Quality First - The Benefits of Timber Framing

The use of timber framing in buildings offers various aesthetic and structural benefits, as the timber frame lends itself to open floor plan designs. It allows for a complete enclosure and effective insulation for energy efficiency.

The timber frame structure goes up quickly in its modern incarnation. While some modern shops still cut the timbers with hand tools and hand guided power tools, we use modern computerized numeric control (CNC) machinery that has been readily adapted to the task. This eliminates much of the repetitive labor from the process, but still often requires hand-finishing. Most notably, the complexity of hip/valley joinery as of yet cannot be duplicated by the CNC machinery beyond simple cuts. Additionally, due to the rigid timber requirements of CNC machinery, odd sized, tree trunk, hand hewn, and recycled timbers are usually hand cut.

One aid in speeding up assembly on site is pre-fitting the frame, usually in bent or wall sections that are laid out on the shop floor. This can assure a correct fit and with pre-drilling for the pegs, it speeds the site process. This pre-fitting in the shop is independent of a machine or hand cut system.

Quite literally in 3-4 days an average-sized timber frame home can be erected and within 1-2 weeks the shell of the house is ready for "lock up". This means the house is ready for windows, mechanical, and roofing. The shell in this case would be with Structural Insulated Panels (SIP) or 2” x 6” walls.

The timber frame can give the home owner the ability to make a creative statement through the use of design and specialty touches like carvings of favourite quotes and incorporating timbers from heirloom structures, like a barn from a family homestead.