From: Mark & Shauna 
Newsgroups: alt.architecture alt.building.construction alt.building.realestate misc.consumers.house uk.d-i-y
Subject: Re: What's This Board?
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 17:49:36 GMT

V,
	Your posts make no sense. Virtually all tudor style homes built today 
(and there are many still built today and usually high end for that 
matter) use the methods you seem to prescribe as "shoddy". Your 
reasoning is flawed in that applying a decorative "half timber" over a 
flat wall is merely an evolution in efficiency and design just like 
window technology, sips, vinyl siding trying to look like wood, 
permatrim, and so on.
	In the days of true half timbering the joint between two dissimilar 
materials was always a point of problem as when a gap opened there was a 
penetration point _clear to the interior_ for wind, water, bugs, and so 
on. With the advent of new materials, more cash, it makes more sense for 
those who really love the Tudor style to clad the entire exterior with a 
weather tight "skin" and then merely apply the half timbering as a 
decorative element. This would even be true if you were building a 
timbered house. Today it would be far more energy efficient to timber 
frame the structure, clad the entire structure in stucco perhaps over 
sips, then recreate the internal structure on the outside with 
decorative elements. You would have improved immensely on the original 
design. Additionally with todays finishes, caulks, and sealants, the 
issues of adding faux decorative elements are far less of an issue.
	Using your logic, no builder, homeowner, designer, should bother adding 
a decorative crown element, dental molding, cove, on and on, in ANY area 
of the house as it is merely a decorative element and the surface "is 
what it is". On a soffit for instance the addition of a built up 
dental/crown detail should never be used as its shoddy or wont make it 
look better. Just accept the soffit as a flat piece of AC ply, paint it, 
and live with it.
	To use the example in the OP the poster has a Tudor style home which 
wasnt carried all the way around the house, no doubt to reduce costs. 
Now faced with large expanses of stucco on the three remaining sides 
they would rather carry the details _they like_ on the front around to 
the rest of the house. Where is the rub? The decorative details on the 
front are obviously what attracted them to the house in the first place, 
they are obviously not such a maintenance issue that they would never 
want the hassle again. In fact they are WANTING to add more! Cant be 
that ugly or bad can it? At least to the homeowner.
	Decorative elements are added to exterior surfaces all the time and 
_can_ easily be done in a way that will provide for years of service 
with reasonable to little maintenance.

Mark (not a fan of the tudor style but will gladly build the customer 
what they want)

v wrote:
> On 23 Jun 2004 11:27:55 EDT, someone wrote:
> 
> 
>>Mounting to stay is something else, especially over stucco.  Some
>>stucco you cannot even caulk onto as the caulk will not adhere.
>>......
>>If your trying to match REAL half-timbering and make imitated
>>half-timbering match it, it does become a little bit more involved...
>>
> 
> Dim, those were half of concerns I had in mind.  First, that putting
> fake "timbers" on a pre-existing flat wall was merely shoddy.  Second
> that it would not result in the wall looking substantially better
> anyway, now it would still a long wall but with fake timbers on it.
> There are some things about a house that are effective to make a
> meaningful change to, and others that are not.
> 
> Its your house so its up to you.  We each have our own opinions on
> matters of design and style.
> 
> -v.