HAMILL CREEK TIMBER FRAME HOME PRODUCTS

To further enhance your timber frame home, Hamill Creek also designs and manufactures:

* Exterior Finish Options: Vertical & Horizontal Siding, Western Red Cedar Shingles and more, Exterior Trim Packages

* Interior Finish Options: Douglas-fir & Cedar Flooring, Panelling, Interior Trim Packages

* Structural Timber Frame Components: Custom Timber Frame Trusses & Entries

* Stair & Railing Systems: Custom Interior & Exterior decking, railing and stairs.

* Doors & Windows: A wide variety of custom and pre-manufactured

* Wall & Roof Enclosure Systems: Conventional & Stresskin Panels

Our Sources of Timber

Reclaimed – The Environmentally Friendly Approach.
Trees are salvaged from forests that have been destroyed by forest fires. Once they have been reclaimed, the forest is replanted, allowing it to regenerate.

Structurally, this is a very dry and stable source of wood. The slow process of the bound moisture being drawn from the tree can decrease the amount of checking (splitting) and twisting that can usually occur.

Recycled Timbers – The Most Environmentally Friendly Approach
The magnificent thing about Timberframe buildings is their longevity. Even when the useful life of a Timberframe building is over, it is still possible to salvage and reuse the individual timbers. Using recycled timbers has the inherent benefit of preserving living trees as well the fulfilling the ‘green’ ethos of reusing. Whether from defunct mill buildings, old barns or old factories, your home will be enhanced by the history and character of the old wood.
We have some very good sources of reclaimed timbers. These are brought to the mill, cleaned, de-nailed, cut to required size and then finished. Throughout this process we ensure that the character and history of the pieces are retained, giving your home a visible connection to the past. Larger timbers are more difficult to attain using this option and the process of reclaiming timbers is a time consuming one, meaning the lead-in time will need to be longer and costs will be higher, however the results can be stunning.

Locally Logged Timber
The Western Interior of British Columbia is home to an abundance of some of the highest quality of timber in the world; B.C’s logging standards are some of the toughest. Hamill Creek Timber Frame Homes only uses timber that originates from sustainable and correctly managed forests. We want to ensure that these forest ecosystems maintain their biodiversity, regeneration capacity and vitality.

Timbers from our interior forests are superior to coastal trees for building as they have the advantage of lower moisture content (20-30% moisture contents as compared to 40-50%), and a slower growth rate which results in a timber with tight grain, reducing checking and making the timber more stable.

Hamill Creek Timber Frame Homes is thankful to be able to
pass on this extraordinary local source to our clients.

Qualities of Wood as a Building Material:

• Has high strength to weight ratio
• Wood is an environmentally sustainable material
• Timber has superior insulation qualities, reducing the need for electricity or burning fossil fuels
• It has versatility- is easily moulded and profiled, giving great scope for architectural design
• Aesthetically, it has visual warmth and a variety of character, colour and grain texture

Methods of Drying Freshly Harvested Timber:

Air Drying: Although a lengthy process, this more natural method involves stacking the over-sized timbers, each layer divided by 4” dunages, the finished stack then covered by protective sheeting. A slow, natural drying process takes place and once this process is complete, the over sized timbers are planed down to the correct size, removing most of the surface checking and twisting that may have occurred.

Kiln Drying: ‘Kiln’- In lumber drying, a kiln is a room or building where temperature, moisture, and the air circulating are controlled to dry wood. A process that we, as an ‘environmentally aware’ company are trying to move away from. The kiln takes only 2-3 weeks to dry timbers, but during this time it is burning fossil fuels – increasing the ‘environmental footprint’ of the home we are creating. Although it can reduce the amount of shrinkage that occurs within a joint, making the joints tighter, it unfortunately often increases the checking (splits in the beams).

Finishes & Stains: We offer a wide variety of custom finishes. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Planed Finish- The finish of the wood is shiny and smooth to the touch

Hand Sanding - This may be the choice of finish for the more discerning client.
Timbers are planed smooth then sanded with 100 grit paper leaving a velvety finish with clean, sharp lines.

Textured Finish - Our craftsmen work the timbers to give the wood a texture that is smooth to touch
but uneven surface with a rustic characteristic much like hand adzed timbers found in barns.

Rough Sawn - A rustic style of finish. The wood is not planed, leaving a rough sawn finish.

Stains & sealers - All of our timbers receive a coat of Timber Pro UV water-based sealer your Timber Pro is formulated with durable, penetrating oil resins carried in pure water. This formula gives the toughness of an oil finish, combined with the environmentally safe quality and easy clean-up of a water-borne product. The oil resins fill the pores of the wood and lock in the natural resins already present.  Many different colors and tints are available.   A final coat of this UV product on the timbers is recommended after home is completed.