Heavy Timber Trusses and Timber Frames Overview

Obviously we are big fans of timber trusses and timber frames as architectural elements and appreciate the impact they can have on our customers’ projects. With a background in Custom Residential Architecture we can also assist in design, detail, joinery solutions and timber proportions if needed.

This article is an attempt to give an overview of facts about timber trusses and timber frames and to recap the choices you have in designs, materials and finishes. 

We are pleased to announce that we now have the capability of fabricating traditional mortised and pegged timber truss and timber frames from antique materials such as hand hewn barn timbers or Long Leaf Pine mill timbers. We are currently in the production phase for an Antique Hewn Oak Timber Frame Dining Hall for a Hunting Ranch west of San Antonio. Renderings are below.

There are two main types of joinery in trusses: the more common steel plated assembly and the traditional mortised and pegged assembly. Most of our truss projects are true mortised or mortised/steel hybrids but we can certainly fabricate traditional steel plated trusses if that is the look that is desired.

While we have the capability of manufacturing complete Residential and Commercial Timber Frame Packages, we also enjoy working with our customers on smaller timber framed structures such as Pavilions, Cabanas, and Pergolas as well as partial timber frame assemblies integrated into traditional stick framed structures.

One common misconception is that timber trusses can only be used as decorative components. Although we supply many projects where our trusses are purely decorative, we have fabricated structural trusses up to 40′-0″ in length with steel plates and up to 32′-0″ in length with mortised connections. Our longest non-structural trusses delivered were 48’-0” in length. These are not maximum possible sizes, just the largest for us to date. Some of our structural trusses are pictured below.