Traditional Timber Post & Beam Wall System

Timber Framing

• Timber post-and-beam homes often have open layouts with great rooms, vaulted ceilings and one or more exterior walls made almost entirely of windows. Although they need not be rural, many are, because the design style fits naturally in remote wooded areas. An interesting difference between timber-framed post-and-beam construction and other types of post-and-beam wall construction is the method used to connect the walls. Steel and fabricated beams connect with plates and braces, but timber framing connects with joinery, which is a method of cutting joints out of the wood and fitting the beams together without the use of external bracing.

Exterior Walls

• Post-and-beam contractors assemble large exterior timber walls on the ground and then, with the help of a crane, stand them up and connect them to other walls. Exterior walls are often logs or stones in keeping with the design style. Timber post-and-beam home kits come with predetermined exterior wall dimensions. The homeowner, however, may choose from a variety of interior wall configurations.

Interior Walls and Finish

• Homeowners choose timber framing because they want to see the massive timbers, so exposed beams often replace standard walls in living areas. A standard timber post-and-beam home may feature a kitchen, a dining area and a recreational area all within clear view of one another. Bedrooms and bathrooms require building partition walls for privacy; their walls are generally built to the same specifications as those of standard homes, and they contain wall studs covered with drywall. Some inside walls might have an interior finish designed to look like logs or wood planking.

Considerations

• Post-and-beam homes are usually more expensive, per square foot of living space, than are stick-framed homes of the same dimensions, because more labor is required. A builder knowledgeable in wood joinery is required for traditional timber framing. Some post-and-beam kit manufacturers provide their own crews for the erection of the initial timber structure and leave the mechanical elements and the interior and exterior wall structure to local contractors.