Harmonious Interaction Through Timber Frame Homes
The living environment created by a timber frame provides for harmonious interaction between nature, family, and guests. At times, the frames seem to speak… they whisper of value, tradition, ancestors, strength, dignity, and honesty. No matter who you are, or how old you are, or how long you live, your timber frame home will always whisper those things to you, your family, and your descendants as it anchors your life and theirs.
Adaptability And Flexibility Of Timber Frame Homes
Adaptability and flexibility of design and style - both interior and exterior - are hallmarks of timber frame buildings. Of our three main product lines, timber frames are the most flexible from the perspective of look and style.
An Interior Designer’s Dream Is a Timber Frame Home
The frame itself is a complete structural unit, so interior partition walls are not load bearing. The interior designer is then allowed a great deal of latitude in the development of interior spaces. The self-supporting frame allows the development of very open, airy floor plans, while at the same time providing massive posts and beams to help provide natural definition of living areas and traffic patterns. Interior design can be anything from artsy, or formal, or eclectic, or regional, or period reproduction… or just about anything you can imagine. The timbers themselves can be planed and oiled, rough sawn, hand-hewn, sandblasted, hand planed, or whatever other interesting finishing process we can come up with. Many different species of wood work well. Most of ours are white pine, Douglas fir, or oak. But, we’ve worked with recycled or reclaimed timbers of various species, standing dead timbers, cedar, cypress, walnut, hickory, yellow pine, and others. A very crucial Hearthstone advantage is that we can kiln dry large timbers — and many of our frames are now dried. Truly drying big timbers requires very specialized equipment and expertise.
Energy Efficient Timber Frame Homes
The frame is then covered in various ways, but most commonly with a blanket of extremely energy efficient structural insulated panels (SIPs). SIP’s in-and-of themselves are a tremendous building product — featuring supreme energy efficiency and strength. The exterior finish and architectural look of a timber frame can be anything that could be applied to any other type of structure — for instance wood, stone, glass, brick, etc. The interior walls can be finished the same way any other interior wall could be finished.
Timber framing can provide opportunities in many different situations for many different people, and they make outstanding commercial buildings. The imagination is the limit. The common denominators, however, remain: time tested durability, superb energy efficiency, distinctive interior décor, lasting value, and a warm, rich feeling of living in concert with nature and your heritage.
Building Timber Frame Homes Since 1984
Hearthstone has enjoyed the reputation of being one of the premier timber framers in the world. We want to thank our many customers, and our designers and timberwrights are awaiting your instructions!