DIY Timber Frame Construction

Design a structure, such as a home, using a Computer Assisted Drawing (CAD) program that allows for posts, girts, braces and structural insulated panels that will form the roof, walls, window frames and insulation all in one piece. Decide what timber you want to use, such as spruce or pine.

Order your frame from a timber frame construction company and work with them to create a frame that matches your CAD design. When the frame arrives at your building site, assemble a team of workers to help you put the frame together. The factory that creates your frame may also supply a team of workers to assemble it onsite, if you want to pay for a team of workers to help you assemble your timber frame.

Use a dead-blow mallet to fit mortise and tension joints together with wooden pegs. Pound the wooden pegs into pre-drilled holes. Joints should be designed by the factory to be within .132-inch so that you can slip them together and secure them with a few light taps of your dead-blow mallet. Pull larger pieces together with a ratchet puller (also called a "come-along").

Rent a hydraulic crane and use it to hoist frame pieces in the air and hold them steady while workers fit frame pieces together. Gently guide vertical tenons into mortise-bored horizontal plates.

Join pre-fabricated roof components (rafters and, if large enough, horizontal purlins to support them) together on the ground. Lift the assembled roof off the ground with a crane. Work together with other workers to slide grooves in the roof plate onto horizontal tongues on the posts at the top of the assembled frame.

Fill out the sides of the house with structural insulated panels (SIPs) measuring up to 612 inches thick. Understand that each SIP has a foam core as well as interior and exterior faces. Fit SIPs onto the assembled frame. Finish painting and decorating your home. Once done, enjoy the exposed wooden beam structure from the interior of your home.