The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2011-12-01 16:54:08 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
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German to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Architecture / historical account of a North German town | | German term or phrase: Schwellmauer | From pictures with mono-lingual captions, it seems to be the low wall on which a timber-framed construction stands. It is used in a description of a site near the river where there were formerly half-timbered houses.
An diesen neu befestigten Uferrändern ließen sich vor allem kleine
Handwerker nieder. Zahlreiche Schwellmauern und Pfostensetzungen zeugen von
einer damals großen Dichte kleiner Fachwerkbauten.
Many thanks for any help.
Anne |
|   anne macKudoZ activityQuestions: 3 (none open) Answers: 7
| | Local time: 03:56
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| | foundation wall | Explanation:
If the picture really shows a stone wall and no wood then..
Old buildings had a masonry foundation, usually stone masonry (foundation stones).
http://www.world-housing.net/whereport1view.php?ID=100106
and this from Helen's quote seems also to suggest foundation as the the stone wall on which the wooden beams are attached:
Structural sills are the beams that rest on the foundation to which the rest of the house, or barn, is attached. |
| Selected response from:
anne pincus
Local time: 03:56
| Grading comment Many thanks for the trouble you have taken on this. The photos clearly show a STONE/MASONRY wall on which the wooden structure sits, so this seems to make perfect sense. Thank you
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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| Discussion entries: 0 |
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15 mins confidence: 
12 hrs confidence:  peer agreement (net): +1 foundation wall
Explanation:
If the picture really shows a stone wall and no wood then..
Old buildings had a masonry foundation, usually stone masonry (foundation stones).
http://www.world-housing.net/whereport1view.php?ID=100106
and this from Helen's quote seems also to suggest foundation as the the stone wall on which the wooden beams are attached:
Structural sills are the beams that rest on the foundation to which the rest of the house, or barn, is attached.
| anne pincus
Local time: 03:56
Meets criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:  English
PRO pts in category: 8
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| | Grading comment | Many thanks for the trouble you have taken on this. The photos clearly show a STONE/MASONRY wall on which the wooden structure sits, so this seems to make perfect sense. Thank you |
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28 mins confidence: sill beam
Explanation:
I think this would fit, but someone with specific experience of this type of building may know better. Nonetheless, from descriptions such as those below, it would seem to be fitting:
Timbers
Historically, the timbers would have been hewn square using a felling axe and then surface-finished with a broadaxe. If required, smaller timbers were ripsawn from the hewn baulks using pitsaws or frame saws. Today it is more common for timbers to be bandsawn, and the timbers may sometimes be machine-planed on all four sides.
The vertical timbers include posts (main supports at corners and other major uprights),
Wall studs (subsidiary upright limbs in framed walls), for example, close studding.
The horizontal timbers include sill-beams (also called ground-sills or sole-pieces, at the bottom of a wall into which posts and studs are fitted using tenons),
noggin-pieces (the horizontal timbers forming the tops and bottoms of the frames of infill panels),
wall-plates (at the top of timber-framed walls that support the trusses and joists of the roof).
When jettying, horizontal elements can include:
the jetty bressummer (or breastsummer): the main sill (horizontal piece) on which the projecting wall above rests and which stretches across the whole width of the jetty wall. The bressummer is itself cantilevered forward, beyond the wall below it.
the dragon-beam which runs diagonally from one corner to another, and supports the corner posts above and supported by the corner posts below.
the jetty beams or joists which conform floor dimensions above but are at right angles to the jetty-plates that conform to the shorter dimensions of "roof" of the floor below. Jetty beams are morticed at 45° into the sides of the dragon beams. They are the main constituents of the cantilever system and determine how far the jetty projects
the jetty-plates, designed to carry the jetty beams. The jetty plates themselves are supported by the corner posts of the recessed floor below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_framing
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Note added at 30 mins (2011-11-27 19:00:30 GMT)
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Sill Beam Replacement: Structural problems for old homes often begin at the sill level.Structural sills are the beams that rest on the foundation to which the rest of the house, or barn, is attached.They are usually fairly large beams (8" x 8" in size) because the sills have to distribute the weight of the house upon an often rough and irregular foundation.Even the balloon frame house, developed in Chicago in the 1830s, utilized a large sill even though the rest of the house was constructed of 2" x 4" and 2" x 6" materials. Sill problems usually develop from a moisture problem. Sometimes the house was built too close or even in contact with the ground. In other cases, water leaked in around windows and doorways, following the posts down to the sills.Whenever wood and moisture combine, there is the possibility of wet rot, ants, termites, or other problems.
http://www.cr1981.com/services/
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Note added at 32 mins (2011-11-27 19:03:00 GMT)
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This image shows the sill beams and post-holes, as mentioned in your text:
http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/content/view/full/12019
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Note added at 13 hrs (2011-11-28 07:37:24 GMT)
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As my first reference says the sill beams are at the bottom of a wall into which postholes are made to take the uprights, the sill being the Schwelle.
|  Helen Shiner
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:56
Meets criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 143
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The translation workplace 
