Above 1200 Sq/FT 3,000SF Timber Frame/Vintage Truck/Engineer's Catchall

[Nor'Easter]

Welcome, I joined this forum when I was still a teenager and frequently marveled at the many large workshops and barns showcased here. A decade+ down the road it's now my turn.

TLDR: I began working in the timber frame industry in 2011 after high school. After 5 years building countless homes, barns, and structures up and down the east coast, I realized it wasn't going to get me where I wanted to go (as an employee). In 2019 I graduated with an ME degree and proceeded to spend 4 years as a design engineer for military aircraft engine systems. I continued to cut timber frames to keep skills sharp and provide a physical outlet while spending year after year in windowless locked rooms staring at modelling software and excel spreadsheets. In 2023 I was approached by an acquaintance to build a 7,000 square foot lodge in northern Maine. After receiving a signed contract I promptly quit my stable corporate engineering salary and have been framing full time ever since.

Most of my life is spent finding different ways to do what I described as "tickling the brain". In addition to framing, I also collect and restore vintage trucks - often taking on commissioned builds from clients. These range from investment grade, factory correct restorations (primarily Mack) to smaller 4WD pickups to include engine conversions, chassis/suspension design & fab, piping, electrical system design, etc etc. I outsource only glass cutting and driveshaft fabrication.

Some pre-corporate exit work.

 

[Nor'Easter]

Being very by-the-book, my search for land was limited by zoning acceptance. Primarily, multiple business uses and the option to use the property as a residence. It took from 2019 to 2023 to find an appropriate piece of property. We ended up on the Rt 302 corridor between Portland ME and North Conway NH. Coincidently, and likely by devine intervention, just a few miles from our family lake house I grew up in (sadly long parted with).

Having built many buildings for many different clients, I've collected a long list of likes and dislikes. If you are an engineer (a good one) you know how specific and OCD one can be about the design and creation of your concepts. The below building is nothing short of that. It is primarily designed around a massive 24' wide garage door for bring in long racks of timber material, as well as allowing more than 200sf of glass into the wall for sunlight.

The shop is 40x58, 2x8 wall 24oc, with a conventional unconditioned roof.

The office is 20x34 with loft, Douglas Fir timber frame, SIP roof, and 2x8 wall. The office comprises a kitchen, 3/4 bath, seating/showroom area, and storage loft.

The building, like our timber frame projects, is over insulated, incorporating many performance air sealing methods, triple pane Euro windows, radiant heat/AC/HRV, the list goes on. When it's all said and done, a blower door test will let us know how good our methods and effort worked. In any case, it will vastly outperform any commercial workshop around and likely most houses as well. Truly a model for performance building and attention to detail.

 

[strength_and_power]

Looks like a great project. Got a timeframe for the build?

 

[Nor'Easter]

Our property is 2 acres and went through an exhaustive (and expensive) planning and approval process. Being commercial in our town, we were subject to full site plan, survey, stormwater engineering, environmental impact, and complete building engineering package. Among timber frame projects in 2023, we started clearing approx. 40,000sf - the threshold maximum to avoid a higher tier stormwater review.

I dropped trees in the clearing envelope laid out by our site planner/surveyor and hired a local crew to install the driveway and process the downed trees. We ended up selling two trucks worth of hardwood logs to a local firewood processor. The slash was brought offsite and chipped.

 

[Nor'Easter]

Looks like a great project. Got a timeframe for the build?

We've framed and enclosed the office, currently framing out the shop. I have a backlog of progress that I will drop in every few days.

 

[FTWingRiders]

I’m subscribed! I’m in north central Mass and have a 44x44 timber framed shop I had built 12 years ago. We’re looking for land to retire to and I’m planning on another, this time I hope to do more myself. I like the look of your drawings as I’ll thinking something similar. Hope to see pics as you progress!

 

[Krfjkm]

Beautiful work and I like your style! Can’t wait to see more!

 

[Lou's Garage]

What a spectacular plan! Hope you are able to implement it to your full satisfaction.

Best Wishes,
Lou Manglass

 

[Nor'Easter]

Dec. 2023 I rented a large excavator (Komatsu PC138) for a month and pulled stumps, rocks, and even more rocks. Most of them were positioned into a wall of sorts that our retention ponds would lean against. Others were set up around the perimeter in the woods just to get them out of the way. By volume, some of these were in the 10 ton range, with many being moved only by dragging. The rocks I came across here would soon shadow in comparison to others found.

We had a Geotech engineer sample our bank run material which was determined to be silt and not usable except for landscape grading. This became a major hurdle (expense) later on. I managed to haul off all the topsoil by Christmas 2023, placed a sand layer at the building pad for the first building and let the property freeze over until spring.

The gentleman in the dump truck has become a very good friend and we have spent hundreds of hours working together. Thankfully, he has a large pit just a couple miles down the road. Even better, he turns right out of our place and his-eliminating extensive wait time if you were to have to cross traffic making lefts.

 

[LXCam]

Count me in as following along.

 

[bugnut]

Following

 

[Jon69RagTop]

Looking forward to your updates.

