Timber Frames

Nothing is more relaxing than coming home to house filled with beautiful beams. A Timber Frame creates the structural support of the home and also the decorative elements. It supports the floors and roof, designed for the weight of people, furniture and snow. We make the process of designing your timber frame home simple and collaborative, working with you from concept, to design, to installation. Bring your ideas and inspiration, and together we will create an exquisite, bold custom timber frame that meets your specific aesthetic tastes and practical needs.

Timber Frame Houses are a beautiful addition to a scenic lakeside community. With high cathedral ceilings and large windows, looking out onto the lake view through timber trusses is fantastic for everyday living or for weekend getaways with family and friends. And once your lake house is finished, you can also consider a timber frame boathouse as well!

The Minocqua Residence is in Northern Wisconsin. Vermont Timber Works provided the timber frame while working closely with Schultz Building.

The timber frame for this home incorporates Planed Douglas Fir and Arched King Post Trusses. The Arched Trusses provide the lofted ceiling and give the great room an open, expansive feeling. The residence features traditional rustic elements and combines them with a modern elegance that makes for a truly impressive and unique timber frame home. Incorporated into the design, are many sitting and entertaining areas. The large, high windows provide many of these areas with extraordinary views of the natural landscape that surrounds the home. 

A Timber Frame House clad in traditional, weathered Cedar Siding is a beautiful sight along any coast or shoreline. Timber Frame Homes can be designed to withstand the elements and weather you find along the shore. This house, on Martha's Vineyard, is designed to withstand hurricane force winds. Timber Frames can make for lovely beachfront homes that the whole family can enjoy.

This guest house on Martha's Vineyard is unlike any guest house you've ever seen. Situated beside a large pool, this spacious cottage features the iconic cedar shingles of traditional beachfront homes on its exterior.

We worked with Gabriel Stadecker Architect, LLC who designed this beautiful project.

While the exterior of the cottage feels very traditional, the interior feels fresh and modern. Inside is spacious with an open floor plan and a cathedral ceiling that fills the space with natural light. Douglas fir beams with a natural finish frame the entire cottage and the walls are paneled with cedar. The slate floor, gray cabinets, and modern stainless appliances complete its modern, minimalist aesthetic.

Wherever your family likes to travel whether it is to the lake, the mountain, the countryside, or the forest, Timber Frame Vacation homes can be designed for all environments and purposes. Wooden beams bring warmth to the inside of the home while respecting and reflecting the beauty of nature outside.

The Saghir Residence is an Adirondack style home in Newbury, NH right on the lake. Vermont Timber Works provided a custom timber frame for this residential client.

We worked with Bonin Architects & Associates PLLC and McGray and Nichols, Inc. on this project. Bonin Architects also photographed the home.

All of our frames are handcrafted to meet exact project requirements, and we enjoy working with our clients to make sure the details – from design to finish – are just right. With over 26 years of experience designing, engineering and building custom timber frames, we can assure our clients that our frames are the best in the industry.

Whether you hit the slopes or not, a beautiful, spacious ski house is something that family and friends can cherish for generations. You want your family ski house to be beautiful, spacious, comfortable and able to stand the test of time in the harsh winter elements. A timber frame home is able to satisfy all of these needs and make for a wonderful winter experience that your family will enjoy for years to come.

The Dugas Residence is in Wakefield, NH. Vermont Timber Works provided a timber frame with a complicated roof system that uses massive wood beams for the purlins and rafters for this residential client.

We worked with Dugas Builders, LLC on the project.

All of our frames are handcrafted to meet exact project requirements, and we enjoy working with our clients to make sure the details – from design to finish – are just right. With over 26 years of experience designing, engineering and building custom timber frames, we can assure our clients that our frames are the best in the industry.

Why Should We Build a Timber Frame Home?
Timber frame homes are beautiful spaces to live in and to entertain in. You will enjoy being in your new home, being surrounded by natural wood, open space, high ceilings and large windows. Your house guests will also love coming over to enjoy the home with you.

Timber frame homes are different than conventionally framed homes because the structure is in the beams, which allows for wide open spaces between the posts and beams as well as room for big, bright windows.  Timber trusses add to that flexibility with spans up to forty feet or more. Cathedral ceilings just come with the timber frames. Attic spaces found under the roof in conventionally framed buildings are not needed in a timber frame, giving timber framed rooms loft and height.

Timber frame homes are super energy efficient when enclosed with SIPs (structural insulated panels), and they allow for great expanses of glass.

Timber frame homes last for hundreds of years. In fact, all of the colonial homes in America were timber framed and many are still standing. Timber frames homes in Europe are hundreds of years old. With proper care, timber frames are resistant to rot and are naturally fire resistant as Type IV construction………….Learn More

We design and build Timber Frame Barns using traditional methods the old fashioned way with chisels and mallets, including the best Hand Hewn Barns, Hammer Beam Barns, Equipment Barns, Event Barns, Barn Homes, Post & Beam Horse Barns, and Equestrian and Livestock Barns.

