fachwerk building

Isaac Kremer/ September 9, 2018/ / 0 comments

A distinctive addition to the 19th-century frontier landscape of Wisconsin and Texas, where Germanic settlers homesteaded, was the small farmhouse built of Fachwerk, or half-timbering. Fachwerk consisted of a braced timber frame, usually of white oak or cedar, set on a squared timber sill over a fieldstone foundation. The open framework was filled with an insulation of mud and straw, sandstone, or nogging (kiln-fired brick). A coat of adobe or lime plaster was often applied over the walls, but the Fachwerk might also be left exposed. (Carley, 1994)