old house - planked walls & doors

[Ashful]

I'm looking for photo examples of old (pref. 18th century) vertical wood planked walls, and in particular doors. I have a room above the garage in the new addition to our old house, in which the previous owner or builder framed and walled around an HVAC air handler, leaving an odd cubby which I plan to turn into a cupboard. Since my full woodshop is not yet set up, I decided I'd do this as plain T&G with bead planked doors, rather than M&T raised panel doors. That's not out of place here, as some of our other doors (particularly in the basement) are planked.

I'm thinking of doing the doors and the surrounding wall area in T&G planking, and haven't decided on how to handle the door casings, if I even add any. I figure they could be applied on top of the planking, or set flush with the planking, even having tongues on the ends of the planking the fit a groove in the casing, if I do so. Just looking for some photos, so I can gauge what might look most fitting.

Thanks!

 

[gzecc]

I find it best to get some of the materials and mock it up by phyisically holding it up in the area your planning. You'll see the issues that way. You can discuss it forever and not see certain issues.

 

[Ashful]

No issues here, as I've built many a door and cabinet. Just a stylistic question.

I did find some photos of a ca.1780 planked wall with doors in a house we were evaluating for purchase a few years back. It had casings around the door, but they were set flush with the planking. That might become our model.

 

[NE WOOD BURNER]

I visit local heritage museums. Strawberry Bank in Portsmouth, NH. you can walk the line in Boston and see all the old places there. I would think you should have something of the sorts in Philly. Bed and breaksfasts also are usually tastefully modernized old structures

 

[Ashful]

There are a bunch in Philly, but hoping to get this done this week, and won't have a chance to get down to the city any time real soon. However, I did find this is my personal collection, which I had forgotten about.

 

[NE WOOD BURNER]

Quick internet search of vt/nh B&Bs may have pics of rooms. Plank doors are simple. The casings I have run into on old homes are many times very custom and different sizes not standard. flush trim usually had plaster behind boards on wall not always though.

 

[Ashful]

Yeah, that's similar to what we have in our own house (1770's). Unfortunately, all our doors (planked or otherwise) are set in plaster walls. We have some planked walls in the 1773 portion of the house, but they're all hiding behind newer 1820's plaster work, so I can't see how the door frames were treated on those.

I started framing this cupboard when I got home from work. Current plan is to have a casing around the door set flush with the paneling on wall and door. I'll run a bead around the casing for detail, groove the edge of the casing and tongue the end of each vertical plank above the door where it meets the casing. I'll also put a tongue / stub mortise on the end of the top and bottom casing, rather than full M&T, since I don't really have a heated shop to work in right now. I can do router work (tongue and groove, beading, etc.) right in the room where I'm doing the install, which is currently heated.

 

[NE WOOD BURNER]

Just remember to not get to carried away with the new tools. They where limited on tools back in the day. KISS principal with the old stuff

 

[Ashful]

All of the best furniture in the world was built back in those days! They had no shortage of capabilities... just had to use more manpower and less electrons. Young strapping apprentices came in handy for material prep., leaving the master carpenter to his joinery work.

 

[NE WOOD BURNER]

Young strapping apprentices came in handy for material prep

This is a problem for every trade today. I was fortunate to provide my labor for many trades as a child and much of what I learned is just becoming valuable now. Wisdom is impossible to hand down through an xbox. If the kids want to work very few will hire.

 

[jharkin]

Not sure if this helps, but here are some photos of the T&G planked wall in my stairwell. The panneling just buts up to the back of the door casing at the bottom of the stairs.

 

[NE WOOD BURNER]

Looks like the paneling went up in the high traffic areas most likely years after of the door. Door and window trim sometimes difficult to deal with when transitioning newer work with old based on time involved to rip it out and make perfect. Looks like you have lots of leeway as far as how to meet the trim.

 

[jharkin]

In all my tours of museum houses Ive seen more planked walls the older the house was and the less grand/wealthy it was. I believe it was a lot easier and cheaper to slap some rough boards up than to bring in the plasterers. In houses from the 1600s you see many rooms that are entirely planked. In the late 1700s you dont see much planking but you do see a mix of ornate wood paneled walls and plaster. In the mid 1800s its mostly all plaster with wainscoting and maybe paneling around fireplaces.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks, Jeremy! Would love to see a shot of the door at the top of the stairs, if you get a chance.

