
Timber Frame Project Start to Finish: St. Andrew’s Church
Over the next several weeks I’ll be taking you through the timber framing process from start to finish, the way that Vermont Timber Works does it. These blogs should help give an idea of what goes into the design, materials, engineering, fabrication, and erection. I’m starting the series with St. […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#1
Here is the moment you have all been awaiting: the #1 coolest timber frame (in my estimation) that Vermont Timber Works has built: the Chapel at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT. This frame consists of the main chapel area (which is a 60′ clear span octagon), a […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#2
Here we are, spring has sprung, and the maple buckets are filling faster than we can empty them. That last sentence might be a bit misleading because most maple producers use lines instead of buckets, but I’m a little old-fashioned and I still use buckets in my sugar bush. Vermont […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#3
The first day of spring has arrived! Well at least by the calendar it has; the thermometer at my house was 14 degrees this morning, which is not exactly the warmest spring weather. But here in Vermont we are prepared for another two months of killing frosts; we typically don’t […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#4
Well, another week of New England winter has passed by, the clocks have sprung forward (did you remember to change the batteries in your smoke and CO alarms?), and the evenings are getting longer. Up here in Vermont everyone is talking about how many trees they tapped, how many gallons […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#5
Up here in Vermont it has finally started to show signs of spring, subtle though those signs may be. Town meeting has come and gone, snowbanks are melting, roofs are clearing, and the days are longer and warmer. I have definitely accepted the fact that Vermont and the rest of […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#6
It is the end of another brutally cold New England week, and along with the massive amount of snow we’ve had and the frozen seas off of Nantucket I have been glad that I am in the office not too far from the pellet stove. Browsing through our library of […]

Top Ten Coolest Timber Frames by VTW (according to Mike)–#7
Well it’s been a couple of snowy, cold weeks in Vermont. When I woke up on Monday it was -15 degrees. That’s minus, i.e. below zero. I don’t think that even registers in Kelvin or Celsius. It was, as we like to say in Vermont, as cold as…well let’s just […]

What’s a tree doing up there?
Have you ever been driving by a construction site and thought to yourself, “Why is there a tree on top of that building? It seems like a very odd time to be celebrating Christmas? Furthermore, why would they go through the trouble to get it up there, they’re just going […]

The Solar Field
Vermont Timber Works has taken the leap. We went solar! We filed project permits on October 17th and by December 30th we were powered on by the sun. The goal was to become a functioning solar powered timber frame factory by the end of 2014. It happened, thanks to a […]