Raising day arrives

The culmination of all the hard work comes to the raising day, it's the most exciting and satisfying part of the project as we see the structure literally rise from the ground up! The big stack of timber delivered to site is assembled like a giant jigsaw or Lego kit but with hundreds of Oak pegs securing it all together instead.

Douglas-fir and small Oak frames usually go up simply by hand but larger Oak structures or anything awkward/high will require mechanical assistance on site. There are some great pieces of equipment which can be used before a crane would be needed, it's all relative to the size of the project.

Piece by piece

In English timber framing we often assemble from the ground up, one timber at a time in a carefully planned out procedure until all of the cross-frames are complete. If the timbers are too large for manual handling and a crane is available, some pre-assembly will be done on the ground so larger sections can be lifted into place as sub-assemblies.

Topping out

The topping out ceremony is a tradition marking the completion of the frame raising, when the highest point is reached. It dates back to ancient times, when placing a tree on a new building was meant to appease spirits or celebrate the community effort. We follow that tradition today, usually a small branch of the tree species used in the frame is nailed to the top paying homage to the trees that have been used in the construction.