Decorative Trusses can be interior or exterior. These trusses don't need to be structural and can be for design purposes only, which gives the designer a lot of freedom to play with truss shapes. Arches can be added as well as custom cut decorative steel bands, finials and chamfers. This Gable Truss was designed for a Ski Lodge in Killington, VT. It features an arched bottom chord, steel bands and a modified king post design.

The scissor truss is a popular truss design because it is striking in a space and creates dramatic angles. The design gets its name from looking like a pair of open shears, but can be modified in a number of ways that change the angles, or incorporate steel brackets or tie bars. The double chords allow this truss to span over 60 feet. It is an interesting structural design using HSS steel tubes between the chords at the seat of the truss where the loads are concentrated. The load transfer is made with through bolts and 4″ shear plates.

The King Post Truss is a classic design and one of the most commonly requested trusses at Vermont Timber Works. It is structurally the most efficient truss because it is made up of triangles and a solid bottom chord. It is also the most economical timber truss that can be easily dress up with arched webs. On this project, you can see the outline of the classic king post design perfectly. White washed beams play nicely with down lighting to create an inviting glow to this entry.

The Scissor Truss is a striking, yet more complicated timber truss design. It is structurally sound with raised bottom chords that give an interior space more vertical height. Usually the bottom chord pitch is about half of the top chord pitch. An 8/12 top chorded scissor truss might have a 4/12 bottom chord. Scissor trusses need to be designed with big enough members so they don't deflect (spring out) too much. VTW likes the deflection to be limited to L/360 at a maximum, or 1/2″ or less under full load.

The classic King Post Truss Design can be modified in a variety of ways that create different manifestations of the style and change the look and feel of the truss. This modified King Post Truss has a slightly curved bottom chord and the addition of a steel bracket that gives it a different look than a more straight an angular king post truss. It dresses up the truss and raises the bottom chord for more loft.

This scissor truss features a high pitch and a white stain. The trusses raise the height of the ceiling considerably and make for a dramatic design.

The queen post truss is another common  design that can be styled and interpreted a variety of ways. In this variation on the Queen Post Truss, used in a boy scout dining hall, you can see the incorporation of steel tie rods to give a more open feeling. Queen Post Trusses can easily span forty feet.

Some Truss designs are closely associated with a particular location, and this type of “Gothic Church Truss" is one of them. This kind of truss can be designed in many ways, but what sets them apart is their size, arch, and ornate details. Steel tie rods at the bottom of the truss control spreading instead of using exterior buttresses, which were common in old European cathedrals.

This is another Modified Arched King Post Truss that has a dramatically arched bottom chord that is made using a glue-laminated beam. This gives the room a lofted appearance. Glulam beams are made from smaller strips of wood that are glued and pressed together. They can be structurally made to almost any depth and have better “engineering" numbers than natural timber beams. The laminations are distinct and visable, but tend to disappear with darker stains.

This modified Queen Post Truss, used in a high end equipment barn, is a variation that shows yet another way the truss components can be designed and arranged to fit specific styles and tastes. The webs are interesting and the steel tie rod give the truss an open feel. The material is rough sawn oak.

The modified Hammer Beam Truss enjoys a magnitude of incarnations and variations over history. In this project, a high round arch was chosen, evoking a more antiquated style and feel that matched nicely with the reclaimed antique beams that were used. The project was a beach house on Martha's Vineyard overlooking the ocean.

This is another variation on the King Post Design that takes into account the large expanse and style of the space in which it will occupy. This variation has an arch to give a lofted space but is also angular which mimics the lines of the lofted seating and entertaining areas directly under the trusses.

This modified scissor truss is a softer take on the traditional scissor truss. This design rounds out the angles of the truss and incorporates some steel components as well.

What Types of Timber Trusses are Available from Vermont Timber Works?

We make all of our trusses to order depending on the structural requirements at each building location and the aesthetic and financial needs of our clients. We make timber king post, queen post, hammer beam, scissor, girder, gambrel, church and gothic trusses as well as variations of all of those. We use traditional joinery, steel gusset plate joinery, hidden steel joinery and combinations of joinery types in out timber trusses…….Learn More

Vermont Timber Works can design and build the best Timber Framed Pavilion, Pergola, Park Shelter, Welcome Center, State Park Center, or Wood Beam Picnic Shelter that will enhance any park or natural area.

With interiors that are welcoming and warm, constructed of strong, beautiful wood with dramatic angles that draw the eye upward, timber frames are an attractive and pragmatic way to create the best structural centerpiece to any park environment.

