TIMBERFRAME, POST and BEAM HOMES

Plan Book > Questions and Answers.

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Q: “What kind of joinery do you use?”

A: We use traditional, all-wood joinery. We join your timbers with a mortise (slot) and tenon (tab) held together with oak pegs. Sometimes we include hidden (or exposed) metal plates if your job requires it. Metal plates are often required for commercial projects, and sometimes for very unusual joints in residential projects.

Q: “What woods do you use? What are different woods like?”

A: We can craft your frame in all kinds of wood . . .

• Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) - a light wood, both in color and weight. It’s cost effective, easy to work, and a popular choice for timberframing. The light, almost white, color of pine will darken with time to a mellow, golden amber. We can usually get your white pine quickly, so if you need your frame fast, this may be your choice.
• Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) - a favorite wood selection. It’s dense, and has more complex grain than white pine. As hemlock ages, it matures to a rich, honey brown color, with even darker grain and knots. Aged hemlock timbers have a color like red oak. One drawback of hemlock is its tendency to ‘shake,’ - an occasional surface separation between growth rings.
• Oak (Quercus rubra/alba) - a beautiful wood that comes to mind immediately for timberframing. It’s strong, richly colored and takes a high finish. However, it’s very heavy, it tends to check deeply, and it twists more than most species. Oak is more expensive than white pine or hemlock. It takes us longer to get than other woods. This might delay your project! Oak frames are sometimes so heavy they need to be shipped on two trucks. This could double your shipping costs!
• Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) - our favorite wood! Douglas fir is a majestic, deep red color. It has a complex, beautiful grain structure. We can get massive Douglas fir timbers. It is more expensive, but you’ll find it well worth the price. Douglas fir is exceptionally strong, light and attractive. It’s strikingly beautiful and it’s less prone to checking and twisting! When you select Douglas fir for your frame, you’ll learn why we consider it the ‘Prince of Woods.’
• Recycled timbers. We can get all sorts of recycled timbers - woods like oak, hemlock, Douglas fir, pine and others. Recycled timbers show evidence of their previous life. They have ‘character!’ This is a polite way of saying they have cracks, stains, and holes. Most recycled timbers are dimensionally stable - they won’t check or shrink the way green timbers will. However, they can be expensive, and sometimes tough to get.
• Hand hewn timbers. We can craft your frame out of hand-hewn timbers. Hand hewing is expensive, and while it gives you a classic look, it also substantially increases your frame price.
• Kiln-dried timbers. Kiln-dried timbers are dimensionally stable. They don’t shrink or check like green timbers. However, if you want to use kiln-dried timbers this could more than double the price of your timberframe.

Q: “I’ve heard about ‘checks’ - what are these? What can I expect my frame to look like, once it’s been up a few years?”

A: Fresh cut timbers are full of water. As your wood dries out (this takes several years for large timbers), timbers shrink. What happens as your timbers shrink depends on what part of the tree was cut to make each timber. If your timber was cut from the center (the ‘heart’ of the tree), cracks (checks) will form in a radial pattern outward from the center. If your timber was cut from the outside part of the tree (‘free of heart center’), there will be less checking. ‘Free of heart center’ timbers check less, but they cost you more because they have to be cut from a much bigger tree.

Checks are a natural characteristic of wood. They don’t affect the strength of your frame. If you’re concerned about the way checks look, don’t use oak - it’s very prone to checking. You should consider a frame made from Douglas fir, which checks less, or ‘free of heart center’ Douglas fir. A bit more expensive, but very few checks!

Q: “What will my home cost?”

A: That depends! Think about the following to get an idea of cost . . .

