Residential Construction With Timber Framing in Australia
Each construction of a timber-framed house in Australia starts with the following components:
1. Brick piers - the brick pierce would normally be built on top of concrete pad footings, and they'll be built to a certain height so that the floor framing can sit level on top.
The pierce will typically be built in rows, about 1800 millimetres apart, and sometimes they'll be extra pierce for heavier loads that are coming down through the walls of the building. Ant capping on top of the piers is required in most Australian states for termite protection.
3. Bearers are timber beams that are placed on top of the piers. The piers and bearers are placed around 1800mm and span 1800mm. Bearers with this span might be an F11 on seasoned hardwood and 175 by 50-millimetre size, but several different stress grades and size combinations are possible.
4. Joists are placed on top of the bearers; the joists will be placed closer together than bearers because they have the flooring on top and the flooring tends to have a lower spanning capability. Joists will be placed 450 or 600 millimetres apart. And because they span between the barriers, they have a span of around 1800 millimetres. In wet areas where compressed fibre cement is used or CFC the joists might need to be placed closer together. Because of the extra weight, the flooring is placed on top of the joists. It might be particleboard flooring, for a carpeted floor or floating floor finish, or it might be tongue and groove flooring. The subfloor and the floor framing, create a subfloor space, which is very useful for maintenance for termite inspections, and for ventilation of the subfloor space. If the house is built on a slab on ground, then the slab itself will form the floor, and a carpet finish or a floating floor finish might be placed directly onto the slab.
5. The walls are constructed next. Wall frames consist of slender columns, called studs, which are held together by bottom and top plates. In between the studs, we have noggins which helped prevent the studs from buckling under loads coming down from the roof. When an opening is required, such as for a door or a window a lintel will be used to span the opening and take loads down from the roof.
A lintel will generally be the largest size than the top plate, because of the extra load it has to carry. Often on either side of the opening extra studs will be required to take the loads. Most residential buildings these days with timber frames have prefabricated roof trusses, which are a more economical alternative.
6. The main components of timber roof are the rafters, the ceiling joists and the ridge board. There are also other members that form the shape of the roof, such as the hip rafter, the valley rafter, and various other shortened sectioned draft sections.
There may also be roof members that assist in support of the roof, such as under purlins struts, struts and strutting beams and hanging beams that help to support the ceiling joists.
For high quality frames and trusses for your residential construction in Sydney visit ABC Frames and Trusses, 4/14 Anne Street, 2670 St Marys, NSW.
Source: Tafe Western Sydney Institute
