The Owner Built Home – Chapter 7: Wood Framing and Structure

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Ken's hand-drawn illustrations are found throughout the book. This depicts four possible approaches to wood framing.
Ken's hand-drawn illustrations are found throughout the book. This depicts four possible approaches to wood framing.
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Four more wood framing methods.
Four more wood framing methods.
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A simplified view of joisted vs plank & beam flooring.
A simplified view of joisted vs plank & beam flooring.
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A jig table makes framing interior and exterior wall panels easier.
A jig table makes framing interior and exterior wall panels easier.
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Some of Kern's illustrations are overly dense with detail. The patient reader will find useful information on platform, balloon, plate, and plant& beam framing.
Some of Kern's illustrations are overly dense with detail. The patient reader will find useful information on platform, balloon, plate, and plant& beam framing.
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Left: Wall of a cord wood house. Right: Illustration of the Lamella network.
Left: Wall of a cord wood house. Right: Illustration of the Lamella network.
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Illustration of the Rigid Frame, plywood dome, and stressed cover (skin) panel.
Illustration of the Rigid Frame, plywood dome, and stressed cover (skin) panel.

Ken Kern, author of The Owner-Built Home and Homestead, is an amazing fellow and everyone interested in decentralist, back-to-the-land, rational living should know of his work. Back in 1948 he began collecting information on low-cost, simple, and natural construction materials and techniques. He combed the world for ideas, tried them, and started writing about his experiments. We’re excerpting chapters from Owner-Built Home and Owner-Built Homestead. Here he considers wood framing and structure. — MOTHER EARTH NEWS


Why on earth do home builders continue to ignore the more rational approaches to structure? They ignore the “skeleton of the house” and go all-out for affectation and trimmings. Take frame houses, for instance. Conventional stud-walls are inefficient; while overdesigned they retain weak joints; both erection labor and materials are wasted; they offer maximum fire hazard; erection is slow and thus vulnerable to bad weather.

Extensive studies into the structural engineering of houses have been made by various private and government agencies. One government report, Strength of Houses, maintains:

Houses have never been designed like engineering structures. Since prehistoric times, safe house construction has been found by the tedious and wasteful method of trial and error. If the modern research that has proven so successful in the solution of other problems had been applied to houses, not only would homes be more satisfactory as dwellings but, much more important, the cost would be much less. This would be an outstanding contribution to the problem of providing acceptable houses for the low-income groups in this country.

  • Published on Jan 1, 1972
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