• How big will your home be? Obviously, large homes cost more than small ones. The best way to think about your cost is price/square foot. Large frames usually cost less per square foot than small ones, since some costs - things like shipping, design work, and the like, are about the same for large and small frames.
• Is your frame complex? If your frame is really complex, your price will be more. Features like dormers with compound joinery, hammerbeams, or really big timbers are more expensive.
• What kind of wood will you use? Wood prices have gone up lately. Some wood species are more expensive than others. Pine and hemlock are usually the least expensive woods we work in. Oak and Douglas fir cost more. Other, more exotic woods - things like kiln-dried timbers, old growth timbers, hand-hewn timbers or some recycled timbers can actually double the price of your frame.
• How far are you from our shop? Farther away means more in shipping costs. But remember . . . we ship out to the west coast from Vermont and still beat West Coast timberframe companies on price!
• How much site work will we do for you? If we send our full crew to raise your frame, this will obviously cost you more than if we send just our site technician to work with you or your contractors crew. We craft our frames for easy raising . . . a good local general contractor might be able to raise your frame without our site technician.

Q: “OK, all this helps, but what should I expect my home to cost when it’s all done?”

A: Most of our homes finish out somewhere between $80 and $120 per square foot. You can keep costs a little lower than this if you do some finish work yourself - things like painting, etc. Some of our more expensive homes finish out much higher than $100 per square foot when clients want expensive options like radical joinery, stonework, lots of hardwood flooring, custom kitchen cabinets, etc.

Q: “How should I enclose my timberframe?”

A: You do have a choice. Almost everybody uses stress-skin panels. A few people build a second stick frame outside their frame, or between the timbers of their frame, and insulate this with traditional fiberglass insulation. Building a second stick frame really doesn’t make much sense. This costs you more for materials and labor and you end up using less efficient fiberglass insulation. It also takes you longer than applying panels. Other people ‘wrap and strap’ - they build up multiple layers of drywall, plywood, insulation, and more plywood over the frame. This takes a long time, and once again, it doesn’t achieve the same level of efficiency that panels do.

Stress-skin panels offer you the very best option:

*Great insulation*
*Fast installation*
*Reasonable cost*

Q: “Does North Woods Joinery make stress-skin panels?”

A: No, we don’t make panels at North Woods Joinery. Over the years we’ve worked with several panel producers, and now have a partnership with one of the best panel companies. We order so many panels from this supplier, we can get you the world’s finest panels at the best price. You can have expanded polystyrene or polyurethane panels in insulation values from R-12 to R-37. You can have structural panels (oriented strand board both sides), or curtainwall panels (drywall inside).

Q: “Are your panels environmentally friendly?”

A: Our panel supplier uses only air- or pentane-expanded polystyrene (free from CFCs and HCFCs, and ozone friendly), or polyurethane made with low environmental impact. We carefully match panels to your room, door, and window openings to minimize panel waste. Panels are just about the best insulation your money can buy. Over the years, your new home will need very little fuel for winter heating and summer cooling . . . to save the environment and save you money.

Q: “How do I wire my timberframe? How does it work with panels?”

A: You can order panels with a ‘wire chase’ - a hole that runs through the panels at outlet height. There’s also a couple other ways to wire around panels. We want to send you a great panel installation manual that shows how to wire. Call us at (802) 644-2400! Of course, your inside walls will be 2” x 4” stud walls, and you can wire these just like a regular house.

Q: “How do I run plumbing in panels?”

A: Don’t! This violates most building codes. You should never run plumbing in your outside walls. You can run plumbing through inside walls just like in a regular home. Sometimes we’ll need to think about second or third floor plumbing needs, and address these with bathroom and closet placement, or a special plumbing ‘chase.’ Your North Woods Joinery design person is an expert in working out these design details. She or he will help you with your own design.

Q: “Do you have a design service?”

A: Yes! We do have in-house design services to help you. We want to prepare detailed plans for you. These will show your exterior elevations, room layouts, frame design, cut drawings, panel layouts, detailed joinery, foundation and wall details. If you need a frame design that has been sealed by an engineer, or an architect, we can probably put you in touch with an engineer or architect in your area who can do this. We’ve raised frames for people all over the country, and we have a great network of engineer and architect professionals.

