What Is a Timber Frame Home Kit?

A timber frame home kit is a pre-designed, pre-cut timber frame package delivered to your building site for assembly. Whether you want a simple timber frame gazebo, a timber frame barn, or a full package of materials for your new home, you can find a standardized option that includes some or most of what you or your builder needs to complete the job.

Read More: The Experience of Living in Timber Frame Homes

What Comes in a Timber Frame Home Kit?

The contents of a timber frame home kit can widely vary based on the design you choose and the timber frame company you contract with. Many include these common components:

Timber

This is the common denominator. Timber frame home kits always include timber, but you can often choose the type. Perhaps you’d like Western Red Cedar, Eastern White Pine, or Douglas Fir?

Most kits include joinery, posts, beams, rafters, joists, ties, and hardware—essentially everything you need to assemble the timber frame on top of your existing foundation. Everything comes pre-cut to spec, based on the plan you choose.

Walls and Ceilings

Home kits often include 2×6 tongue and groove loft and ceiling boards and interior 1×6 wall paneling. Some companies offer insulation and siding.

Select kits also come with conventional framing elements like 2x wall and floor systems. In addition, your kit may include SIPs (structural insulated panels) screws, foam sealant, and other installation materials.

Tools, Manuals, and Blueprints

Some kits even come with timber frame tools, including chisels and sharpening stones. Most include blueprints and manuals to guide your builder or allow for DIY assembly if you’re up for a challenge.

If you opt for a complete timber frame home kit, you can expect a few extras. For example, these kits may include interior and exterior doors, windows and trim, stairs, decks, and flooring.

How Much Do Timber Frame Home Kits Cost?

Just as the cost of conventional homes vary widely, so does the cost of timber frame homes. Keep in mind that the total cost to build varies significantly depending on the location of your property. As a general rule, timber frame homes cost 10% to 25% more than conventional 2×4 and 2×6 construction.  

• Basic timber frame home kits only include the timber frame and 2×6 tongue & groove roof boards. Engineering of the timber frame and installation may, or may not, be included.
• A more complete kit might include an engineered timber frame (and installation), 2×6 roof decking, 2×6 loft decking, and structural insulated panels (and installation). floor insulation, siding, as well as the windows and exterior doors necessary to secure the home.
• A “complete” timber frame home kit might include everything above plus windows, doors, siding, interior wall framing, interior stairs, paneling, and trim. However, you may find that the level of quality may not meet your specifications, or your builder may be able to purchase the same for less money. In any event, a “complete” timber frame home kit is in no way complete. Among other things, it would typically not include, to name a few, site work, driveway, well and septic, foundation excavation, foundation, finished flooring, sheetrock, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, decks, roofing, painting, or appliances, etc.

Other factors can affect the total cost. For example, the location of the building site and the type of timber you choose may increase the cost of your home kit.

Why Build With Timber Frame Home Kits?

Building with a kit can be a smart choice for several reasons:

Quick Turnaround Time

Kits are based on standardized designs and are delivered with pre-cut timber. They’re designed to be relatively easy to assemble, which means you can build them quickly, at least in theory. Ideally, you get greater control over the construction process and schedule.

Versatile Plan Options

Home kits typically have standard designs, but that doesn’t mean they all look exactly the same. No matter which plans you choose, you can select the wood type that best fits your budget or your aesthetic. Inside, there’s often no need for load-bearing walls, making for an open floor plan. Design and fill the space however you choose—it’s yours.

Endless Customizations

When you work with a timber frame company, you’re not limited to a pre-made kit. Instead, you can use a kit as a starting point for your simple timber frame house plan, customizing it by changing the size, adding extra interior space, decorative elements, or even stories.

How to Buy a Timber Frame Home Kit

At Carolina Timberworks, one question we frequently ask ourselves is, “What would we do if it were our home”? On the kit question, we’re torn. About 99% of all the timber frames we’ve ever built were custom-designed for the client and the client’s site.

Over many years working with talented architects and design professionals, we’ve seen how the design process results in buildings that delight their owners and fit the land. And because they’re loved, they’ll be maintained and last generations (which is one of our definitions of sustainable timber framing).

Whether you’re looking for a standardized house plan with a quick turnaround time or a timber frame home plan you can customize to meet your needs, a pre-designed timber frame home kit might—or might not—be a good fit.

Overall, you probably won’t save money buying a kit. The cost of the kit isn’t nearly as important as what your total cost of the completed building on your property turns out to be. As you go through the list of included materials, you may think to yourself, “almost everything’s included, I can build this for less than I thought!” Experience teaches otherwise.

All in all, you probably won’t save time either. Most people end up modifying the standard kit design at least a little—which means they must go through the design, drafting, and engineering process.

If you do find the perfect kit design from the right company, before you write a check, ask to speak with their last five customers. Take the time to phone each one and ask this question:  “Knowing what you know now, would you make the same decision again?”

