Large Timber Structures in North Texas

Generally a member at least five inches on its smallest nominal dimension, though the more useful distinction is structural. Heavy timber carries load through a few very large members joined directly to each other, usually with mortise and tenon joinery pegged with hardwood, rather than through many small members tied together with metal plates. In a timber frame the structure is the finish, so the joinery is visible and has to be cut accordingly.

Neither is inherently stronger — both are engineered to carry their loads. What heavy timber gives you is redundancy in the member itself and exceptional longevity, which is why timber-framed barns from the 1800s are still standing across North Texas. It also gives you long clear spans without posts interrupting the middle of the space.

Those are checks, and in most cases they are cosmetic rather than structural. Timber shrinks as it releases moisture and relieves that stress by opening along the grain. It is expected, it is part of how a timber frame looks, and it does not compromise the member. Specifying free-of-heart-center stock reduces it noticeably, and we will explain the trade-off before you choose.

Both, depending on what the structure needs. Traditional mortise and tenon with hardwood pegs is the right answer where the joinery is meant to be seen and the geometry allows it. Concealed steel knife plates are the right answer where the span, the load or the connection angle makes a wood joint the weak point. We will tell you which one your structure calls for and why.

Often, yes. Long spans, tall posts and open structures that take wind load usually require stamped engineering before a permit is issued. Requirements vary by city and by structure. We identify this at the visit rather than after you have signed something.

Longer than conventional framing, and most of it happens before we are on your property. Layout and cutting is the bulk of the work; the raise itself is often a day or two. Expect the overall timeline to be driven by engineering, permitting and timber lead times rather than by site work.

Exposed timber wants a penetrating oil finish with real UV inhibitors, not a film finish that will peel. Our sun is punishing on exposed wood and the re-coat interval here is shorter than the can suggests. We leave you a schedule specific to the species and the exposure on your structure.

Usually. Attached structures need the connection detail worked out carefully, because the new frame and the existing house will move differently and the roof line has to tie in without creating a water problem. This is the part we look hardest at on the first visit.

Yes, on the work where the surface matters. Hewing is squaring a round or sawn timber with a broadaxe and adze, and what it leaves behind is a faceted face with tool marks that no planer, sander or manufactured texture reproduces. It is slower, and it is the reason a heritage frame reads as period rather than as new construction dressed up. On concealed members nobody will ever see, we will tell you it is not worth paying for.

That is a large share of what we build. The steel shell stays as the envelope and the timber frame goes inside it, carrying the interior structure and finishing it at the same time. You end up with exposed hand-hewn posts and beams instead of furred-out walls hiding a metal building.

No. We build new ones. Repairing a failing hundred-year-old frame — splicing post feet, jacking a racked structure back to true — is a different trade from framing a new building, and it is not what we do. What we build is new, in the old method, with the old surface.

A bent is one complete cross-section of the frame — posts, tie beam and braces — assembled flat on the ground as a unit and then raised into place. It is the reason timber framing is fast on site and slow off it, and it is why the joinery has to be cut correctly before anything goes vertical.

Yes, on the frame. What it buys you is a structure that is also the interior finish, so you are not building walls inside a shell to cover it up. Whether it comes out ahead depends on how much of the frame you intend to expose and how the interior is specified. We will price it against a comparable finished steel build rather than against a bare shell, because that is the honest comparison.

By keeping wood out of the ground and out of splash. That means a foundation detail that lifts the timber clear, standoff bases where posts land on concrete so end grain can dry, and grading and drainage that moves water away from the building rather than into it. Most failed post feet are a water management problem wearing a wood problem's clothes.

Yes. Barn and timber work in particular takes us further out than our other services, because the land is where the land is. We are based in Mineral Wells and regularly work Palo Pinto, Parker, Jack, Wise, Erath and Hood counties. Ask, and if it is too far to do properly we will say so.

Yes, as timber structures. A driveway or ranch entry gate at this scale has more in common with a frame than with a fence: the span wants a braced frame that will not drop at the latch side, the posts want footings sized for the leverage a long gate applies, and the hardware has to be specified for the actual weight rather than picked off a shelf. We build the gate and the structure that carries it together, including development and subdivision entries. What we do not do is small residential fence gates.