C10 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 1, 1996

Timber framer nails |

down a sol

THE WOOD glows with a life all its own.

Rich-toned hemlock timbers interlock and give the room its own unique character.

It’s not hard to see why timber frame houses are gaining in popularity.

Timber frame construction — using traditional joinery to fit together timbers and beams — was the way houses were built back in the 1800s. harken back to a lost age. \

Aud they’re finding a market.

Peter Norberg, of Terrace-based Western Timbersmiths Inc., says the resurgence of timber framing today reflects a desire for something different. a

‘*‘More and more professional type people ate coming and staying in the north,’’ he says. ‘‘They’re looking. for somelhing a bit different, They want something more than a basic drywall box," |

That’s where timber frames shine. ‘‘It’s the aesthetic ap- peal of it,’? Norberg says. ‘‘Here you see everything. it be- comes both your structure and your interior decor.”’

Norberg’s timber frames have no metal ia them. Instead of nails or spikes, the mortise and tenon is used. All posts and beams are joined by traditional dove-tail joinery.

And the sight of a skeletal timber frame being filted to- gether makes jt clear the home won’t be the usual stick home.

Internet leads to

WESTERN Timbersmiths is branching out to the Internet. Owner Peter Norberg has set up a home page on the World Wide Web cabin at Lake Babine that way last year. (htip:\\www.kermode.net/homepage/wts/wts. html) through Terrace-based RGS Internet Services over the winter in an effort to market timber frames beyond the northwest.

And it looks like it’s going to pay off in spades. He's close to a deal with a customer in Anchorage, Alaska who reached him on the Internet.

And in total he’s had about 50 inquiries from the net. “Only three of them have actually been from B.C.,’’ said Norberg, ‘‘They’re from Alaska —- as far as Texas and South Carolina — and all points in between. And in the last month they’ve started coming in from Europe.”’

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Bul homes are going up today in northwestern B.C, that

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But Norberg says the clite image the homes have devel- oped ring up big dollar signs in most people’s minds.

Timber framing costs more, but not dramatically more. Norberg says a timber frame house can be built for as litle as a 10 per cent premium,

He also builds hybrid homes in which just tiving and dining rooms areas are timber framed. ‘‘It’s definitely a niche type market,”’ he says. .

Norberg thinks limber framing could gel as much as two

into several homes a year in the Terrace area — and more than his three-man crew can handle right now, —

Now on his ninth house, Norberg expects to build three or four more unils in 1996,

“They vary from backyard gazebos up to full houses,’? he said. ‘‘Last year we did two large additions and a full house.”

Right now he’s the only timber framer in northwestern B.C, and one of just a handful in the rest of the province,

His smail voluine operation means he has to search many sources for the right wood, ,

Timber comes from woodlots, local mills and even old timbers from a dismantled railway trestle,

He’s hoping to qualify for a section 16.1 small business timber sale. Most small business sales, however, are in volumes to large for Western Timbersmiths to justify,

more business

Norberg can build frames to fit and then move them to where they’ll be put together. He put up a timber frame

“The dislances are an issue, but it’s not that much of an issue,”’ he said. Key to the enterprise is its location in close proximity to the northwest’s slands of large hemlock — most prized in timber framing. ‘“We’ve got the best hem- lock in the world right here.”

The advantage of marketing through the net, he said, is that people who make inquiries —- whether they’re from Kitchener, Calgary, or Atlanta — already have some knowledge and interest in what's being sold.

That means every person you reply to by e-mail is a potentially serious customer — a far better return than sit- ting in a booth at a trade show.

per cent of the new home market, That would translated’

PETER NORBERG of. Western Timbersmiths Is finding a growing acceptance among home buyers for his timber frame construction approach. Some of that is due to a growing professional class in the north that is looking for something just a little bit different than the ordinary.

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