 

[jar944]

Nice.

 

[Michael B.]

Nice.

 

[Mr onetwo]

watching

 

[Nor'Easter]

'24 was a busy time for us. In September we raised our largest frame to date, a 38' x 156' lodge ("barnhouse" per the owner). Clearspan all the way thru except for a sleeping loft (1 bedroom!). And another smaller frame near Bethel, Maine. The wood alone for this building was in the six figures, and about 5 tractor trailer loads. It sure adds up fast.

On site we installed primary power, two 200A meters (one for each building planned). Of course we hit 3 4-6' boulders in the trench, which I split by hand into smaller sections to move with the mini ex. The electricians set up temp power at the meter, and since one of our clients owns a propane co. we finagled an (owned) 1000g buried propane tank. Also trucked out about 800yds of excess fill, and brought in about the same in 4" gravel to building up the main building pad.

We also purchased a new-to-us telehandler to assist in raising client projects and our own building, a 2008 Cat 1255 from a power plant in Minnesota.

 

[Nor'Easter]

Early spring 2025 I built a 25' single span gate after striking out in finding a pre-fabricated gate that I liked (and could afford). Most generic prefab units were going to be north of $3,000, I think this was just over $1,000 for all the materials.

Hindsight 20/20, the gate hitch post has moved with the frost enough to make the pin engagement difficult, so we will rework that area in fairer weather.

 

[Nor'Easter]

In June 2025 we had another ex for a month to complete the following:

Drainage structures, rip rap ponds, banks, install septic tank, pump station, field, export ~600yds excess fill, prep exported area for building #2 pad, raise existing driveway culvert, install subbase and drainage to remainder of parking/building pads. The 315 really WORKED while I had it.

During our export of fill I found three good hunks of rock, and on the last day of the 30 day rental I broke them up to be hauled away. We also had a friend who is a marine contractor pick up a couple square-ish boulders to use as moorings, one shown on their lobster boat with a tip rig sending it deep into Casco Bay.

Lastly, our first 18 wheeler into the site delivering timber for a project in NH. This was a milestone as up until then you could not turn this around on our site.

 

[Nor'Easter]

In July '26 I started digging for the monolithic slab. I formed everything with 2" hemlock boards and 36" pins. I drove the pins in using my Makita SDS cordless hammer, setting each pin top at top of slab with the Stabila LA200.

This slab is incredibly overkill for most applications, however our use and the equipment going in and out of the building puts some extreme loads on floors. Our tele weighs 20 tons empty and we regularly move around at capacity (+6 tons on the forks). With that being said, we built 20" thickened edges, 8" interior, #5 bar 2'oc and a layer of wire mesh just for fun. Tied all our tube down and crossed our fingers for no leaks (success). This was 98 yards.

 

[Nor'Easter]

The timber frame in the office was originally designed in pine, but I decided to build it out of doug fir for the wow factor. These are SS (Select Structural) FOHC (Free of Heart Center) Kiln Dried (KD) Douglas Fir timbers.

 

[LXCam]

@Nor'Easter, what’s the benefit of using FOHC timber, less chance of warping?

 

[Mr onetwo]

Douglas fir is such beautiful wood. I have a slick just like yours

 

[Nor'Easter]

@Nor'Easter, what’s the benefit of using FOHC timber, less chance of warping?

This seems to be the consensus in the industry. I'm not totally convinced the cost is worth it. FOHC material, for us at least, brings about a 30-45% increase material cost.

Wood generally shrinks at the highest rate tangentially, IE tangent to the growth ring. Followed by radial, or perpendicular to the tangent (pith to outside surface). An FOHC timber will shrink from a square to a rectangle, or from a rectangle to "more" of a rectangle. A boxed heart timber will shrink from a square to a smaller square, however the faces will become peaked where the shrinkage occurs along the longest growth ring. This is why you typically see a heavy check at the center of the face of boxed heart timbers, as the shrinkage is greatest at the location of the longest growth ring arc.

Kiln drying is an option that greatly improves the dimensional stability, however timbers are typically dried to 18-20% @ 1" below surface. This means that on a 8"x8", the majority of the wood is steel "green".

 

[LXCam]

This seems to be the consensus in the industry. I'm not totally convinced the cost is worth it. FOHC material, for us at least, brings about a 30-45% increase material cost.

Wood generally shrinks at the highest rate tangentially, IE tangent to the growth ring. Followed by radial, or perpendicular to the tangent (pith to outside surface). An FOHC timber will shrink from a square to a rectangle, or from a rectangle to "more" of a rectangle. A boxed heart timber will shrink from a square to a smaller square, however the faces will become peaked where the shrinkage occurs along the longest growth ring. This is why you typically see a heavy check at the center of the face of boxed heart timbers, as the shrinkage is greatest at the location of the longest growth ring arc.

Kiln drying is an option that greatly improves the dimensional stability, however timbers are typically dried to 18-20% @ 1" below surface. This means that on a 8"x8", the majority of the wood is steel "green".

Thank you for the education NE, that was much appreciated.