What is Grindbygg?

Grindbygg is one of more than 20 traditional Norwegian post or stav construction styles. Many grindbygg barns and other out-buildings were constructed in southwestern Norway from the 1500s through the 1800s. In the past 20 years there has been renewed interest in this unique construction style in Norway for carports, picnic shelters, woodsheds and other outbuildings. Using milled timbers and chainsaws for cutting joinery, a grindbygg can be constructed for comparable cost as a "stick-framed" structure.

Historical grindbygg structures are quite varied. The earliest known examples exhibit exquisite workmanship in the hewing of timbers and cutting of joinery. Others are quite crude, with rough hewing and joinery. There are also examples of the logs being left mostly round rather than hewn into timbers. This variability is also seen in the braces, with some straight and hewn and others curved and partially hewn. The curved braces provided additional headroom. Taking this further, root knees were used as bracing where maximum head clearance was needed.

Whether the workmanship was fantastic or marginal, the timbers hewn or left round, the joinery unique to grindbygg was maintained. The indicative feature is the "necked tying joint" where the post, tie beam and plate come together. It exhibits simple and efficient timber framing without any mortise and tenon joints. The series of slots, laps and notches are held tightly together by the force of gravity on the roof.