FAQs Archives

Champagne timber framing on a (craft) beer budget

After receiving the latest Carolina Timberworks newsletter, a potential client emailed a great question: “Can you show a recent home for a customer on a 300k budget, else this stuff is non-realistic to normal non-millionaire folks“.

My Emailed Reply About a Timber Frame Budget

With respect to non-millionaire projects, we do a lot of them in North Carolina and around the United States. One way to fit timber framing into the budget is to consider hybrid timber framing — i.e. timber frame only certain parts of the house as opposed to building a timber frame house. You might consider identifying an area or two within your plan that you might like to timber frame (for example the front entry and great room) and establish a budget. Then, give us a call and we’ll do our best to come up with something great that fits your budget. By the way, if the timber framing is structural (versus decorative) there is some cost offset savings to be realized (since the timber framing is replacing 2x conventional construction).

Admittedly, timber framing is more expensive than conventional construction, but it’s also for us non-millionaire folks. I have a timber framed heavy duty mailbox with post, one curved timber bracket at my front entry, and a timber framed garage/guesthouse.

Finally, you can design, cut, and raise the timber frame yourself. It’s a heavy lift (pun intended), but your ancestors probably did it, and people today find it highly rewarding. By the way, there are wonderful schools that teach introductory timber framing (Heartwood in MA, and Yestermorrow in VT).

A More Considered Reply on Timber Frame Cost

Most of the timber frames Carolina Timberworks builds are for architect-designed homes — so to be clear, we do not design timber frame homes. My personal design philosophy has been shaped by the architect-designed timber frames we’ve been involved with, as well as two books:

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka

Sarah Susanka’s design philosophy might be summarized as follows: Keep your budget as is, but design a smaller home with less square footage. Spend the cost savings on great design, quality materials, and craftsmanship.

Suppose you want to budget for some timber framing in your home, have a smaller home design in hand, and have already chosen which areas of your home to timber frame. Here are some factors under your control that will determine how much your timber frame construction costs:

The timber frame design itself. The simpler the timber frame design, the less expensive it will be.
Your timber choices are varied, and certain timber species are less expensive than others.
Within a given timber species, sometimes a lower grade is available that will produce a serviceable yet still beautiful (and less expensive) timber frame.
Reducing timber sizes. If structurally feasible (here’s where quality timber frame engineering pays for itself), these savings can add up fast. For example, an 8×8 post has 36% less wood than a 10×10 post.
The Golden Triangle applies to timber framing, just as it does to other purchases. Pick any two sides. You can have fast and cheap (but mediocre), good and cheap (but slow), or fast and good (but not cheap). You can’t have all three.

Need Some Ideas About Designing a Smaller Home So You Can Fit Timber Framing Into the Budget?

Since we don’t design homes, it was timely that Brice Cochran of Timber Frame HQ recently sent me some good advice on the topic.

Planning is the First Step

Whether you’re buying your first starter home, downsizing after the kids have flown the coop, or are financially limited to a smaller timber frame home, planning the most practical way to use your space can make that house seem more spacious.

It’s great when you can have a room for each of your family’s activities, but it usually isn’t feasible. By thinking ahead, planning your space, and getting creative, you can come up with a solution that gives everyone in the family the space they need for various hobbies and activities.

Consider the Things You Want to Do

Of course, you could make a laundry list of dozens of things you’d like to do in your home, and those may be good for your bucket list. However, think seriously about your family’s lifestyle options. What hobbies do your family get involved with and what responsibilities do family members have that require special space?

Be realistic about your needs, now and in the future. Make contingency plans and put future expansion and remodeling ideas into your design. If you envision a future addition, make sure you have the space on your property for it. Make sure there is easy access to add electrical, HVAC, and plumbing to the room when the time comes.

Rethink the Size of Rooms

It’s become very popular to have huge master bedroom suites and oversized spa bathrooms. It sounds cool to think of having a private getaway in your bedroom with plenty of space for a desk, a comfortable chair, or even an exercise machine. In addition, that spa bathroom that’s big enough for the whole family to use at once might seem glamorous, but when you’re planning a modest home, these two rooms may need some rethinking. The extra square footage you gain when you scale down those oversized rooms can go a long way to giving other smaller rooms the space they need to become roomy multi-purpose rooms the entire family can enjoy.

Hallways are a big waste of space. Plan your home to have the smallest square footage of the hallway as possible and use the extra space to enlarge other rooms.

Repurpose Spaces

If you never use your formal dining room and have ample space in your kitchen or family room, repurpose it as an office, hobby room, or exercise room. You don’t need a huge laundry room. In designing your home, consider using a closet for your washer and dryer.

Consider creating a centralized all-in-one space that includes your HVAC, plumbing system, storage, and laundry area. This compact use of space frees up valuable real estate for expanding smaller rooms.

Choose Furniture That Does Double Duty

Think further than a hide-a-bed when you’re considering furniture that can multitask. Of course, a convertible sofa is a good answer for a guest room that doubles as an office or study. There are lots of furniture options that make changing the role of your room easy and look great.

Certainly not cheap, but a great space saver for a guest room is a Murphy bed. These units have been around for years and today’s models are sleek and stylish. An adjustable height coffee table that rises to become a worktable or eating space is a perfect space-saving option for a desk or craft table in a study.

If you don’t have room for a desk, there are fold-down wall-mounted units that hide beneath an art print or mirror surface when it’s stowed away.

A long counter with base cabinets can be used as a desk or work area with plenty of storage space. This area can double as an entertainment area in a family room.