Want some more good questions? Here’s an article about how to interview a timber frame company. Oh, and one more tip: don’t buy without visiting.

Carolina Timberworks’ Timber Frame House Kit Concept

During COVID-19, we came up with a few ready-to-build, high-end timber frame kits as a way to keep our people working. The idea was that our timber framers could take materials home in their trucks and cut the kits in their driveways in the event our building was shut down. While we no longer offer kits and are focused on custom timber framing projects, it’s fun to imagine all the different kits that could be created like our home concept above.

New to timber frame kits? Visit our Timber Frame Glossary to familiarize yourself with the key terms and components involved.

The post A Guide to Timber Frame Home Kits appeared first on Carolina Timberworks.

In Their Words

The trip to visit the Carolina Timberworks shop was the highlight of our project thus far! We were simply blown away by the whole experience. Even just driving to your beautiful shop through the gorgeous mountain environment with the leaves changing and stunning vistas around every corner.

Driving up to the shop for the first time, quite impressive, understated and perfectly done to create the right environment exuding the extraordinary craftsmanship inside. First Impressions: Safe, Clean, Orderly and filled with incredibly focused craftsmen working busily inside and out shaping our beautiful South Carolina Southern Yellow Pine Beams, custom cut from trees on our land, years before. They are now coming to life right before our eyes! Every one of your customers must take advantage of a visit like to this to see this happen. To see and feel the emotion and even the smell of the wood, while these talented men create extremely difficult precision joinery. Unreal experience!

Each one of your craftsmen were so polite and engaging as we communicated with them. Obviously very proud of what they are doing and eager to share the particular things they were doing.

A truly invaluable experience for us all.

While You’re Here

With 5 peaks over 5,000′, 10 acres per inhabitant, a jet-capable airport, the North and South Forks of the New River, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the picture postcard perfect town of West Jefferson, North Carolina, you’ll want to leave some extra time to explore the area. Here’s a list of some of our favorite things to do while you’re in town.

Learn More

Step inside the world of timber framing

The post Why You Should Visit Your Timber Frame Company appeared first on Carolina Timberworks.

Their answer may be truthful, but if you want to build a timber frame, you haven’t learned what you need to know to make an informed decision.  

So, how exactly do you do that?  Ask better questions, listen carefully, and interview like a pro.   

Here are some tips from newspaper reporters and the FBI about how to interview people (after all, they do this for a living):   

Just like building a timber frame, start with the foundation

There may be no such thing as a stupid question, but some are a lot better than others.  It can be helpful to play “let’s pretend”.  So, pretend for a moment you have a superpower—any question you ask will be answered.  What questions would you like to know the answers to? 

As you develop your questions, start by asking yourself what you want to achieve.  For example, are you looking for a solution to a particular problem?  Are you looking to uncover something?  Are you looking for a better understanding?  Decided to build a timber frame, but trying to choose between 2 or 3 apparently equally qualified timber frame subcontractors?

Typically, you’ll want to uncover:

1. Can they do the work?
2. Will they do it when you want it done?
3. Can they do it for the investment you’re willing to make?
4. What would it be like to work with this firm?
5. Is this timber frame company the best fit, or not?
6. What could possibly go wrong?

Not familiar with some of the timber framing terms mentioned by your potential timber framer? Visit our Timber Frame Glossary for detailed explanations.

Get comfortable asking questions

You have a right to ask questions—you’re about to write a big check.  Furthermore, you have a responsibility to ask questions—if you don’t ask the right questions and bad things happen, you have only yourself to blame.  

(Not everyone has to like what you ask.  You’re on safe ground as long as your intention and purpose for asking the question comes from a good place. ) 

Visit their shop and use your powers of observation

Use the part of your brain that has evolved over tens of thousands of years to sense and observe the environment.  Do people seem to like working there? Is the phone ringing?  Do the other employees avert their eyes when you pass? Notice cigarette butts or litter as you step out of your car? Is the place generally organized or not? Tension in the air?  Do you see anyone you would be uncomfortable with in your home?

Ask non-leading questions

A leading question implies its own answer and subtly prompts the respondent how to answer.  You’ll learn more if you try not to give clues about how you feel or think about something.

If you were to build a timber frame home, what wood would you choose?

            vs

Oak shrinks a lot, correct?

In general, ask open-ended questions

An open-ended question is one that can’t be answered yes or no or by a limited set of possible answers. They encourage the respondent to talk thereby providing you the opportunity to learn things you wouldn’t otherwise.

What are you most proud of about your company and why?  

            vs

What are your company’s strengths?

What Questions Should You Ask Your Timber Frame Company?

