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 DON ROBERTS AND THE TIMBERPEG® DESIGN GROUP TURN SKETCHES INTO DREAM HOMES.
"They always tell you you'll never have to use algebra when you grow up," says Timberpeg® Production Manager Don Roberts, "but I did." Don, a New Hampshire native, joined Timberpeg® some 18 years ago. He came to the company with no timber frame design experience. What he did have, thanks to many years in industrial mechanical drafting, was the technical skill needed to translate a customer's wishes into the precise angles and joints that go into a TIMBERPEG® brand home. Today Don oversees the Timberpeg® production group in Claremont, New Hampshire. It's the job of Don and his production group to turn customer-approved architectural plans into the 3-D model of the frame, and prepare cutting lists for the many timbers that go into Timberpeg® homes. As Don explains, the job originally entailed hand-compiling a list of timbers with numbers and symbols to tell the shop how to cut them. These days, the design group relies on a computer program known as Cadwork®. The program extracts a 2-D timber frame drawing and the code that can then be fed into Timberpeg's two Hundegger® computerized cutting machines. Don finds his job "much easier" thanks to Cadwork®. But it's clear that even with the aid of a computer, Don and his co-designers play a crucial role in every home that's built.
Occasionally, Timberpeg® has a customer who points to a photo in the Timberpeg® Design Portfolio and says, "That's exactly what I want!" But most want to customize the design in some way. This might mean major structural changes to adjust the design to the topography of their site, or more minor changes to add another room. It might simply mean changing the interior walls or finishes, or combining a timber frame great room with conventional construction elsewhere in the house. Whatever the request, the Timberpeg® design and production groups can help make it happen. According to Don, it's often the individual touches that customers request that pose the biggest challenges. He describes working for the better part of a week to figure out how to tie "eyebrow" dormers into the frame. As he explains, "In a Timberpeg® home, all the framing is exposed, so how the parts come together is an extremely important part of the design. We put a big effort into creating designs that are beautiful as well as functional." Since the majority of Timberpeg® homes built today are custom designed, Timberpeg's platform system offers some important advantages. The platform system uses individual pieces erected one by one, often without the need for a crane. This means that Timberpeg's frames can accommodate a wide variety of plans, including custom designs not originally planned for timber framing. Timberpeg® has been crafting homes this way since 1974. Timberpeg® also uses conventional bent-style framing when it is the best solution. Don Roberts takes advantage of this flexibility on a regular basis. The unique designs he's worked on include octagonal and 12-sided Timberpeg® homes. Don also notices a trend toward smaller designs with more complicated details and toward hybrid construction that combines stick-built elements with traditional timber frame sections. One of his biggest design challenges was a home in the Truckee, California, area built to handle a 300-pound snow load. "We used the biggest beam I've ever seen," he says. "Normal construction calls for an 8-by-12, but this design called for a 10-by-42-inch beam." These days, Don is putting Timberpeg's design flexibility to work for himself. He is currently building his own Timberpeg® home and looks forward to a home that's every bit as exciting as the ones he helps design for Timberpeg's many satisfied customers. |
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