Building a Timber Home | 8 Steps to Ensure a Smooth Timber Home-Building Process8 Steps: Ensure a Smooth Home Building Process The planning’s done. The design’s finalized. The timber package is ordered. Now it’s time for you (or at least your builder) to get your hands dirty. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? From a well-organized party to a perfectly executed house, it takes effort and know-how to turn individual elements into a cohesive whole. That’s where experienced builders and general contractors come in. Now, you’ve probably heard a few nightmarish construction stories about everything from costly delays to sloppy subcontractors. But there’s no reason to lose sleep over such tales. Just remember one very important thing: you’re in control from the start. If you’re just as conscientious about choosing a builder as you were about drafting your floorplan, everything will come together to give you the home you’ve been dreaming of. Our building guide will help take the fear factor out of getting the right team in place. Here are the eight big steps that will ensure a smooth building experience. 1. Establish a feasible, workable schedule. Like any type of custom construction, building a timber home isn’t a speedy process. Set aside six to seven months to refine your home’s design, which will lead to floorplans and working drawings. Then allocate another two months for the timber (whether it’s structural or decorative) to be cut and delivered to your building site. Raising and enclosing the frame takes approximately one week. Finishing the interior can take anywhere from two to nine months or more, depending on the level of detail in your home. 2. Apply for building permits and arrange onsite necessities. While your timber producer prepares the wood for delivery, the general contractor (GC) you’ve chosen to lead your home’s construction has been obtaining and paying for various clearances (including the all-important building permit) so that construction can begin on schedule. He’s also talked to the local building authority and your lender to determine when each requires inspection of his work. To ensure that construction starts on time, the GC contacts the local power company to arrange for temporary electrical service at the site. If you’re building in a rural area, he may schedule a crew to install the well and septic systems.  3. Prepare the land. Several weeks before the arrival of your timber home components, the work site becomes a beehive of activity. A surveyor marks the boundaries of the house and indicates where the footings and the foundation should be. An excavator clears the site of trees and brush and puts in a rough road so that the contractor’s equipment and deliveries can reach the building site without delay. With a temporary road in place, the subcontractors hired to dig the well and set up the septic system start to drill for water, lay out a drainage field and bury the septic tank in the ground. Once complete, the site is ready for construction to begin. 4. Build the foundation. Before the timber is delivered to your site, the foundation must be complete. This is a two-step process, consisting of laying footings for walls and fireplaces and assembling the foundation walls or piers. The footings are put in place first, then checked and approved by the local building inspector before the foundation walls or piers can be erected. Footings are crucial because they enable the weight of the house to be distributed to the ground over a larger area. In addition, they serve as a level surface on which to set the foundation walls. Your timber home producer supplies the general contractor with specifications for the type of foundation your house needs. Though any conventional foundation can support a timber frame, this type of construction differs from stick-built houses in that a small number of posts carry the structure’s weight, thus producing loads that are concentrated in several points instead of being spread over the home’s entire foundation. There are several types of foundations: poured concrete, concrete block, pre-cast wall, concrete slab and pier. The type that’s chosen for your home is governed by several factors, including the site’s characteristics, the type of soil, the local climate, the design of the house and your budget. However, there’s one piece of advice the experts all agree on: Build the best foundation you can afford—it’s the essential underpinning of your home.  5. Unload and inventory the timbers and raise the frame. The big day—delivery day! The timber home package is delivered to the site, the framing crew unloads it from the delivery truck either by crane, forklift or by hand. The crew then inventories and organizes the timbers by function—posts, beams, braces and the like—to expedite construction. Now’s when the fun really begins, because you get to see your home take shape before your very eyes. The crew then raises the frame (bent by bent or section by section) depending on its overall design. Timber homes tend to go up quickly, so there’s a measure of instant gratification at this stage of the process. 6. Enclose the exterior. In the weeks following the raising, the materials that will form the exterior walls and roof are attached to the frame. Installing structural insulated panels (SIPs) is the most frequently used method to enclose a timber home. The panels usually come in heights of one story or more and usually consist of a polyurethane foam core sandwiched between two structural boards. Each panel of this highly energy-efficient wall system is set in place on top of the sill. The tops of the panels are attached to the girt or plate, which is a horizontal beam at the top of each level of the house. Unless the panels are unusually large, the crew lifts the first-floor wall panels into place by hand. A crane usually lifts panels destined for upper levels. SIPs are also sometimes used as the base for a timber home’s roof. They’re usually nailed directly onto roof timbers. If not, decking is nailed to the timbers first, which becomes a base for layers of rigid foam insulation. The roofing can then be covered with any type of finishing material, such as metal, slate, or cedar shake shingles. Work on the exterior continues with the window and door installation and painting the siding and trim. Around the same time, the crew builds the garage and any porches and decks the design calls for, and a mason constructs the fireplace. 7. Finalize the interior spaces. Now that the home is fully enclosed and protected against the elements, the GC can focus on the interior. The basic systems of the house are put into place in this order: plumbing; heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC); and electrical wiring. These systems, installed by subcontractors, are concealed within interior walls, which are constructed with conventional wood-stud or steel framing. Plumbing is pretty straightforward—it consists of water and waste lines to and from the kitchen and bathrooms, typically comprised of PVC piping. HVAC systems can vary widely, depending on where the home is built and the type of heating and cooling system needed, but more often than not they employ a network of galvanized steel ducts to distribute air to each room. Electrical wiring, the most flexible of the three systems, is installed last. Once you obtain the inspector’s seal of approval, the interior walls can be enclosed. To finish their walls, most timber homeowners opt for drywall, which is easy to erect, prime and paint. Next, the flooring is laid with any variety of materials from hardwood to tile. Then it’s time to bring in the kitchen appliances and bath fixtures and install the cabinets and countertops. Once that’s in, the plumbing, HVAC and electrical subcontractors return to hook it all up. The electrician hangs light fixtures and installs receptacles throughout the house. The plumber sets bathroom tubs and water closets and installs sinks. He also connects plumbing fixtures to the main incoming and wastewater lines. The HVAC specialist completes installation work on items such as heat registers and thermostats. Meanwhile, trim carpenters hang doors and set trim and hardware around doors and windows. They often also install stairs, railings and moldings. Your home is almost there. 8. Apply the finishing touches. Toward the end of construction, the driveway is poured. The excavator returns to give the site a final grading, which ensures proper drainage of rainwater away from the foundation. (This step is done late in the construction process to give the foundation’s backfill time to settle.) The roofing contractor returns to install gutters and downspouts. And, finally, the landscaper seeds the yard and plants shrubbery. Throughout the entire construction process, keep tabs on your home’s development, and don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions. Point out any inconsistencies in what you envisioned and what you’re seeing as soon as they crop up. Stick to the building script as much as possible, remembering that changes in the plan can cost you thousands. Above all, enjoy the process. The artistry required to build a timber frame structure results in a home that’s an extraordinary statement about your personal taste and lifestyle—as well as a testament to a time-honored form of home building. Find: Timber Home Plans Browse: Timber Homes
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