In-House Design Services
Kettle River Timberworks provides state-of-the-art 3D computer-aided design (CAD) and photorealistic rendering programs to design, communicate and construct our timber frame homes for our clients.
Our experienced team will work with you or your architect to bring your timber dreams to reality. Our 3D software enables the customer to see what the finished product will look and work through details before committing saw to timber.
All of our projects are custom designed packages we supply to your contractor or install as part of our client’s projects.
Quality of Product - Wood & Joinery
At Kettle River Timberworks, we use sustainably harvested coastal Douglas fir timber.
The timbers are graded for both structure and appearance and are dried using a patented microwave process in Squamish B.C. This HeartdryTM process ensures that timbers remain stable and accurate from the day it’s installed and beyond.
Many of our competitors use lower grade fir timber from interior forests and forgo the costly process of dry or only achieve surface drying in a conventional kiln or by air drying.
These green or partially dried timbers are susceptible to twisting and checking (longitudinal cracking that occurs when timber shrinks during drying). The interior Douglas fir tends to have more of a red-white mottled appearance and more frequent knots and unsightly knot clusters.
Our timber frames are cut using a state-of-the-art 5-axis computer controlled automated milling equipment ensuring exacting joinery. All joinery is pre-designed in 3D CAD and engineered before cutting any timbers. This process ensures that all joinery on all mating timbers is accurately cut as per the design specification.
All our timber frames are pre-stained in the climatically controlled shop to the client’s specification before being numbered, packaged and shipped to the building site.
Knowledgeable & Dedicated Crew
The Kettle River team is a diverse and knowledgeable group of timber framers with over 100 years of combined experience.
Each member brings to the table a unique set of skills but all have a passion and love of timber framing. The same people who design your frame are the ones installing it in the field. This intimate knowledge of your frame leads to a fast and efficient install ensuring the underlying quality and detail shines through.
Unlike many of our competitors, we design all our timber frames. We provide the same attention and care to designing and cutting, to every timber frame project.
General Construction Knowledge
Because of our extensive construction knowledge we’re able to integrate timber frame components seamlessly into traditional stick frame construction, called hybrid construction. Additional constructions details such as rain screen, foundations and electrical work are fully integrated into the timber frame product.
Flexibility
At Kettle River Timberworks we are completely flexible with our working relationship. Because we provide a multitude of services we are not constrained by one model. If you’re interested in just our timber services we happy to work with your architect and general contractor.
Integration, Not just timber.
Our expertise in detail design and 3D CAD modeling allows us to seamlessly integrate non-timber elements with our B.C. timber frames.