Q: “Do you oil my frame?”

A: Yes. We had a well-known chemist (with a Ph.D. from MIT) develop a special penetrating oil sealer especially for North Woods Joinery. The chemist field-tested our oil extensively. It will help protect your frame from mildew, blue-spot (another type of mildew), and it helps prevent sunburn.

Q: “How do you ship my frame?”

A: Before your frame leaves our yard, we carefully sort your timbers and bundle together your related frame components - for example parts of a bent. Next, we wrap each bundle in polyethylene plastic and band your timbers together. The plastic and banding protects your frame from dirt, grease, and fingerprints while it’s on route to your site. We ship via ‘common carrier,’ usually a flatbed truck. If we’re supplying your crane for raising, we’ll often ship with a crane truck, sometimes with an attached trailer.

Q: “Do you build my whole house or just my frame?”

A: North Woods Joinery crafts your frame, supplies your stress-skin panels, windows and doors, and tongue & groove for your floors and ceilings. We usually supply a site technician to supervise (and help!) raise your frame. Often we can send a full crew to raise your frame. We usually don’t install stress-skin panels ourselves, so we can recommend a professional crew to do this for you. We can also ‘coach’ your builder on how to apply panels!

Q: “Do you make stairs?”

A: No, we don’t. We can make custom posts for balconies and such, but we’ve found stair making is best left to companies that specialize in stairs!

Q: “Do you supply windows and doors?”

A: Yes. We are distributors for several of the best window manufacturers. We’re happy to provide you with a custom window schedule as part of our design work, and can get you a great price for your windows.

Q: “How long will it take? When should I start planning my new home?”

A: Let’s save time and get started now! Look at the timelines on page 11 of this plan book. They give you a rough idea of how long it takes to build. After we finish all your design work, we’ll sign a contract with you, and get your production deposit. From that time, it’s usually 12-14 weeks until your frame arrives on your site. Smaller projects often go faster, and we always try very hard to accommodate your schedule.
The sooner we can get to work on your design, and get this completed, the sooner we can start crafting your frame.

Q: “What kind of foundation do I need for my timberframe?”

A: Usually your North Woods Joinery timberframe won’t need anything special for a foundation. We’ll do a foundation detail for you as part of our design work! We’ve put our frames over basements, crawl spaces, slabs, and for barns, even concrete pillars in soil.

Q: “Should I use timbers in my garage or in my basement for my first floor deck?”

A: Some people do. Usually it’s easier and more cost effective to build these parts of your home with 2” x 6” stick lumber. Most people don’t spend enough time in the garage to make a timberframe there worthwhile. Same for the basement. If you’re planning a finished basement and you want some timbers there, this is easy to do in combination with stick lumber first floor deck. Of course, if you really want these parts of your home timberframed, we’ll be happy to oblige.

Q: “Will my timberframe need a special first floor deck, or is the deck just like in a ‘stick built’ home?”

A: Your deck will be a lot like a regular deck for a ‘stick built’ home. There are a couple differences, though. You’ll want a sill plate that overhangs your foundation by 4” - 6” as a shelf to set your stress-skin panels on. Also, the weight in your timberframe is focused on your posts - usually 10-12 of these carry most of the weight of your entire frame. We need to make sure posts inside your home have a column under them in the basement, and that your outside posts have extra joist blocking under them, on top of the foundation wall. As part of our design work, we will provide you with a typical foundation wall and first floor deck cross-section details.

Q: “Can I see a North Woods Joinery model home?”

A: We have a lovely timberframe office at our factory for you to see. We don’t have a model home at our factory, but we’re delighted to offer you a private showing at one of the hundreds of homes we’ve raised around the country. People we build for are very proud of their special North Woods Joinery homes, and most welcome a visit from prospective homebuilders. We can arrange this for you with a few days notice!

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