O armazón

These homes are cleverly built and to some degree of complexity. They are designed to withstand the weight of snow that accumulates on the roof during winter. Most houses have two pillars, with slight differences in their arrangement, - the haystacks having just a central one.

Our house has a king post called esteo and smaller one at the top. Between the two are beams which support the caizo. (upper space) The main post is not in the centre of the house but somewhat to one side which makes room for the kitchen. Besides these main pillars there are two braces, one next to the main post and the other a little lower.
These braces and posts support most of the weight. Above these are other beams called aiga or rafter (from the caizo upwards) and cume which comes down from the caizo) – from the centre of the roof other beams known as tercias serve to distribute the weight on the side of the roof.

Another element of the structure are the cangos, rafters that rest on the wall and reach to the top of the roof. At the top they are bound with pinos (wooden blocks) to the beams mentioned above (aiga and cume) and they are placed at a distance approximately one meter apart.
On the cangas are placed the ripias, which are wooden planks tied with pinos. The thatch is tied to the cangas and to the ripias.

It is interesting to note that in the timer frame, the wood used to join planks was always willow. A hole would be bored in the planks to be joined, using a large manual drill; a thick plug was passed throught the hole and joined to the next. Later on iron nails were used but wooden plugs were still used as the planks were influened by changes in temperasture and humidity. If the whole building is made of wood, these changes in temperature take place all over, evenly, and prevents the wood from splitting..