A question of salesmanship. I am interested in how practicing timberframers, salespeople, orators (hehe), and companies sell a timberframe structure. Do you reason with potential clients that their building will be stronger, do you appeal to their sense of emotions or aesthetics?

In short it seems that most timberframes are built for people who already know they want one. The question more specifically is how do you convince someone who wants a new building that a timberframe is what they should have or build.

the point I've been making lately is that you will pay for the structure of your building whether you see it or not, so why not have something beautiful and inspiring to look at instead of wallboarded boxes? Costs more, but also worth more. Another point to be made is that a timberframe is cut ahead of time and goes up very quickly, helping speed up the construction timetable.

To see one is to want one

I'd add longevity, superior energy efficiency, and open floor plans.

Educating, persuading, selling. Semantics! People with hundreds of thousands of dollars (or most people in general) probably do not like to feel as if they are ignorant or they need some education when it comes to being sold on an idea. I'm talking about persuading.

As Daiku says, seeing one is wanting one. Are you sure that pertains to everyone? I think there must be people out there who grow to love a timberframe after experiencing one. Sure you can see the strength and beauty, but how about how the wood changes with the seasons, how one would notice sunlight in different parts of their home through the years all the things that could not be grasped immediately upon seeing one. Don't people in this scenario have to be sold upfront before they are sure? How do you make them love it before they do? How do you make them experience before they experience it?

I think we're the educators Derek is talking about. (And we don't care about grammar or semantics in discussion boards!) My husband was the one who originally wanted the timberframe. He started seeing them in timberframe magazines and loved the exposed wood, the intricacy, the artistry. I was just hungry for a cabin--I thought with our finances we would have to settle for a Tuff Shed with a loft (we actually know people who have such a cabin and seem quite content.) Derek started convincing me that I wanted a timberframe with his rhapsodies about reclaimed wood, the artistry of the trusses, the joinery. He took us out to an old scrapyard and picked up these paint-smeared, nailed beams and showed us the grain. I never knew there was so much to know about wood. Neither my husband nor I had even stood in a timberframe until I went up to Montana to Derek's workshop to check out the frame they were building for us. I stepped inside and fell in love with the wood right away. As a matter of fact, wood beams seem to be contagious: as our timberframe was being built, our neighbors would walk over with their five dogs so they could "hug a post." I love seeing the wormholes and the places where other craftsmans once put their own marks into the wood. Our place is so beautiful. Friends, visiters, workmen drop their jaws when they walk into it. One friend, when the roof and gable dormer were finished, compared the soaring feeling of it to a church. And, yes, I know what you mean about the light--it moves through our timberframe all day like some kind of oceanic current. We are teachers, so it's just a little thing-1200 square feet. but even my mom calls it a "fairytale in the wood."

:rolleyes:

yes, thank you for sharing. the reason why I was inquiring is that sometimes it is hard to describe the craft of timber framing with words. I guess that all good things sell themselves without words. That's even better I suppose. Sincerely, Mo

Swanger is right
I designed and built my first one last summer, a 10'x12' screened in porch, and i cant stop thinking about how i want to build another one. All day long, while I work at remodeling and finish carpentry, there is the distant echo of chisels and hand saws playing in my mind. And not to mention the client for whom i built it, he and all his snowbird friends really enjoy sitting out there enjoying the beautiful florida winter weather. Needs? Wants? Everbody NEEDS a home, people who know of timber frame's WANT one , but those who have expirenced a timber frame can't imagine living without one. So you say timber frames sell themselves, well all i can say to that is "and how"

nice pictures, I'm guessing you have some olly screws holding those rafters down on the plates. But I don't see how the plates are secure on those posts . I think I see one peg in the bottom of one brace's tenon but not the top. If you get one of those hurricanes, what's keeping the entire roof system (with the plates) from sailing away?
There are tenons on the top of those posts and braces aren't there?

No oily screws, but there are some waxed up 18" lags that go in from the top of the rafters down through the plate into the posts. there are 2"x4" tennons on top of the post with a step-lapped rafter seat. also lags at the top of the rafters into the ridge. Your correct about the brace, one lag at the bottom mortise but they fit very tight into the shoulder cut and tennon at the top that no lags were needed.

Timber framing is like eating potato chips. I started with a door way and doors to a stair well. Now I have a wishingwell , clothespole, a mailbox , barn , spice rack ,3 goldylocks beds, several cabins and I can't wait to start my next project. Selling is not a problem .