Where Can We Buy Heavy Timber Trusses for our Chapel/Church/Temple?

Vermont Timber Works designs and sells heavy timber beams and trusses for churches throughout the United States and Canada.  We can custom design trusses for a new structure or an existing one whether you need them to be structural or purely decorative.

 

How do We Choose a Heavy Timber Truss Design for Our Building?

Choosing a heavy timber truss design for a house, barn or church is both an aesthetic and structural decision. First, let’s think about the structure. We need to resolve spreading forces from gravity, the physical weight of the building, the weight of live loads (people working on the roof or inside the building as well as sound systems, speaker systems, lights, HVAC vents, etc.), and the forces from wind and seismic. Triangles are the strongest shapes for trusses with some legs designed for compression forces and some legs designed for tension forces. All of those forces need to find load paths into the foundation and through the walls. Our designers and engineers figure out how to resolve all of those forces for every project we build.

Next, lets think about the aesthetics of the truss. There are many ways to span a building – the easiest and most cost effective is with a King Post Truss. King post trusses are simple triangles so they are cost efficient. They can use straight members or have curved webs and bottom chords to dress them up a bit. Queen Post Trusses are similar. They use two smaller queen posts that create a center space between two horizontal tie beams.  Like the King Post Truss, they can use simple straight beams or curved beams. A Hammer Beam Truss is a classic design that most people attribute to old European cathedrals. We have used it in many buildings including Saint Patrick’s Church in Redding, CT.  The tricky part about designing hammer beam trusses is resolving the tension loads (spreading forces) that come from the weight of the building plus the weight of the snow and live loads. European cathedrals resolved spreading forces with flying buttresses. Today, most congregations don’t have the budget for buttresses so they choose a steel tie rod to do the work. Another choice is using a Modified Hammer Beam Truss  that is similar to a hammer beam truss, but hides the steel reinforcing in routed slots in the timber. One of our favorite trusses is what we call the Gothic Church Truss. We have used variations on the design for Christ Episcopal Church in Missouri, Saint Michael’s the Archangel Church in Connecticut, and Immaculate Conception Church in New Hampshire. The gothic church truss uses a steel tie rod but also has graceful arches that can either be natural timber or glulam material.

Timber trusses can easily span anywhere from twenty feet to forty feet. With a little extra design and material spans of fifty to sixty feet are possible. No matter what design you choose, our engineers and designers will make sure that the truss for your sanctuary is strong and beautiful.

 

Will Vermont Timber Works Work with our Contractor/Architect/Designer?

Yes. We pride ourselves on our great working relationships with other builders and designers. We’d be happy to work with whoever you’ve chosen to be a part of the building and design team.

 

How long will you hold pricing for our Church project?

Due to the volatility of the lumber market, we are only able to hold pricing for 30 days. We understand that when dealing with communities and getting project approval from a large team may require more time than that. We’re always happy to reprice a project and to due our best to find solutions to keep costs within your budget.

 

Will you do a custom design for our Chapel/Temple/Worship space?

Yes. Everything we do at Vermont Timber Works is custom, and we’d be happy to custom design you a timber frame for your sacred space.

 

We already have an existing church structure that needs renovation/repairs. Can you work with this?

Our scope is limited to the timber frame/roof system of the structure. So it would depend on the extent of repairs.

 

Does Vermont Timber Works Offer Financing?

No, Vermont Timber Works does not offer any kind of financing.

 

If we already have an existing structure and want to renovate while keeping the church historically accurate, can you accommodate that as well?

Vermont Timber Works has worked on historical Church and Chapel projects that required keeping the modifications to the structure historically accurate and appropriate. We are happy and able to accommodate this request to the best of our ability.

 

Does Vermont Timber Works work with non-profit organizations?

Yes, Vermont Timber Works has worked with many non-profit organizations over the course of our careers.