We reached a major milestone this week at New Place; the erection of the huge timber frame of the new extension to Nash’s House. The frame was constructed off site, at a workshop owned by Nathan, one of the expert carpenters working with our contractors Splitlath. The timbers are enormous and as dry as we can get them, which made them very difficult to source.
Rather like a giant Meccano set, each of the 31 oak timbers were positioned to create the frame. Unlike Mecanno however, each connection is unique and every set of holes had to be drilled with total precision. Mistakes in such hard – to – find and expensive oak would have been a real headache.
A crane was needed to life the frame into place, all 25 tonnes of it. This meant flying timbers one by one over the Nash’s House roof line. A hairy manoeuvre, made all the more so with the additional challenge of the developing winds of storm Henry. Starting early on Monday we managed to get all of the frame up before the wind became too strong for the crane work.
The next couple of weeks should see the roof go on. Fingers crossed for good weather!