Signature Post & Beam, Inc. designs timber frames using the traditional joinery of the Old World craftsman but with the contemporary efficiencies and accuracies only found with a computerized milling and joinery machine. 
Unless specifically requested, we do not use metal bolts and plates on our frames but only traditional joinery such as mortise and tenon, dovetails, laps, splines, etc. for our connections. Once the overall design of the home is completed we will design our timber frames using Cadworks software. The Cadworks design is then interfaced into the milling and joinery machine to cut a precise frame. Many advantages exist by cutting a frame using a milling and joinery machine versus cutting the frame by hand. One such advantage is time to cut the frame as we can cut a typical sized house in 3 to 5 days on average. Once the frame is cut we do not have to pre-assemble the frame in the shop and then disassemble, thus we reduce the amount of labor involved in the frame cutting. Since our machine is European, it measures in metric standards, which produces tolerances in the frame’s joinery that is much more precise and tight than using the American standards. The final outcome of quicker cut times, lower labor costs and more refined joinery is a high quality timber frame at a more affordable price than if cut by hand.
We offer all of our customers many options to dress up their timber frames. A standard feature with all of our frames is to surface plane all four sides of every timber to produce a smooth frame surface. If you want to have more of a rustic look, we can provide timbers that are either rough sawn or replicate the hand-hewn timbers.
We can dress your timber frame up by the addition of gunstocks, chamfered edges, pendants, curved corner braces, alternating species of wood pegs or timber frame members, etc. Many artistic features can be added to your frame to make it unique to you and your family.
The species of wood are as varied as the styles of frames. One of the best species of wood to use is Douglas Fir. This species of wood has fantastic structural characteristics, minimal amount of checking, beautiful grain pattern and a reddish orange patina as it matures. Eastern White Pine is another great wood to work with. It will have more checks than Douglas Fir and will mellow to a yellow/honey color as it matures. We can also use other structurally sound varieties of wood such as the White Fir, Larch, Cypress, and Oak. For a more unusual look we will also work with reclaimed timbers from the industrial forest. Reclaimed timbers are the structural timbers from old demolished buildings, trestles, dry docks, etc. which are then re-sawn, planed and reused in a new timber frame structure. Often times the traces of the past show up in the original first growth timbers as unique colors or markings.
