House, Building a Medieval

Building a house (however small) with Medieval techniques and technologies is an uncertain business, timewise.

The actual building of the house; that is, the assembly of the pieces, did not take too long - for the frame. But fabrication of the frame was a lengthy process, from finding the right tree(s) to fabricating the lumber, to manufacturing the pegs and other fasteners, to milling the mortise and tenon and other joints necessary to timber-frame construction.

The major determining factor of time would be the actual size of the building under construction.

All of the fabrication and millwork time would vary dependent upon the location and quality of the available materials.

Skill and experience of the workers would play a large part in the fabrication and construction/assembly times, as well.

During the middle ages, sawing lengths was not feasible. Saws have been around, in one form or another, since the stone age (obsidian flakes in a wooden holder) but they were not useable for long rips.

Splitting was the primary method by which logs were formed into planking. Beams were manufactured by using axes and adzes to shape the log into a square or rectangular cross-section.

Finish work on the lumber was done with axes and draw-knives or spoke-shaves, as they were sometimes called, (and block planes, after their invention) taking a great deal of time, as well.

One point to remember is that there were rarely, if ever, people engaged in nothing but construction of houses (at least for the peasantry) and peasants had to build their own structures. Consequently, they had to keep the farm running, the animals fed, milked, etc. All while getting work done on the new construction.

When it came time to raise the building, they had to time it with the availability of their neighbors to come help. There were no cranes or winches to assist in the lifting of heavy loads. It was all ropes and muscle-power.

After the framework was up, the walls needed finishing. Whether cob (small bundles of wood/sticks/etc stacked in the bays of the timber-frame, or hay bale construction or wattle and daub, or a number of other methods.

As you can see in Tudor style construction, the 'fill' material was coated with a stucco-like material (sometimes even mortar) to make the bulk of the walls.

Additionally, the manufacture and glazing of the windows was an extremely time-consuming process - even if the 'glazing' was just waxed or oiled cloth or rawhide/leather. (Frequently were just holes with shutters)

Finally there was the roofing. Thatch is a time consuming process, but is all they generally used, though I think that chopping and splitting shakes was popular later in period.

I don't really have a realistic estimate of the time it would have taken to produce a Cruck House, but I hope I have given you some insight into the process of medieval timber-frame construction...

IS, Geoffrey MacLean