post and beam collage

For owners

Fodor beam

We can help you design your building or addition, or we will work with your contractor or architect. Either way, we’ll bring our knowledge and experience to your ideas and goals for the project. Though framing is what we do, we are thoroughly familiar with all aspects of constructing a building, from foundation to finish. We will coordinate as needed with your whole team.

Your building’s design

If you use our (optional) design service, you can have the floorplan you need. We can help you stay within your budget for the project. For open floor plans, cathedral ceilings or lofts, timber framing is a natural. The inherent flexibility of the post and beam system allows you maximum freedom in opening up spaces vertically and horizontally, or adding walls for additional privacy.

Our design service (priced separately from the timber frame) includes a complete set of working drawings for the entire building: outside elevations, floor plans, window and door schedule, foundation plan, cross sections, and timber frame drawings that include joinery details. Five sets are included so that everyone working on the project is literally on the same page.

Your timber frame, erected on site

A timber frame from Hardwick Post & Beam includes the following services:

Mortise vignette

  • Frame drawings including joinery details.
  • Purchase and preparation of timbers (green timber in the species you’ve selected: typically red oak, Douglas fir, hemlock, or Eastern white pine; standard treatment includes chamfered edges, smooth planed and oiled faces, and wax-sealed end grain.)
  • Cutting of the joinery by hand at our Massachusetts workshop. We use traditional joinery for strength, durability, and appearance.
  • Shipping the frame to your site anywhere in North America.
  • Traveling to your site and assembling the frame on your first deck with a crane. We will peg every joint and leave the frame secure.
  • All necessary communication with subcontractors to ensure a smooth flow of work and satisfactory completion of the project.
  • For an insulated building, coordination with the stress-skin panel company of your choice.

After the frame raising, most of our frames, with the exception of uninsulated barns, are covered by stress skin panels on the rafters and sidewalls of the building. These panels are “sandwiches.” On one side is blueboard, for paint or plaster; in the middle is rigid foam insulation; on the exterior is sheathing for clapboards or shingles. These panels close the building in quickly so that tradesmen can get to work on the inside. The R30 insulation in the roof and R18 in the walls means your heating and cooling bills will be lower; over time this will offset the initial investment in the frame and panels. We normally work with Foard Panel (this link will take you off our site).

Note that the client (or contractor) is repsonsible for the building’s foundation; we can communicate with the foundation sub-contractor if desired. The contractor typically builds the first deck as well, unless otherwise specified.

If your project is a house you might want to look at House Diary, an illustrated, week-by-week report of home construction  from the foundation up, from one of our clients in Arizona. Our part of the project was the centerpiece--the timber frame

If your project is a barn, check out Barn Design to see how we design the barn you need.

If your project is a store, restaurant, school, place of worship or any other public place—please call us to talk about your project!