Construction Methods

A Frontier Barn Home offers quality materials and craftsmanship that has been proven for centuries.  All crafting of the timbers is done in our workshop to ensure accurate and precise construction during final assembly. We believe that our customers are the ones who should make the decisions on how their home should look and be finished. For this reason we allow flexibility in the types of materials and methods used to enclose the frame as well as choosing and finishing textures and timber treatiments.

Materials
The timber frames can be built using a wide variety of hard and soft woods, such as pine, douglas fir, white cedar, hemlock, maple or oak.  The most common woods used by Frontier are white cedar for any outside structures (porches, pool houses, pergola’s etc) and pine and douglas fir for most other timber frame buildings. The timbers can range in size from 6”x6” to 12" x 24" and can be planed, rough sawn or hand hewn depending on our clients desire's and the structural needs. The most common size for posts and beams are 8”x8” timbers.                                  

Enclosing the Frame
The timber frame shell can be enclosed in many different ways, such as SIP’s (structural insulated panels), conventional stick frame construction, using 2x6 studs and R20 insulation, or for the down to earth home owners straw bale’s. All of these options provide a well insulated, tight home that will protect and make your home comfortable for years to come.  The exterior can be finished with any type of brick, stone, wood, stucco, or vinyl siding.

Our R35 cathedral ceiling is built using exposed 4"x 6" or 4"x 8" rafters.  Once the rafters are installed, 1"x 6" T&G (tongue and grove), pine planking or drywall is nailed on top.  The roof is then insulated using 8" rigid EPS insulation which come in 4'x 8' sections.  Plywood is then placed on top of the foam and spiked through the foam and into the roof rafters. The roof can be finished with asphalt shingles, cedar shakes or metal roofing.

For more information on enclosing the frame, you can visit the following links:

Buildingscience.com

Sips.org

Buildgreen.ca