The raising day was the best day our family has had on this property. Eight people, three cranes’ worth of patience, and by supper there was a roof shape where the field had been.
Heavy carpentry, cut light on the land
A timber frame is the one structural system a small crew can still cut entirely by hand. We buy standing timber from within a half-day haul, mill it to order, and join it the way the trade has been joined for six centuries — mortise, tenon, drawbore, peg. No glue, no metal plates, nothing that cannot be taken apart and re-raised by the crew that inherits it.
01
New frames — homes, barns, pavilions
Design-build in white oak, Douglas fir and reclaimed pine. Engineering stamped, enclosure coordinated with your SIPs or stick crew, and a raising day your family will photograph for the hallway.
02
Barn repair & re-straightening
Sills gone soft, bents leaning, rafters shedding — we jack the frame back to its own layout marks, splice what can be spliced and replace what cannot, matching old growth with old growth where the yard has it.
03
Trusses & exposed interiors
Great-room trusses, collar-tie kitchens, entry porches with a reason to slow down — decorative timber cut to the same standard as the structural work, because it is the same wood and the same eyes.
A frame is a hundred-year promise
We cut every joint to be repaired by hands we will never meet. If a Beamwright joint fails inside fifty years because of the cut — not the weather, not the drainage, the cut — we come back and re-cut it on our own calendar.
Frame rates, 2026
New frame package, cut & raised$42–58 / sq ft
Joinery, pegs, crane days, crew — enclosure separate
Barn sill repair, oakfrom $180 / ft
Jacked, spliced or replaced, graded to match
Bent re-straighteningfrom $2,600 / bent
Including new pegs and foundation anchor points
Great-room truss, set & pinnedfrom $3,400 ea
Dimensioned to the room, engineered if span requires
Timber stair, solid stringfrom $9,800
Cut strings, solid treads, rail to suit the frame
Site walk & feasibilityFree
Two hours on your land, drawings and an honest verdict
Two raising windows remain for next summer — site walks booked now, frames cut through the winter. (555) 615-0842 · shop@beamwright.example
Process
From standing tree to standing frame
Six to nine months, most of it thinking and cutting. The loud part is three days.
Month 0
The site walk
Two hours on your land with a sketchbook and a moisture meter. Budget spoken out loud; a frame wants to be affordable before it wants to be beautiful.
Month 1
Drawings & engineering
Frame drawings you can read, engineering where the span asks for it, and a fixed price against the final bent count.
Months 2–5
The yard winter
Timber milled, stickers stacked, then laid out and cut joint by joint — every piece scribed to its bent, its position, its peg.
Raising week
Three loud days
Crane, crew, coffee. Bents up and braced by the second day, purlins and plates by the third, and the last peg driven while the light is still good.
The raising record
Is a timber frame more expensive than stick framing?
Yes — typically two to three times the shell cost, and we will say so on the site walk rather than in the quote. What you are buying is structure that wants to be seen, so the finish budget shrinks: no drywall ceilings, no crown to hide joints that do not exist.
Can you match our old barn’s timbers?
Usually. The yard keeps reclaimed pine, hemlock and chestnut from three demolition contacts, graded and de-nailed. Where matching is impossible we splice at a natural break and tell you where — a century from now the repair should read as a repair, honestly made.
Do you handle the enclosure?
We coordinate it. Structural insulated panels go up against our frame in days, and we work with two enclosure crews who know to route around pegs and plates. Stick-framed walls against a timber roof? Also fine — the frame carries itself either way.
What does a raising day need from us?
Level ground for a crane, a place for the crew to eat, and any neighbors you want to watch. Families traditionally sign the last peg; we have never once let a client decline.
The trade, in plain words
A timber frame is joinery doing the work that metal connections do elsewhere. It is slower, quieter, and repairable forever — and the answers in this column are the same ones you will get on the site walk, with the sketchbook out.
Walk your land with us
The site walk is free, the verdict is honest, and the sketchbook comes either way. Winter is for cutting — the calendar says which raising days remain.