 

[jharkin]

No door at the top, it just opens up into a bedroom loft-style. As best I can tell this was originally unfinished attic space, and was finished only in the 1950s.

 

[Ashful]

Oh, I thought I had seen some black iron door hardware at the top of the stair on the left, in the first photo.

 

[jebatty]

In 100 years I can send you a picture of our old house planked floors: two large rooms with 16" and 18" wide white pine plank flooring and one large room with 12" wide white pine plank flooring. All planks were from trees I cut on our land, sawed with my Woodmizer, dried in my solar dry kiln, planed on my 24" Jet planer, and installed by myself. In one room the planks are butted and nailed to the subfloor with square head nails; in the other two rooms the planks are butted and screwed to a Dricore base floating floor over concrete.

 

[ChipTam]

I'm looking for photo examples of old (pref. 18th century) vertical wood planked walls, and in particular doors. I have a room above the garage in the new addition to our old house, in which the previous owner or builder framed and walled around an HVAC air handler, leaving an odd cubby which I plan to turn into a cupboard. Since my full woodshop is not yet set up, I decided I'd do this as plain T&G with bead planked doors, rather than M&T raised panel doors. That's not out of place here, as some of our other doors (particularly in the basement) are planked.

I'm thinking of doing the doors and the surrounding wall area in T&G planking, and haven't decided on how to handle the door casings, if I even add any. I figure they could be applied on top of the planking, or set flush with the planking, even having tongues on the ends of the planking the fit a groove in the casing, if I do so. Just looking for some photos, so I can gauge what might look most fitting.

Thanks!

In Newfoundland (where I have a summer home) most of the 19th century houses had planked walls. In Newfoundland, it's called "full-studded construction". Random width planks roughly 2" thick are assembled edge to edge to form walls. The planks are usually connected at the edges with thin splines. The walls were generally not plastered but rather were covered with multiple layers of wallpaper. As you can imagine, these walls are difficult to repair when you get a bit of rot at the sills. Also, since there's no such thing as stud cavities with these walls, running electrical and plumbing usually means putting up a false wall to hide utilities. If I remember correctly, door casing was usually applied to the plank wall and sat proud of the wall. These walls are an interesting example of early building construction but, I must say, I was glad not to have to deal with them during major restoration work on my own home. For my part, I was lucky to discover that my own 1880-era home presented an early example of balloon-framing.

ChipTam

 

[jharkin]

Oh, I thought I had seen some black iron door hardware at the top of the stair on the left, in the first photo.

Funny story. My wife wants to repaint those stairs. I just walked in from work "Hon, I was googling for back staircases in old cape houses to get paint color ideas. I saw one that looked exactly like ours!.... You know you need to answer that guy Joful's question."


She asked me to tell you the iron hardware is on the cabinets that are at the top of the stairs along the kneewall

 

[Ashful]

Well, I ended up buying some 1 x 6 stock, and spent a little time Saturday milling tongue and groove and beading on it. I accidentally bought a 3/16" radius beading bit (meant to buy 3/16" diameter bead), but decided to give it a whirl anyway. The beading is larger than I'd prefer (doesn't look "old"), but this is just a practice studio above the garage, so it's overkill either way.

One thing I realized, after I cut open the walls, ran electric, patched the walls, installed baseboard, and installed chair rail... is that I forgot to pull wiring from one side of the room to the other to power speakers/monitors. It's insulated with batts all 'round, so fishing wire will be a challenge. Carpet's not in yet, so I may be pulling some subfloor. I hate cutting the T&G off plywood subflooring, but I think it'll have to be done, this time.

 

[Ashful]

Well, just for follow up, here's what I did. This is just the attic room above the garage, which I finished as a place for a drum kit, and other noise. So, nothing special, but I want it clean and neat, nonetheless.

All was made from 1x6 pre-primed planks. I did the beading and T&G on a portable router table, and all other work on a radial saw, since my shop is still not set up and running.

 

[arbutus]

The family cabin that my great grandfather built had vertical 4/4 rough beech inside. Door and window jambs were flush with the face of the planking and trim was face nailed over both.


Nice work!