DIY Network

Post & Beam: David Ely's Home From "Assembly Required" episode DASR-107

In this episode of Assembly Required, a prefab post and beam kit helps a New England crew battle the elements and has one family deciding if prefab is the way to go for their new Vermont home. Meet builders who specialize in post and beam construction and see how they overcome challenges to stay on schedule.

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

David Ely’s Home

David has high hopes of building a rustic barn-like home on his New Hampshire land. He decides to go the prefab route to speed up the building process, but its winter time in New England and that means frigid temperatures. Fortunately, David’s hired crew from Millstream Structures is up for the challenge. Foreman Brian Bellavance has mastered the ins and outs of prefab post and beam houses, having spent the past 15 years building them. Brian’s crew doesn’t stop for weather – they just shovel, scrape and keep moving.

The components for David Ely’s house were cut in the Yankee Barn factory just up the road and shipped to the site for the build (figure A). In the early days, post and beam construction meant a long, labor intensive build by hand with axes and chisels. Beams and posts were fastened together with handmade wooden pegs. Today, that old world charm gets a modern makeover with the help of mechanical fasteners. In other words, these guys use large spikes to fasten the notched pieces together. Some of the Douglas fir posts and beams were salvaged from old mills and factories throughout the United States (figure B). Yankee Barn Homes purchases the antique materials and re-saws the lumber for their barn-style homes (figure C).

RESOURCES :

Yankee Barn Homes
Website: www.yankeebarnhomes.com

Millstream Structures
E-mail: mss.inc@adelphia.net

The Studio
Website: www.thestudioatmadriver.com