Timber Frame Facts

Fact #13 –  People who live in timber frames are happier (okay, so I made this up using my own data).

Fact #14 – Timber frames help to meet green certification requirements.  Building with rapidly renewable timbers, using energy efficient panels, minimizing site waste.

Fact #15 – Timber frames are naturally more fire resistant.  Heavy timber is recognized by fire codes (even in places where fire is a major hazard…like California) as a safer building product.

Let’s continue the list of facts, not fiction,  about timber frames.

Fact #4 – Timber frames, with their point loaded design, allow easier renovation and remodeling, if needed.  There are no bearing walls that must be accounted for in the process.  This flexibility might not seem important, but try opening up a wall in a stick-framed home and you get into headers and engineering.  Not so with timber frames.

Fact #5 – Timber frames can be built with a wide variety of woods.  The timber will be sized according to the properties of that particular species. Decisions should be based on availability, aesthetics, and the design of the timber frame.

Fact #6 – Timber frames are still timber frames, whether they are cut by hand or with a machine.  While there are subtle differences, the joinery is the same joinery used for centuries.

More facts to follow.

While all timber framers want to tell how wonderful timber frames are and how you life will be much better if you live in one, we need to know the facts.  Just the facts, thank you very much. So I will begin a series of short posts with timber frame facts.  No hype and no hyperbole.

Fact #1 – Timber frames are built from a renewable resource.  Wood does literally “grow on trees”.

Fact #2 – Timber frames are built with wood that is minimally processed. This is environmentally responsible.

Fact #3 – Timber frames will last for centuries.

So that’s the start of these facts.   Let’s see where it goes.

Duke Energy in North Carolina offers a discounted electric rate to homes that meet Energy Star requirements.  The homes must be inspected by a third-party inspector, but the 5% savings makes it an affordable option.

The savings, when coupled with the reduced energy cost to maintain a home that meets or exceeds the requirements, are significant.

There are lots of incentives for building an energy efficient home.   We’ll outline some of them in coming weeks.  Stay tuned.

 As we become more aware of the advantages of living in a smaller, more sustainable space that has a smaller footprint and uses fewer resources to build and less fuel to heat and cool, we look for small designs that are livable.  They must meet our needs or we’ll be looking for a larger home…quickly.  Goshen has launched a new line of small, sustainable homes that live well.  Each is smaller than 2,000 square feet, yet lives much larger.  Check out these plans at Goshen’s CottageBuilt Homes to see what we’ve done.  You’ll find styles reminiscent of the Sears Kit Homes from the early 1900′s and of the many bungalows and cottages from that period.

Green Building, in it’s new and sometimes abused persona, is not really a new concept.  It has always been important to use resources wisely, to build with the materials at hand, and to conserve energy.  New technology has helped us to achieve some of these goals, but if we look back, we see that many before us have built green, without all the hype.  Adobe homes protected Native Americans in the Southwest from sweltering heat, wattle and daub homes used materials at hand to build shelters, skyscrapers built in the late 1800′s made use of urban space.  So while architects, designers, and builders today would like to take credit for this movement, they are truly just making the public more aware of the importance of building green