There’s a wide variety of furniture that incorporates storage into the base. Benches, footstools, low chests all are available with built-in storage space. Under-bed storage options vary from off-season clothing storage to a child’s toy storage and play surface to a pull-out trundle bed. Expandable tables are popular for feeding a crown or as a roomy work table.

Make Use of Lost Space

You may have some wasted space that can be converted to useful living space. The area beneath the stairs can serve a number of purposes. Open up space and create a compact workspace with a built-in desk and shelves. Another option is to create a storage space with a closet or a wall filled with drawers. Depending on its location, it could become a cozy reading nook, wet bar, or a diminutive powder room.

Space under the eaves can be fitted out with drawers for built-in storage, or if there’s enough headroom, lay down sturdy flooring and use it for long-term storage.

The most overlooked and underused space in most homes is the vertical wall space. Shelving can be installed around doors, above and adjacent to windows, in a wide hallway, and can reach to the ceiling. With all the added storage that doesn’t take up floor space, you can minimize bulky furniture like dressers and cabinets. You’ve opened up the room to accommodate the things you need for your multi-purpose plans.

Spend time planning how you’ll realistically use your home and develop a strategy to make the most of your home’s square footage. You may be surprised at how much you can do with the space you have.

Finally, you might enjoy this article about the low cost of quality: https://www.carolinatimberworks.com/a-return-to-quality/

A homeowner building in the Outer Banks emailed a great question this week:

“I was wondering if people typically use your trusses as structural members or just as decorative members attached to the existing frame structure?” We build and install both decorative and structural timber framing.

What Is Decorative Timber Framing?

Non-structural, or decorative timber framing, is frequently timber frame trusses in a cathedral ceiling or beams on a flat ceiling. Our engineers call this timber framing non weight-bearingin other words, the timber isn’t holding up or supporting anything above it. As an example, suppose a great Room is designed with 2×10 ceiling rafters framing and holding up the roof. If you choose to install timber frame trusses under the 2×10 rafters, the timber frame trusses wouldn’t be structural because the 2×10 rafters are actually doing the work of supporting the roof.

Over the years, we’ve built a lot of non-structural timber framing. Our yardstick for this work is simple: to look right, it must look as if it is structural.

Back to our great room example. Structural trusses usually have between 6’ and 8’ spacing between trusses. So if a great room was 16’ wide and 24’ long, we’d design three trusses for the room — one at 6’, one at 12’, and one at 18’. Sometimes, we might include two more — one at each of the gable ends (at 0’ and 24’).

Often we make these end trusses half-thickness so as to appear partially embedded in the wall. In addition to truss spacing, in order to look right, the trusses must be built using appropriate timber sizes. A structural truss spanning a 16’ wide great room would probably need to be built from timber at least 6” wide – i.e. we might use 6” x 12” timber for the rafters and lower chords.

If the truss were built from smaller material, say 4” x 6”, it wouldn’t look structural, and that’s what would make it not look right. Conversely, to look structural, there shouldn’t be too many trusses, or built from timber sizes that are oversized–that doesn’t look right either.

Our yardstick for designing and installing non-structural timber framing involves a mental picture: at some point in the future, the homeowner has a guest visit the home. This guest may be an architect, an engineer, or perhaps another timber framer. We want that guest to look up, and stand there for many minutes trying to figure out if the timber is structural or non-structural, then turn to you and ask.

Pros of Decorative Timber Framing

A great place to use reclaimed beams. Reclaimed beams are normally not graded or grade-stamped, which is required by engineering for structural timber framing.
They can be (and often are) retrofit from below after the roof is in place. The benefit is that the timber is protected from the weather, and since it is installed later in the process, it is unlikely to be damaged by other trades. As you might imagine, this costs a bit more than setting heavy timber from above with a crane (picture each 400 lb. timber being unloaded and carried by hand into your great room).
Pre-finished. We frequently apply a finish to the timber because most builders agree that it’s less expensive for our crew to finish the timber framing in our shop while it’s on sawhorses than it is for a painting subcontractor to erect scaffolding and apply two coats of finish on site.
Great for remodeling. We can add or retrofit timber framing and beams to existing houses and have done so many times as a part of a remodeling project.

Cons of Decorative Timber Framing

Need to carefully consider spacing, timber sizes, and proportions so that it looks right (structural).
Added weight: timber is heavy. For example, a single 6” x 12” x 16’ Douglas fir timber weighs about 4 lbs. per board foot or 384 lbs. An engineer needs to be consulted to determine that your framing is designed to safely support the added weight of non-structural timbers.

What Is Structural Timber Framing?

Structural timber framing, as you might expect, is when the timber framing is weight-bearing, or doing the work of holding up part of the house above it. If we return to the great room example, your architect and builder might decide to support the roof using structural timber frame trusses. In that case, the timber frame trusses would be designed and engineered to support the weight of the decking (usually 2×6 tongue & groove) or sheetrock ceiling, the insulation, the roofing, and the wind and snow loads.

Pros of Structural Timber Framing

It looks right. The aesthetic concern of looking right is addressed automatically because the timber framing has been engineered to be structural.
It replaces some structural conventional 2x framing, which can help offset the cost.
Durability. If kept dry, timber framing can (and does) last for centuries.
Safety. We don’t like to think about it, but houses sometimes burn. Unlike steel or 2x4s, timber framing provides more time for the family to safely get out of a home in a fire (see the FOR ARCHITECTS section on our website for an article on the subject).

Cons of Structural Timber Framing

More expensive than conventional 2×4 framing.
Must be engineered; however, this isn’t a major cost in most projects.
Installed earlier in the building process — meaning it has to be planned in advance and protected during the balance of the construction process.

Learn More: Our Timber Frame Glossary

How to Figure Out a Timber Frame Budget