"Timber Frame" Pavillion Advice

[HawkinsHollow]

For a long time I've said if I got my hands on a mess of pine logs I would mill myself up a bunch of chunky timbers to build a "timber frame" pavilion. Well, my buddy found a guy clearing some land of some really nice pine trees and the guy is hauling them to my friends for free.. They are dumping so much he is running out of room, so I am trying to convince him to send some my way.

This is my first pavilion. I am looking at some designs now, trying to decide between king post gable ends with a ridge beam and rafters vs. 4 or 5 beefy trusses and larger purlins. Also need to figure out how big I would want it. I can mill up to 22 feet on my mill. Any other design considerations I should think of?

How long can well covered and boracare sprayed pine timbers last? It could be 5 years before I can get to this, don't want all my hard work to go up in a cloud of sawdust.

I put timber frame in air quotes above because I am not sure how far I will go with the actual timber frame joinery.

Anything else I should consider?

 

[Rustyiron]

I would make big cants out of the logs as soon as you can and make a nice level spot to store them with big 4x4 stickers.
Getting most of the bark off is a good thing.
Top covering the pile with some old barn metal is another good practice for 5 years of storage.
Should be a fun project!

 

[Carl_NH]

When I had a bunch of pine and oak milled and knew I wanted to build with them I used this site to size my materials. 19x22 King Post Plan

A fellow brought a woodmizer 35 here and we milled all day and got a lot of beams, and 1xs cut, sticked and stacked. Use bigger stickers for separating the sizes so you can get forks in between several stacks is a lesson I learned.

As Rustiron says, build reasonably flat base out of three or four split logs, so you have 4 side access with forks as the pieces you want will first be at the bottom :-(

Then I built a simple frame sitting on the ground and stretched a 14x20 HD tarp over the frame and its still standing and covering some of the wood today.

If you don't have the time to mill it, at least get it off the ground and under cover.

 

[BlueKnife]

Anything else I should consider?

Something to think about when deciding between the two methods you mentioned is that, with the truss and purlin style, you don't have the header sticking down below the roof line inhibiting the view. Might not be an issue if it's high enough, but just something to keep in mind. It's also simpler to do a metal roof with that method. Metal roofs are the standard in my area, mainly due to wildfire risk, but they're a great option anywhere.