My experience was a bit different from Bob Smiths. I was previously working in the construction industry, half in residential and half in commercial construction. From high school I worked a year in construction and then moved on to college where I majored in construction management and minored in engineering. After college I returned to construction where I worked for an additional fifteen years. One of the most beneficial things was having spent time in many areas including steel, concrete, and wood. All these worked to my benefit when starting my timber framing business. While in college I had a year of accounting, surveying, estimating, contracts, scheduling, project management, concrete, wood, and steel structures, etc. All of this worked to my benefit. Although I worked under a timber framer with 18 years experience for only about 6 months the switch was fairly easy. I have talked with other timber framers that have in other experience in construction and as a result have no real good knowledge of how the timber frame and the remainder of the house work together. Having a good working knowledge of whole house construction is important. Not necessary but a big benefit. The other item that has been beneficial is my minor in engineering. With out questions I use a registered engineer for my work but having a knowlege of the formulas and how they work and what the numbers represent has been great. Well I need to quit rambling and get to work so .......
