Timber Frame
Cedar Ridge Timber Company, LLC strives to showcase the natural beauty of wood and nature. Timber frame has been used for hundreds of years across the world due to its strength and structural honesty. Timber frame adds a rustic appeal to your home and is built to last a lifetime with minimal maintenance.
Our mission at Cedar Ridge Timber Company, LLC is to maintain a small footprint and utilize the bounty that mother nature provides, not taking more than she has offered. Wood is a natural renewable building product with a smaller carbon footprint than most other building materials. The forests are replenished by replanting and natural regrowth. Many building materials require a much larger consumption of fossil fuels to produce than the use of natural materials like wood.
Natural occurring wildfires are necessary for the long term health of our great western softwood forests, just as the controversial wolf is needed to maintain nature's fragile balance, as has been recently demonstrated in our great national park Yellowstone and the surrounding areas. Some softwood species like the Great Sequoia must have fire to drop their seeds, many problems are created when man thinks he knows better than nature and attempts to improve and control her. Frequent naturally occurring wildfires burn at lower temperatures as nature intended to keep the undergrowth minimized. This improves the forests instead of destroying them as can be the case when fires are stopped for many years.
Top quality timber from the pacific northwest
At Cedar Ridge Timber Company our standard stock of Douglas Fir (DF) timbers are top quality materials sourced from the Pacific Coast in Oregon. These timbers are free of heart center (FOHC) and fire standing dead (FSD). Free of heart center means that the center of the tree is removed during harvesting. which greatly reduces large splits and timber instabilities such as a bow, crown & twist. This means that your timber frame trusses and furniture will age beautifully with reduced shrinkage as the product dries to equilibrium after completion. The images below show the difference in quality.
Using DF FSD timbers is environmentally friendly as we are just utilizing mother nature’s bounty. These fire cuttings often yield a large percentage of old growth trees which are stronger and more stable with a lower moisture content. This leads to reduced shrinkage after product completion, as compared to commonly harvested live newer growth trees. Fire stains are sawn out for aesthetics often removing the new growth sap wood which further improves rot resistance, leaving a beautiful piece of timber ready to be molded into its next life.
Douglas Fir with Boxed Heart
Douglas Fir Free of Heart Center
vs.
Trusses
Our specialty at Cedar Ridge Timber Company, LLC is hybrid timber frame vs. a fully timber framed structure which is often the preferred project type by large timber frame companies. We can work with you; ideally during the design stage to incorporate timber frame elements to select locations of your new home or structure. We have over 30 years of residential construction experience designing and building upper end custom homes prior to narrowing our focus to timber frame, so we can even provide a full set of preliminary plans for your new home. If your project is under construction already or completed, no problem, we have many options available to get the beauty of timber into your home or structure.
We can provide a structural full timber frame for any room or outdoor living space, as well as structural timber trusses, beams, rafters, braces and soffit components. Maybe you prefer stick framing for most of the structure, structural timber frame trusses are a common selection to support your traditional stick framed cathedral ceiling area. Covered Decks, Great Rooms and Entry Porches are very popular choices for full structural timber frames. Decorative solid timber frame trusses are the perfect accent to a great room with cathedral ceilings if you want the beauty of timber, but don’t need it for structural purposes.
gable Pediments
Gable pediments are typically limited to 500 pounds or less and are attached to the homes framing without posts or footing support. These are often used for gable end decor and porch entry gables. They can be installed any time after the soffits/porch ceilings are finished, just simply install the appropriate framing for attachment prior to finish material application.
box timber
Box timber is a perfect solution to conceal structural framing you wish had been solid timber. It can sometimes simplify the framing process by allowing your frame carpenter to quickly enclose the structure using traditional framing, while avoiding the presence of finished materials that could get damaged during framing. Our box timber frame employs a locking miter bevel joint at all corners assembled with high quality polyurethane expanding glue, no yellow glue, for incredible durability; even when fully exposed to the harsh outdoor elements. We use an endgrain beam end, no need to give up your secret with unnatural face grain capping the end of your beautiful box timber beam. We recently had an experienced subcontractor ask how we hollowed out that solid timber beam before we installed one of our box beams, mission accomplished, we knew we got it right. If you like Craftsmen style, we can do a great looking tapered square column employing this system. We have two on our Entry porch which have been in place for over 20 years that look as good as the day they were installed.
Box timber frame can be constructed from 1” rough sawn lumber, a perfect match to our solid timber frame, or match to your trim and doors with smooth surface hardwoods for a modern contemporary style. Love the look of solid timber but not a fan of the splits and other rustic characteristics and would rather not deal with the weight support concerns? Box timber is the perfect solution for your columns or beams. We can even do decorative timber trusses.
glulam Arches & Beams
Glulam arches and beams are a special order structure intended for wide open spans. They are S4S (surface smooth 4 sides) in Douglas Fir (DF) and can be combined with S4S solid Df timber. Glulam arches and beams are capable of greater open spans and heavier load support than solid timber, and can be much wider with steeper arches than is possible from solid timber. For clients desiring a contemporary style that need a sharper radius or wider span, glulam arches and beams may be an excellent option for your new build.