastic structures above solid stone walls

>>3369546
traditionally logs where hew, not sawed, old beams around here show they where made with axes only.

File: plovdiv-1712ds.jpg (145KB, 750x500px) Image search: [Google]

145KB, 750x500px

+ they are aesthetic as fuck. Same type of building just the majority of the beams are plastered over to give them extra protection

>>3369677
Why don't we do this now?

Because they're more A E S T H E T I C

so when you toss poop out the window it doesn't smear the walls

File: Fachwerk-meiningen002-2.jpg (319KB, 800x860px) Image search: [Google]

319KB, 800x860px

>>3369246
>Strong oak beams make sturdy, strong wooden frames
>Frames were often filled with woven wood and a clay-straw mixture (cob)
>These materials are very cheap or free
>Cob can fill any weird shape or angle
>Expensive bricks were mostly used by richer people who wanted to show off
>Oak is weather resistant will not rot in centuries as long as the roof is water proof
>Maintenance is mostly applying a new layer of chalk every few decades and renew the cobbing after a few centuries
>Many of them are still standing today, some as old as 1000 years

>why not lighter, cheaper wood
because the houses break after 100 years like in burgerland

>or just use brick
there are plenty of brick buildings
in some areas they were far more popular than timber frame

File: [Vivid-Taku] Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka S2 - 01v2 [6288ED4F].mkv_snapshot_03.07_[2017.04.27_17.07.32].jpg (203KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

203KB, 1280x720px

Because it is known that most Europeans are huge weebs.

>>3369677
During a period in France, taxes were calculated on the number of windows...

>>3371656
well, poor people couldn’t afford glas anyways

File: 1280px-Zwingli_Geburtshaus_2.jpg (332KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

332KB, 1280x960px

>>3371764
most rich people couldn't afford glass either, at least not during the medieval. Like only super rich people could afford glass windows. >>3371518
>because the houses break after 100 years like in burgerland
Not really there are very old wooden houses in the alps, It is just that wood, especially straight fir wood was historically way better available in the mountains.

File: IMG_0909.jpg (263KB, 695x420px) Image search: [Google]

263KB, 695x420px

>>3371380
>>3372360

>>3371656
That was a Dutch idea (explains the large windows in canal houses)

>>3369246
Because its sound engineering. The weight of the roof and the floors/ceilings is more evenly distributed this way.

>>3371573
Underrated

File: Demeures_médiévales_-_Paris_(France).jpg (3MB, 2304x3072px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 2304x3072px

>>3369246
Because it lasts. Evidenced by the large number of surviving examples.

Where I live they still regularly find houses with a wooden skeleton more than five centuries old which has had a brick facing applied. With proper maintenance timber framed houses will last centuries and in fact I reckon many of them will still be standing when American suburbs made out of dry walling and dinky two by fours have rotten away.

>>3372360
How pretty. As seen in Heidi.

>>3369246
>Why not just make the whole building out of lighter, cheaper wood or just use brick and have a structure that will last forever?

it's this kind of depraved hatred of the aesthetic that gave us brutalism and commie blocks, rethink your life lad

Comfy thread.
Saw a video about them that they were built like this also in the countryside so that the animals could be stored in the first level during winter and the owners could sleep above.

>>3371656
Britain had a window tax too, though it was centuries after the Tudor period

>>3371656
>>3372788
Do you have any references, stating the origin of this idea to be either French or Dutch?

As far as I know, it originated in England under William III.

>explains the large windows in canal houses
Eh... Because these "canal houses"/row houses are smashed together and so slim, there's only one good face to put windows on, so they maximized it.