![]() Those that are built in Massachusetts as primary housing tend to be more modest in size and have normal ceiling heights.Īll are characterized by attention to the esthetics of home building, and reflect the devotion that the builders feel to a centuries-old craft. Those that are built near ski slopes are bigger and more opulent. The purist timber-frame builders make full use of the post-and-beam style, leaving ceiling beams exposed, and liberally using peeled logs, rails and wood paneling on most surfaces.īut if the purist timber-frame builders in New England all project the woodsy image in their houses, there are also differences in their products. ''Post and beam'' is the term for a style of home in which timbers, or sawn logs, are used as major design elements, whether the construction is conventional (what builders term ''stick built'') or timber frame. Delano, vice president of Ward Log Homes in Moulten, Me. Instead, the frame and walls are formed by logs stacked on top of each other, said Dana P. For instance, the approximately 20,000 log homes a year built by about 300 companies nationwide usually are not timber-framed. ![]() Baker is also president of Riverbend Timber Framing of Blissfield, Mich.īut not all houses that generously use rough-cut wood to form the walls use timber framing. Benson said that while timber-frame companies are abundant in New England, ''they thin out the closer you get to New York because of the high cost of doing business there.'' Many companies, including his own, will deliver pre-cut product to almost any location for assembly on the site, he said.Įlements of the timber-framing technique are now incorporated into public buildings such as clubhouses and visitor centers for parks, said Frank Baker, president of the Timber Frame Business Council. Last year Taunton Press published the second edition of his book, ''The Timber-Frame Home.'' He is a former furniture maker and conventional builder who started doing timber-frame construction in 1972. ''It's like building furniture on a large scale,'' said Tedd Benson, a timber-frame builder in Alsted, N.H. Now there are estimated to be about 1,500 timber-frame builders working in 300 companies and doing approximately 2,000 houses a year. Timber-frame construction has had a resurrection since the 1970's, and especially in New England, when concern over fuel scarcity coincided with the renewed allure of the self-sufficient rural lifestyle, according to Janice Brewster, editor of Timber Frame magazine, a monthly published in Chantilly, Va. If there is interior wood paneling it is sawn timber, with grooves hand-sawn into the sides to permit one piece to slide into another. As master carpenters, they provide a profusion of handwork in both the interior and exterior detailing of their houses.Ĭupboards, bookshelves, clothing pegs and other wall elements are part of the wall itself, rather than affixed to it after construction, making wall features a part of the craftsmanship of the house. Lempert, a 50-year-old builder who is among a handful of purist practitioners of the art of timber-frame construction across the country. He engaged Jerry Nash, an architect in Strong, Me., to design the four-bedroom house with a sleeping loft, including a two-bedroom apartment at the ground level. Hild, an auditor for the Department of Defense who lives in McLean, Va. ''Conventional stick-built houses look great on the outside, but I wanted something that's unique on the inside, where every corner isn't predictable,'' said the buyer, Charles R. The vertical load is carried to the ground through the outer walls, rather than interior walls as in conventional ''stick-built'' construction. ![]() Since no load-bearing interior walls or vertical beams are required to hold up the structure, the buyer can divide the interior space with furniture or walls, or not at all. Most important, its frame is self-supporting. It has a stone fireplace 30 feet high and 96 feet of wraparound porches, all set off by an abundance of hand-crafted cabinetry and trim. The house has interior beams 24 feet long, each weighing about 800 pounds. Lempert is finishing a 3,800-square-foot mountaintop retreat for a Virginia man who plans to retire to Carrabassett, a town with a year-round population of 400 and the home of the Sugarloaf ski resort. He fits them together with handmade joints and pegs to build houses in a time-honored method of construction called timber framing. Michael Lempert has been harvesting trees from his secluded 150-acre farm and cutting them into logs with a portable saw. ![]()
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