A cross section of Tammela from 1903 shows the
typical structures of a timber building. The foundation is made of
natural stone and the timber frame rests upon it. The attic has a
board structure.
Lock-jointed corner
Cross-jointed
corner
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The
wooden town is full of timber framed buildings
The houses of Old Rauma, with the exception of a couple of privately
owned buildings, the medieval church and the Old Town Hall, are wooden
houses. The majority of the houses have a timber frame. A good timber
frame is durable and lasts for centuries, if the roof does not leak
and dry
rot, the worst enemy of timber buildings, does not get a chance
to destroy the structure.
Does your house have lock-jointed or cross-jointed
corners?
The oldest way to join logs is the cross-jointed corner, in which
a short bit of the log face is left outside the notching. In town
houses cross-jointed corners have been encased and disguised in corner
pilasters when boarding the walls.
The lock-jointed corner became more common around the 1840s, as the
thin-bladed carpenter’s saw became more widely available. The
new, handy saw allowed the carpenter to notch the logs so precisely
that the notching locked up the corner, even though there was no log
face left outside the notching.
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