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Walked through an old church in Savannah and noticed something wild about the framing
I was in Savannah last weekend helping a buddy check out a historic church that's getting renovated. The place was built in the 1890s and I kept staring at the roof trusses. They used hand-hewn timber framing with mortise and tenon joints that are still holding perfectly after over 130 years. No metal fasteners anywhere in the main structure, just wood pegs driven through. The guy giving us the tour said those pegs actually swell up with humidity and lock the joint tighter over time. I never thought about wood expanding that way being a feature instead of a problem. Has anyone else worked on old timber frame buildings and noticed tricks like this?
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