Our timber frame package has been designed to provide a clean hand-off to owner or builder. The only immediate need is for the application of felt over the roof panels. The roof covering, whether with shingles or metal, should be completed as soon as possible.

Timber Frame Packages include the following:

• Timber Frame
• Timber Frame Erection
• Kiln-dried Tongue & Groove Decking on your ceilings and loft floor deck
• High-density urethane Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)
• Structural Insulated Panel Installation

The package price does not include crane rental; engineer’s fee if stamp is required by local codes; and any applicable taxes and fees. Delivery fees are quoted additionally at actual trucking cost plus loading fee. The owner will also pay crew travel expense, per diem and lodging if raising is at a distance where an overnight stay is required. Your proposal will include estimates for these additional costs.

If you choose to have tongue & groove decking on your ceilings, the time to install it is just prior to installation of the roof panels. For this reason, we include this decking, plus decking for the loft /first floor ceiling in its package.

We do not use panels with tongue & groove applied to them for several reasons. First, it is much more stable to apply the tongue & groove to the timber frame itself (and structurally better, too). Secondly, applying the tongue & groove to the frame allows you to match and sort pieces as they are installed, creating a much cleaner look. Lastly, it is a poor practice to have the tongue & groove run over an exterior wall and onto an eve overhang. This can create serious moisture and air infiltration problems.

If you choose to use sheet rock or some other finish on your ceiling, we will subtract the decking materials and labor from the package price. If desired, we will place shims between the timber frame and the panel to create a space to facilitate installation of your finish material.

Package Cost

Our Standard Timber Frame packages run between $65-$78 per square foot of conditioned living space.

The standard timber frame packages make it possible to build your home within a price range comparable to that of higher-end conventional construction. (Both depend, of course, upon the finishing choices made by you, which can vary widely.) Custom timber frame packages will be higher, due to design costs, slightly higher cutting costs, and a tendency for the timber frame to be less economically designed, with vaulted ceilings and open space.

The package generally will comprise one-quarter of the total per square foot cost, but may end up closer to one-fifth of the total square foot cost in a luxuriously finished home.

Timber Frame Package Elements

Our timber frame packages provide for enclosure of your frame with high-density urethane insulated panels, which is the best method of completing your structure. Panels represent a modern approach to building that combine strength, energy-efficiency, and an environmentally friendly use of resources.

Structural insulated panel (SIPs) systems are ideal for timber frame structures. Not only do they provide greater strength, energy efficiency and comfort than stick-framing. They also allow for rapid enclosure of the frame to protect it from the elements and once installed, expose the frame to full view– both impossible with stick framing.

There are many different companies offering insulated panel systems. We have tried several and used our experience with the various types to evaluate the options available. We have chosen to use polyurethane structural insulated panels in our packages. We believe that high-density urethane foam panels represent the highest quality of material and engineering. We select panels which have features that make them superior to other panels, such as electrical chases lined with metal conduit and installed wiring boxes, and extremely accurate pre-fabrication. We believe that our customers will be very happy with the panels used in their homes.

Using Green Timbers

With few exceptions, timber frames are cut from green timbers. This is because it takes years to air-dry timbers: oak air-dries at the rate of only about ½-inch per year, pine and fir at about 1 inch per year. Kiln drying takes several months of great care, to prevent the extreme heat from increasing checking and twisting, and consequently is expensive. A new technology of microwaving the timbers in a kiln may be preferable, but it is even more expensive.

As the moisture leaves the timbers, it causes shrinkage of the wood cells. The shrinkage is in cell diameter, not in length, and this is true in the overall timber as well. The timber will check and twist as this happens, but this doesn’t affect its length or strength. Timber framers know how to compensate for the shrinkage in their design of the structure and joinery.

Want to know more about green building? There’s a little book on Amazon, Green Building for the Rest of Us . Read it free on Kindle Unlimited.

 

 Timber Frame’s Package Scope of Supply

• Building plans, including foundation loading, but excluding foundation plans, as required for construction and as required to obtain the necessary permits.
• Custom design is included in package cost. Extensive changes from agreed-upon design will be charged to buyer at our standard design fee.
• Standard frame blueprints are free. Cost of design revisions to standard frames other than floor plans to be charged to buyer at our standard design fee.
• Timber frame as specified in sales agreement.
• Timber frame as specified in sales agreement.
• Loading and shipping of frame and decking.
• Panel delivery.
• Frame erection.
• Kiln-dried white pine 1X tongue and groove decking on upper ceilings and yellow pine 2X tongue and groove decking on loft floor deck.
• Installation of ceiling and loft kiln-dried wood decking.
• High density urethane stress skin panels, OSB on both sides: R-26 in walls and R-40 in the roof. Door and window rough openings framed with 2X, subfacia, electrical boxes and conduit.
• Installation of wall and roof panels, with shim to facilitate later installation of dry wall or paneling.
• All wood pegs, nails and metal screws required for installation of timber frame and stress skin panels.
• All tools required on site, including ladders.**
• All safety equipment.
• All required insurance for our employees and/or their sub-contractors and suppliers

** If raising is done on a field advisor basis, owner may need to provide some of these items.

Items Not in the Scope of Supply

The following items are not in the scope of supply and will be the responsibility of the buyer.

• Land.
• Excavation and site preparation.
• Building permit and other fees including engineer’s stamp if required. We will facilitate obtaining the latter engineer’s stamp.
• Construction of foundation, including First (ground) floor deck for erection of timber frame. Foundation and deck will be designed and built to carry loads specified in the drawings and carry such loads to the ground. Foundation and deck must be level. Deck will include the necessary ¾ plywood or equivalent sub-floor.
• Unloading of frame, decking and panels at building site. Crane or fork lift with extended forks is required. In addition, a trailer may be required to ferry timbers and panels to site.
• Required crane for frame and stress skin panel erection. We try to make best effort to control and minimize the time required for crane rental.
• All lifting gear, slings, ropes, chains and cables. (to be provided by crane company.)
• Temporary electrical power and water at job site.
• 2X’s as specified in sales agreement for bracing and erecting timber frame.
• Any and all internal walls. No internal walls will be load-bearing.
• First (ground) floor finish flooring.
• All dry wall.
• All wiring. However, raising crew will install wires for ceiling electrical at time of erection. Owner needs to have wire and electrical plan on-site.Wall panels will have conduit-lined chases and boxes installed.
• All HVAC and plumbing. Because stress skin panels are extremely tight and energy efficient, an air-exchange system is recommended
• All external siding and finish.
• Roof finish, including nailers, fascia, metal drip edge or any other finish work on panels at the edge of the roof and the felt and shingles or metal roofing material. Owner needs to have felt, at a minimum, installed immediately after panel installation.
• All internal finishing and fixtures except as noted above (loft floor and ceiling deck).