Pure curiosity. I am currently working for a timberframing company in Boone,N.C. that is equiped with a Hundegger K2. Our job is geared more towards production and much different than the traditional timberframing shop, and our ability to produce frames is greatly accelerated.My role in this facility is to oversee a specific job through production and the raising.On-site I am essentially a job foreman,being in charge of the entire raising crew and final outcome of the structure.We work both residentially and commercially,and travel frequently.I was recently in charge of a project for a Lutheran church that featured 6 54'span main sanctuary trusses,2 34' span transept trusses carrying a 54' long web beam that carried 4 valleys and jacks, and lots of curved laminated timbers that all had to be scribed in the shop.A big job.And more like it on the way.My question isbased on the fact that an industry standard for rate of pay in a situation such as this is extremely hard to come by,and that we are a shop that is composed of a bunch of young (30 yrs is old) harry,smelly timberframers that dont know how much we tink we should make.If there is anyone out there who would like to offer any advice,your comments are eagerly awaited.Thanks for your time and be safe out there!

For definition let us say your church project described is "heavy construction" . All specimen hourly rates include all benefits but not travel perdiem. Skilled workers range $25-40 @ hour.
Crew supervisors range $30-50 @ hour. General foremen $50-150 @ hour. General labor (local hires) $7.50 @ hour, no benefits except SS and workmens's comp where required. These numbers were not taken from specimen TF jobs but from the general heavy contracting industries. A very large company headquartered locally provided the data. Overtime @ 1.5 rate begins 40 hrs, double time on Sundays or over 60 hours, triple time on federal holidays.

Roc & Emmett

Here's the Canadian perspective: You can take Emmett's figures and divide them by two, then convert to Canadian dollars! His numbers seem realistic though, IF you apply them to union carpentry work - However, I've never seen a union frame shop...

Up here, foremen/experienced layout people - earn CDN$17-25/hr, cutters earn CDN$12-17/hr. Labourers earn CDN$10-12/hr, summer students earn CDN$8-10/hr. Overtime depends upon the Province you work in - in Ontario it starts after 44 hrs, in Nova Scotia after 48 hrs. Overtime = 1.5 x hourly rate, regardless of the day of the week.

These figures are for hand work. We only have one Hundegger in Eastern Canada - any comments from someone at Pine Ridge? How about the Western Canadian perspective?

That said, if anyone has an opening for a "General Foreman", and is willing to pay me US$150 per hour, I'll start packing my bags now...

Mark Gillis

Hello. Here's the central Illinois figures from our shop. Laborers/summer help $6-9/hr, joiners $9-15/hr. Layout people/foremen $15-30/hr. All rates are obviously dependant upon skill level and experience. This is for shop work and residential raisings. Commercial work is dependant upon it being prevailing wage or not.
Hope this helps.