The Skin of a Timber Frame Home
The weakest link of the Old Era Timber frame building was the way they wrapped the frame. This usually was achieved by plank boards that were poor insulators as well as not withstanding to the elements and surely did not achieve much of an R value to boot.
Today we not only keep the original beauty of the frame but now we cover it with a far superior skin with unmatched insulation value to protect your investment for lifetimes. We at TimberCrafters choose to use Murus Insulating Panels. Commonly known as SIPS or Structural Insulating Panels these precisely engineered panels are a 3 piece sandwich of OSB(oriented Strand Board) on the outside skin containing a foam core and OSB on the inside skin. These panels offer superior insulating value in your choice of either EPS or Urethane cores with R Values ranging from R-16 to R-57. The Panels are cut on a CNC machine with none of the waste ever making it to your site. The flexibility that Murus offers not only in R-value but length of panels makes them a fierce competitor in the panel industry; but what really sets them apart is their ingenious Cam lock system that constantly pulls the joint together making them the leading manufacturer as far as we’re concerned. The panels will also be engineered to your design including preassigned wire chases that are cardboard tubes for ease of pushing wires. These panels come as long as 24’ which avoids as many seams as possible. No matter where you want the chase they can do it and we value that compatibility with our own versatility. Together with the tight foundation and decking we incorporate into each building our Homes rate in the highest category of Energy Star Homes.

The New Home Site
There are many things to consider when looking for that perfect home site. It is easy to become enchanted when you are walking through an undeveloped piece of property but try not to lose site of the most important issues you face when laying the ground work to your home. You will probably never achieve all the ideal criteria for the home but the following list of things to consider can have the greatest impact on not only the livability of your home, but the final cost in the end.
Grade: A walk out basement scenario cannot be affordably achieved on a flat lot. If you plan on incorporating some of The Home features into the basement elevation in order to save on the cost; keep this in mind. Utilities: What utilities are available on the site? Especially in undeveloped areas you may or may not have utilities that are Curtail to achieving the most basic comforts you have come to know. First and foremost you must have access to Electric. And if there is electric on the street how close is the nearest pole to your site? Water is the next most Important resource necessary to exist and should really be focused on before even considering any building site. I Even tell my customers to have the wells availability tied into the actual purchase agreement if this is possible. The Septic system is probably not going to be a deal breaker but consider that any site not on a sewer system will Increase your building costs by at least $5500.00 Orientation to the Sun: If you plan on incorporating any passive solar design into your home it is always favorable to have The main living spaces i.e. the great room facing south. Of course whether or not the trees obscure the sky will Also impact your plans. If you plan on having an efficient solar array for instance you need plenty of sunlight or The investment just doesn’t make sense. Any good architect can take your site no matter what the orientation and Achieve most of these features but consider where you most wanted the outside access areas to be before Committing to any site. After all if the front of the home is going to face south, did you plan on having the Family Room on the front of the house? With Patio doors leading to the deck on the front? Just something to consider but not necessarily a deal breaker. Elevation: How easy is it going to be to navigate your driveway given any grade you may have to the site. Consider Especially if you live in snow country; will you be able to drive your vehicle on the slope of the site? You may Have to tack the driveway back and forth to make it even possible to navigate but this will certainly impact the cost of your project. Land Restrictions: Make sure the land you are considering is even uildable. Check with the local building department to see if it is Properly zoned for the use you are anticipating. Is it in a flood plain? Even though the site seems to be dry it could be in a 100 year flood plain and heaven forbid if this is the year! Never buy on impulse and if you don’t want the property to get away from you draw up a deposit form with these criteria listed insuring your receiving money back if some or all of these necessities can’t be fulfilled.

What is a Timber Frame Home?
Timber frame homes are truly timeless; with the bones of a Timber frame consisting of massive wooden posts, beams, and braces, which are connected by mortise and tenon joints and secured together using thick wooden pegs. These buildings have been around for hundreds of years with their structural integrity still intact. And in fact they have relatively recently become popular to people from all walks of life. Remember walking into a magnificent church and looking up at all the beams and how appealing it was? You have just experienced what it is like to walk into a Timber framed home. Not to be mistaken with a log home its counterpart a Timber frame home does not use the beams to insulate it against the cold, but rather uses a SIP (Structural insulated panel) panel that can either be EPS (expanded Poly Styrene) or Urethane to achieve insulated values that are unmatched in any home available today. Not only are these homes unmatched in efficiency but they also boast unmatched structural and aesthetic variations that can’t be achieved with stick building or log home construction. Timber frame homes are a bit more costly than stick built homes but when you consider the aesthetics achieved without wall treatments, and numerous cosmetics required in a stick built home the cost difference seems to fade away. And if it ever comes time to move on from your Timber frame home you will immediately see the difference it makes when it comes time to sell your home. History has shown our homes will routinely outperform and achieve greater equity than most other types of construction. Your typical Timber frame home starts off with what is called a Bent. This is a main skeleton mainframe component a series of which make up the length of the building. Bents are connected by what are called Perlins that form a bay area between Bents. The size of the building determines the number of Bents and so on. The Bays between bents are usually anywhere from 8 to 16’ in length and can be altered not only by the species of the wood available but also by the type of truss shape the bent has. Add to this the multitude of Ceiling finishes available and you can see how unique this home can be to your personality.

The Design Process: A thorough knowledge of the site and the occupant’s needs and wants is crucial to any successful plan. Any Architect that hesitates to do a site visit is probably not going to be very flexible to your needs. Now is the time to realize this and move onto somebody truly suitable to your vision. Have a consultation before any money exchanges hands and I assure you this will save heartache in the end. Most of our customers have already been exposed to our methods of construction through open houses which makes the first contact free of anxiety. In most cases we can get right down to the pile of ideas they have brought to the initial meeting. If you’re just starting the design phase in your mind I suggest you start a scrapbook; when you see an idea in a magazine; cut it out and put it in this book and bring all your thoughts and pictures to the initial design meeting. It’s the easiest way to get your ideas onto paper. The more visual information you can bring to the table can save hours and therefore cost to the planning stage. Somewhere very near the initial planning process you should get a clear idea of how much you want to spend before proceeding into full scale drawings. This information as sacred as it may seem can help the designer achieve your dreams in the least amount of time. We have used the same designer over the years because we can usually look at customer ideas and come up with some sort of square foot cost within 24 hours. If it can’t be achieved within their budget we will often provide ideas to get a similar result. The size and shape of the project are the prime determining factors of cost. As with almost everything, the simpler the shape and the fewer corners will keep the cost down. Planning has never been more important than when building a Timber Frame home. Because the mechanicals are not as easily buried into the traditional framing of the home these things need to be determined and planned out before the frame can be designed. The electrical work needs to be laid out before the frame can be raised. The actual time spent on the design will more than pay for itself in the end and lead to less down time for all those involved in the actual construction of the home.