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Your Link to Timber Frame News & Information | |
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April 2009, Issue 8 |
Dear Homeowner,
Welcome home to Issue 8 of "In Touch" - a newsletter that will grow around your questions, concerns and personal stories surrounding your timber frame project. This issue will provide information about understanding the design process, putting the finishing touches on your new home, new ways to save energy, and much more! We hope you will "contact us" and let us know your questions about the timber framing process. The answer may be contained in next month's "In Touch."
We hope you enjoy this brief monthly communique. If you would like to opt out, please see the end of this email for opt-out details. However, we hope you stay connected as an "In Touch" reader! The Timber Frame Business Council (TFBC) is a non-profit trade association and will NOT share your contact information as a result of receiving this newsletter!
We look forward to staying "In Touch." |
| A Client's Guide |
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Understanding the Design Process- Part 1
Custom design is an interactive process that requires communication, reflection, revision and refinement. Both flexibility and decisiveness are needed. It is a multi-step process that requires increasing levels of commitment as you proceed. Not only will good design add value to your home, the process should be an enjoyable one that results in a home that fits you well. Here's a bit about each phase.
Programming and Schematic Design
The first step is to develop your building program. Initially, this might be a loose description of functions or activities that you wish to support within the house, as well as considerations of view, solar exposure, natural light and other site-related factors. Your initial program should also include a rough idea of the number of rooms you require, a general idea of the overall size of the house, information about your preliminary construction budget and a notion of the feel you are trying to achieve- rustic, contemporary, open, private.
Your designer or architect will help you create a more detailed program which will result in the first schematic design- typically a set of hand-drawn sketches or CAD of floor plans and one or more exterior elevations. It may require one or more revisions before you arrive at a version of the plan that you wish to develop further.
At completion of the schematic design you should receive a rough cost estimate for the entire house. While many of the construction details remain to be defined, a preliminary cost estimate based on the schematic plans will be more accurate than, the "ballpark" costs you collected earlier and will be a valuable reality check.
Depending on which process you have chosen you may already have selected the timber framing company and general contractor with who you wish to work. Their input is especially valuable during this phase of the design process. If you aren't ready to commit to one single firm yet, consider retaining a timber framing company and general contractor as consultants. The results of the preliminary pricing exercise may direct you "back to the drawing board" to revise or refine your concept, but it's better to do it early in the process rather than after the design is further developed. Remain flexible and open to compromise.
Next Month: Understanding the Design Process- Part 2 |
| A Message to Property Owners- Time to Build |
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Published: in Scantlings by K. Drew Sumrell, President, Woodborne Design
If you've been planning to build a new home, you've surely had many decisions to make-and recently, a long list of reservations. One of your biggest decisions has probably been when to build considering the current economic situation. And that, no doubt, has been a difficult decision to make. You've probably been seeking answers to questions like, "Should I build now or should I wait six months or a year?" Or perhaps you've been thinking, "If I wait a while longer, the economy may worsen and I can get an even better deal as material and labor costs come down further." Well, there is always that possibility, but who has a crystal ball that can accurately tell you when the housing market and the economy will hit bottom?
I certainly don't possess that crystal ball, but there are a lot of factors in the market place right now that indicate this is a great time to move forward with your building project. Non-petroleum based building materials have come down drastically in recent years and many are at twenty year lows. Because of current conditions in the housing market, labor costs are on the decline in many cases. And to sweeten the pot even more, mortgage rates are at an all time low around the country. All these factors add up to a highly favorable time to build a new home, to do that addition you need for your growing family or to finally tackle that major renovation that's been needed for years.
To give you a more precise depiction of how far wooden building materials have fallen in recent years, here are a couple of examples from information provided by Random Lengths, an industry leader in tracking and reporting wood product prices for the building industry. Based on a composite price for structural panel materials such as plywood and OSB, the average price in 2004 was $462.00 per thousand square feet (MSF).
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| How To Go Green When Remodeling Your Kitchen |
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ReliableRemodeler.com
Despite the increasing popularity of solar panels, energy-efficient windows, and manual mowers, eco-friendly products have been slow to make it into the kitchen. This delay has some homeowners baffled, since many believe the kitchen to be one of the biggest energy hogs in the house. Recently, however, a growing number of green products have entered the home improvement market, making it much easier to design a kitchen with energy saving in mind. So if the one-two punch of global warming and sky-high energy prices has you "green with envy," consider upgrading your kitchen with one or more of the following options. Going Green from the Bottom Up. A good place to start building a green kitchen is at the bottom, and you can't get much lower than the floor. The current star in green flooring is bamboo. Although bamboo flooring looks and feels like wood, bamboo is actually a grass, capable of growing more than two feet in a single day. This makes it a much more sustainable building material than wood.
Cabinet making using eco-friendly materials is a rare, yet budding, specialty. Don't get discouraged if you can't find a cabinetmaker who is experienced in green building. By calling around a little, you should be able to find someone who's willing to use wheat board (which is made from wheat straw, a waste product, and non-toxic adhesives) instead of particleboard. Improve Your Efficiency. You'll never find a perfectly green kitchen, since both cooking and cooling food requires quite a bit of power. However, a handful of appliances exist that can help drastically reduce your consumption of power. For example, look for appliances that have an Energy Star rating. Many models with an Energy Star rating offer energy-saving cycle options and a no-heat drying feature. You might also consider buying a refrigerator that's just big enough to accommodate your needs, but no bigger. Click here to find local Kitchen Contractors. |
| Ask the Expert |
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Do you have a question about your home or building project? Please forward your questions to pam@timberframe.org and the answer may be found in the next edition of "In Touch." |
| Tell Us Your Story |
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If you have built a timber frame home and you'd like to share your story with our readers, please pass along your story (and any photos) -- we'd like to highlight your project! Send your story to info@timberframe.org! |
| About the Timber Frame Business Council |
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Established in October 1995, the Timber Frame Business Council (TFBC) was created as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the quality, integrity and marketability of the timber frame industry. TFBC is committed to strengthening and advancing the business, communications and research capabilities within the timber frame industry.
Using its most traditional definition, timber framing is a specific type of post and beam construction in which a frame is created from solid wood timbers that are connected by several types of interlocking wood joinery including mortise and tenon, dovetails or scarfs secured with hardwood pegs.
Timber frames are enclosed using several methods. While traditional timber frames were typically in-filled (between the posts and beams) with various mixtures of clay, straw, lime and other regionally available materials, contemporary frames use several methods that effectively enclose the timber frame and allow the timbers to remain exposed to the interior of the building. Timber framing is a building system which lends itself well to both residential and commercial construction over a broad spectrum of architectural styles such as; traditional, rustic, modern, southwestern, oriental and colonial to name a few. Timber framing integrates well with many other building systems and materials, such as; structural insulated panels, log systems, engineered wood products, concrete and conventional stud framing. |
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| The Timber Frame Business Council is a non-profit trade association dedicated to putting you in touch with North America's best timber framing professionals. Please consider hiring a TFBC member for your next building project! And, remember, to stay "In Touch"!
Sincerely,
Pam Hinton, Executive Director
Timber Frame Business Council |
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Visit Us!!!
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Timber Frame Business Council
Your Link to Timber Frame Professionals, Resources & Information
104 Carlisle St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325 USA
888-560-9251
www.timberframe.org
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We'd like to hear from you! Email to info@timberframe.org or pam@timberframe.org
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