Four Basic Timber Home Terms to Get You Started

Serving as the “legs” of the timber frame, their names include principal posts (used at the corners) or king, queen and crown posts, to name just a few. Each has a specific role to support other beams or trusses. For example, a Samson post, supports the intersection of four horizontal upper story beams. A joweled post (also called a gunstock post) is fashioned from a whole tree turned upside down to utilize the natural flare of the trunk.

 

The kind of structural support your design requires, as well as personal preference, will determine your home’s truss system. A triangle is the simplest form of truss, but its use is limited to smaller buildings. Adding a king post in the center allows for a wider span. Queen-post trusses, in contrast, look like a rectangle within a triangle. The dramatic hammerbeam truss is used to span large interior spaces and enables ceilings to soar.

 

When trusses are combined with the vertical posts and horizontal beams, they’re called bents. Bents form the basic cross-section of a timber frame and give it the strength it needs to carry structural weight.