Our Design Service

The goal of our design service is to help our clients develop plans for their timber frame project while empowering them to be involved throughout the design process. Working with our clients, we design a project to fit with their life style, maximize the potential of their floor plan and meet each individual's aesthetic requirements. Using our design service helps to ensure the timber frame portion of the project dove-tails seamlessly with the other phases of construction.

If you have already chosen to build a timber frame, you probably have pictures of homes from books or magazines that appeal to your individual taste, floor plans that match your family's lifestyle, a folder of your own sketches and drawings, and perhaps a target budget. Most importantly, you have ideas. This is all we need to assist you in designing the timber frame home you envision. If you are already in the process of developing a house design with your own architect, we can work closely with them to ensure that your ideas are melded perfectly with the frame we build for you.

Because timber framing is such a unique method of building and is practiced most commonly in the Northeast, many designers, builders, and architects in other regions have not had the opportunity to work with this type of construction. As a result, they may not fully understand the timber framing system and how it integrates with other phases of construction such as plumbing and wiring, heating and air conditioning, heat and air exchange, interior wall layout, roof construction, and location of window and door openings. Working with the structural insulated panel (SIP) system, which is commonly used to insulate and enclose timber frames, is often new even to veterans in the construction field. Therefore, to facilitate the integration of your timber frame with the rest of your project, it is helpful to get involved with our design services as early as possible.

Alces Post & Beam's architectural design service can produce a complete architectural plan package for our customers to use during their building permit and bid process and for construction of their timber frame project. This package includes, but is not limited to, floor, foundation, electrical and plumbing plans, as well as exterior elevations, sectional details, window and door schedules, and of course timber frame plans that we use in the shop to cut your frame. For local customers, we can visit your site and help determine the best site placement for your project. From information gathered on this visit and from lot boundary information that you provide, we can produce a site-plan to be used by your excavator.

We can also produce interactive 3-D models of your frame so you can visualize its construction before any timber is cut. Combining these with your house floor plans enables you to see how your living space works within the timber frame structure. An overlay of exterior elevations on the frame plans helps to determine what sizes and types of windows and doors fit and look best between framing timbers.

We charge an hourly rate for our design service and will provide as little or as much detail in the plans as you desire. Some customers request only floor plans and exterior elevations while others ask for a detailed construction set. Using our design service allows you to have complete control over the scope and cost of your design project.