Girder Trusses have a long, straight design. They have a top chord and a bottom chord separated by diagonal webs and vertical webs. The top chord is always in compression, and the bottom chord is always in tension. The webs can be in either tension or compression depending on their orientation.In the truss shown here, the diagonal webs are in compression and the vertical webs are in tension.

Timber girder trusses are excellent for large buildings and look great with steel joinery. Primarily, the role of a girder truss is to support other structural elements in the frame, such as traditional trusses, rafters or purlins. For that reason, girded trusses are designed to be exceptionally strong and rigid.

Vermont Timber Works has built all styles of timber frames for homes and more. Timber Frames traditionally come in a variety of different styles, but really almost any design can be timber framed. Whatever you have in mind, we'll work with you and your architect or builder, to make sure that the style and design fit exactly what you had in mind for your timber home.

What Timber Framing Styles are Available?
Timber frame or “post and beam" structures can styled in many ways, such as a saltbox, farm house, fancy barn, two-story colonial or a hammer beam cape. The style depends first on the owners preference, then on whether the building is a home, barn, church, public structure or business, along with the nature of its intended use. We start with a basic “bent" (a timber frame, which is the cross section of a building) with other structural components added in order to make specific forms. The possibilities are extensive, although simple forms are the most economical.

A “Bent" is the basic building block of a post and beam home. It is made of structural beams that form a cross section through the building. Bents are typically spaced between 12′ and 16′ apart and are connected together with joists and purlins to give the house its shape.

The Hammer Beam frame style has an open design with handsome decorative details. These details, like all of VTW's project, can be customized to clients' preferences. The Breed Estate is an example of a VTW frame that has beautiful hammer beam trusses.

The Fancy Barn is a beautiful frame style that allows for many custom, decorative accents. The interiors of these frames have high ceilings that allow for elegant great rooms.

Saltbox style frames are an asymmetrical design with slanted roofs. This style of frame is common in New England and is perfect for country homes. It is a classic design with roots in Great Britain, and brought to New England by the pilgrims. Examples of original saltbox home designs can be seen in Salem, NH.

The Raised Cape is the most basic framing style. It is a classic, simple design that is very practical for family homes.

The Gambrel Style Frame is great for farm homes. It has a unique roof design with two sloping timbers. With this style of frame a home can have high ceilings and a slanted roof, which is important for buildings in areas that get heavy snowfall. The Jupiter Home is a great example of a VTW gambrel style frame.

The Farm House is a very functional frame style. The center of the frame is a classic bent. Two additions are added to each of the bent sides and the farm house style is created.

One of the most important parts of the wall and roof system is venting the roof. Stress skin panels are used to carry loads and also insulate roofs. The panels are called SIP's (structural insulated panels). SIP's, also know as stresskin, are made of four layers: 1/2″ Oriented strand board sheathing on the outside, expanded polystyrene foam insulation in the middle, & 1/2″ OSB backer board and optional 1/2″ sheet rock on the inside.  See the picture above for the entire wall system detail.

When a non-venting roofing material is used, like asphalt shingles, wood shingles or standing seam metal roofing, a vented cold roof is required to ensure that the roofing material lasts & the stresskin panels continue perform for years.

Designing Your Frame
There is a wide range of possibilities when it comes to the overall footprint, exterior profile and interior complexity of a timber frame building. Bents can be made bigger or smaller and roof pitches raised or lowered, altering the height and girth of a structure. Shed and gable dormers, fancy curved braces, finials, hips or valleys can be added to add detailing, character and references to a particular historical genre. Because we are a custom shop, we work closely with our clients in order to meet individual aesthetic styles and practical needs, coming up with frame designs that are unique, interesting, beautiful and perfectly suited to each owner.

Take a look at the broad range of framing styles on this page and give our friendly customer service team a call. We are here to help you design the ideal timber frame for you, with competitive pricing, a collaborative process and attention to every detail throughout. And once your specific design has been created, you will be able to review a 3D, rotating computer generated model prior to fabrication in order to see exactly how your timber frame building will look, including the location of all posts, beams and braces.

We created this page to help you better understand our framing process from conceptual design to the final installation of our products.  The process includes preliminary design, engineering, creating shop drawings, ordering the timbers from the mill, fabrication, assembly and raising. We use the latest in architectural computer design, but still handcraft our timber frames the old-fashioned way because, simply put, it is the best way. As you can see from the photos, our craftspeople carefully select, orient, and cut each piece of timber and produce an elegant, strong, truly impressive finished product. Our timber frame process is based on extreme attention to detail, integrity and dedication to the craft.

Concept
Timber Frame Design
Timber Frame Engineering
Timber Framing Tools
Fabrication
Assembly & Raising
Shipping & Delivery
Youtube

Traditional joinery is the classic way to connect timbers in post & beam and timber frame structures. It is an elegant and beautiful style of construction. Mortises and tenons are cut into the beams, which are secured together with hardwood pegs.