• What are the challenges you see in our project?
• If we ask for references from recently completed jobs, how would that process work?  
• Are you a member of the Timber Framers Guild? (if so, why? If not, why not?)
• I don’t suppose your firm is currently in litigation with anyone?
• We have to stick to our budget. How do we know the timber frame won’t end up costing more?
• Are the people who work here employees or subcontractors?
• Are there any outstanding tax liens or judgments against the company, or the owner(s)?
• Have you ever had an unhappy client?  If so, would you share what happened?
• What’s your process for handling changes?
• What’s not included in your price?
• How often will the business owner check in on my project?
• How do we resolve any disagreements?
• May I see your certificates of general liability and workers comp insurance?
• Who would be overseeing my project? May I meet her?
• What’s the best thing that’s happened to your company this year?
• Is your firm licensed to do business in my state?
• How long have you been in business? 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20 percent of small businesses fail within their first year. By the end of their fifth year, roughly half of small businesses fail. After that, only about one in three small businesses get to the 10-year mark and live to tell the tale. After that, survival rates flatten out. Businesses fail in good times and bad, and to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, it happens gradually, then suddenly.  Consider for a moment what would happen to the money you’d paid to date, were you in the middle of building a timber frame home and the timber frame manufacturer abruptly ceased operations and stopped returning your calls.

Curious how timber frames come together? Watch and learn

The post Interviewing a Timber Frame Company appeared first on Carolina Timberworks.

What do the old boots have to do with building?  Please bear with me.  I bought the boots pictured at right 20 years ago.  At the time, they seemed very expensive–say $200.  My Dad and I were on a fly fishing trip, and I needed a new pair of hiking boots.  I didn’t have a lot of money, (and still don’t) but I chose to buy the Italian-made boots versus a less expensive option.  Over the ensuing 20 years, I replaced the laces, and hiked a lot of miles.   Let’s calculate my cost per year as $10 ($200 / 20 years).

Now suppose I’d bought the cheapest pair for $75, and suppose they lasted 5 years before wearing out.  My cost per year would be $15 ($75 / 5 years).

Over 20 years, my cost for quality boots would be  $200 (plus laces).
Over 20 years, my cost for cheap boots would be $300 (50% more expensive).

Now, suppose we enter a period of higher than normal inflation.  If we  factor in inflation at 8.27% a year, those “cheap” boots would now cost $600 over the 20 years–three times the cost of the “expensive” choice.

My point is that quality is almost always less expensive in the long-run, and that initial price does not equal total cost.  Our clients know this.  They always pause, and nod their heads knowingly when they notice this plaque in our office:

The Swiss have a saying,  “Build it once”.

There’s another benefit to quality—you appreciate and enjoy your possessions more. Buy something serviceable but unremarkable, and it disappears. You simply don’t notice it any longer—like a battery powered clock on your wall. A family Grandfather clock is a different story. You appreciate it weekly—as you gently wind the mechanism and notice the 1878 date of manufacture and picture your father doing the same task every Sunday afternoon. Buy quality, and it becomes a friend, a loved possession.

At some point after owning something of quality for many years, you’ll shake your head in disbelief that it’s lasted so long. And here’s the funny thing—you won’t be able to remember what it cost.

This belief in quality is a big part of Sarah Susanka’s Not-So-Big-House philosophy. Design a smaller house, with higher quality design, materials & craftsmanship—to which I’d add, discipline yourself to make choices. You don’t need it all, and you’re not going to enjoy spending a big part of your life cleaning, maintaining, heating & cooling, storing, insuring and worrying about your things. Buy less things, but those you do buy, choose the best quality you can find. Choose quality over quantity and then discipline yourself to not buy or build everything you can afford. Don’t spend every dime you have or can borrow on quality. Buy only one pair of great boots, even if you can afford a second pair. Design your home so you have money left over at the end.  That way it won’t be a burden, and your children will want it (that last piece of advice comes from my Dad–an attorney who specializes in Estate Planning and Probate Law).  Follow this advice and you’ll have the time and money to experience a fuller and more meaningful life. You’ll be the one putting those boots on and going for a hike this weekend instead of the other person working Saturday and half of Sunday to make his or her mortgage payment this month.

We hope to see changes to the way houses are built in America.  There’s a lot of talk about a “New Normal”, and we hope to see a “Return to Quality”.  Our grandparents believed in quality.  They paid more for something made in the USA, of good design and materials, and bought it once.  Their possessions are our prized antiques today.  We’re optimistic that these difficult times will indeed usher in a “New Normal” in building, and that more people will choose to build a high-quality timber frame, more energy efficient, smaller and sustainable homes–homes that will be loved, and taken care of for a hundred years or more.

Many people believe both inflation and higher energy costs lie ahead.  Building a somewhat smaller, meticulously designed home with high quality materials and craftsmanship that is even more energy efficient than you think is required…and that doesn’t take every dollar you have…may turn out to be one of the smartest and most enjoyable investments you can make in the coming years.

Best Regards,
Eric Morley, Founder

Ready to be blown away by timber framing craftsmanship? Watch now

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