A joint is the area where two separate timber pieces connect. In timber framing, there are many different types of joints and connections. A frame can be completely constructed using traditional joinery, or a frame can be constructed using joints that are reinforced with steel plates and steel ties that are capable of carrying particularly heavy structural loads.

All of our joints are custom designed and engineered to fit the individual requirements of each of our projects.

Timber purlins and joists form the roof and floor framing in timber framed buildings. The old school way to do the joinery is to dovetail them in. Unfortunately, the beautiful dovetail is hidden in the finished building, but its strength and integrity is not. It is a strong joint that lasts over time.

When very heavy loads are involved in a floor or roof system, we use shouldered lap joints. The lap joint allows us to maintain cross sectional area in the girts (main carrying beams).

Steel tie rods solve the age old problem of roof construction; they hold the walls from bending out as the roof is loaded with wind or snow. In age old timber frame buildings, like the gothic cathedrals of the middle ages, enormous stone buttresses stabilized the walls – allowing for graceful arched beams to create a beautiful timber ceiling.

The buttresses eliminated the need for a bottom chord on a timber truss, which gave the truss a great open feeling. Today, many people want that great open look inside their homes and churches, but don't want to go to the expense of building buttresses. A steel tie rod is the solution. It acts as the bottom chord of the truss and give a very open and light feeling.

There are many ways to tie timber posts to foundations or wood floors. A few are detailed on this page. The most important thing in designing a timber post base is to keep the post bottom dry and well drained. The design in the photo above is excellent.  An example of a poorly designed stone surround can been seen here. All of our post bases are engineered to meet the individual needs of each project.

Traditional joinery can look great with added steel as an architectural accent or for added strength. This photo shows a king post with traditionally joined webs and steel tension ties. It is an elegant joint both aesthetically and structurally.

Steel joinery will often make the cost of a frame more expensive. Because extra strength is not needed everywhere, steel can be added in the places where it is needed and traditional joinery can be used everywhere else. Structural steel joinery can be hidden or exposed depending on the aesthetics of the frame. If the owner or architect wants the wrought iron look of steel joinery, gusset plates can be exposed and sometimes the timbers can be reduced in size to help balance out the additional cost.

Steel connector plates give a timber frame a look reminiscent of old school factories and mill buildings. They also support a tremendous amount of structural load, allowing heavy timber to span great distances. Often, the steel gussets are painted black and held to the timber with 3/4″ and 1″ bolts. Sometimes the steel plates are galvanized or painted in a variety of colors.  All of our gusset plate connections are custom designed and engineered to fit the individual requirements of our projects.

The gusset plates are normally bolted together. Sometimes we use shear plates behind the steel to increase the structural capacity of the connection. The shear plate transfers a greater load from the wooden beam, through the bolt, and into the steel connection.

Recently, Vermont Timber Works transitioned from working with oil-based stains to water-based. We believe that water-based stains with low VOCs align more with our values as Vermonters and Timber Framers. These are a few of the factors we considered when deciding to move away from oil-based stains.

Since making the switch to water-based stains we have been using primarily Vermont Natural Coatings.

At Vermont Timber Works, we offer a broad selection of wood species, including Douglas fir, Hemlock, Oak, Southern Yellow Pine, and Port Orford Cedar. We also work with glue-laminated timber when the structural loads or aesthetics call for it. We will collaborate closely with you, ensuring that the wood we select matches your overall vision for your home, barn, church or business.

Douglas Fir
Hemlock
White Pine
Oak
Cedar
Glulam
Wood Textures
Shake & Checking

TIMBER SAMPLES
We will send custom samples to you made with the exact species, finish and stain you choose for your project.

To find out more about the wood varieties and broad range of finishes available, call us at (802)886-1917 or contact us online today. We promise an outstanding product, competitive bids, great customer service and attention to detail throughout the process.

We often work directly with our clients’ architects to design timber frames that meet their requirements. Very often, we are brought into the design process early on, collaborating closely with our clients’ architects to ensure that their vision is realized. As a standard service, we provide 3D  computer-generated models for everyone in the equation—client, architect, construction crew alike to review before fabrication.

Our engineering department is highly skilled, diligent and great at making challenging projects happen on time and with meticulous accuracy. They ensure that all state building codes are met and that the loads for each building are calculated based on the occupancy, use, and location of the structure. Such considerations include the self-weight of the timber, dead, live, snow (balanced, unbalanced and drifting) and, depending on the location, either wind or earthquake. Heavy timber commercial architecture work typically falls under division 06130, division 06170 or division 06180 and we are well-versed in providing all related paperwork.

Click Here for the questions our clients ask us most often.