ENGINEERING
ENGINEERING
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING: IT MATTERS
No matter how hard the wind blows, how deep the snow falls, or how much the ground shakes, the timbers and SIPs of your hybrid timber frame will take care of you.
We ensure your project is structurally sound, compliant with local building codes, and specifically engineered for your particular property and climate.
Our structural engineering process is completed in-house then sent out for final stamps to confirm that we did our job correctly. The dollars we spend and effort we apply are worth it -— we sleep soundly at night and so should you.
A NOTE ON ENGINEERING
CAPE BRETON, NOVA SCOTIA
Dear George:
Here’s a quick update on Timberbuilt’s easternmost project in North America.
”Artful. Rugged. Green.“are cornerstones of Timberbuilt’s products. When Hurricane Dorian slammed our property the only attribute we were worried about was “Rugged”.
Our home is built on an exposed cliff 140 feet above the North Atlantic. During gentle weather in Maritime Canada the ocean beckons and is seductive and calming. When a storm hits Cape Breton the sea comes to life with a vengeance, its power humbling.
Just as my Acadian friends retreated from our house to safer ground as the hurricane gathered in intensity I asked them to describe the waves near the shore. Their response was you could not see any waves because the sea was nothing but white froth.
Our island got clobbered during the storm. When our friends returned to check our house they found only 12 ft of gutter missing and about a shot glass of water near a window— not bad given sustained winds which were clocked locally over 100 mph.
While we appreciate and cherish the ”Artful.” component of our Timberbuilt home, and certainly respect that it is “Green.”, we still have both because it was built beyond “Rugged.”with the muted structural attributes of a fortress.
Please let your Timberbuilt crew know that what they built us easily shrugged off this hurricane and that we are grateful for a design and job well done by your company.
Tom Burton
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING: WE STRIVE FOR EFFICIENCY
In our design process we develop a software model of your home.
This model is integral in efficient building practices. It also allows you to take advantage of what your site has to offer in regard to solar orientation, views, et cetra — all good — and combines that with “the best shell in the business” (super insulated, super sealed).
This is where the frustration sunk in. We would continually see our projects saddled with HVAC systems that were typically too large, required too much maintenance, offered too little comfort, and cost too much (to the homeowners and the environment). Simply put — antiquated systems.
We had to do better, something had to change.
ENERGY ANALYSIS: ENTER TRAUTMAN ASSOCIATES
Trautman Associates was tasked with developing an energy analysis that accurately represented what we built. One that could be confirmed by the endless blower door tests and thermal imaging scans that we’d had performed.
They muscled up and did the work, utilizing sophisticated software with some considerable fine tuning. The ACCURATE analysis their modeling provides lets you take full advantage of your Timberbuilt shell.
Your energy analysis comes with recommendations, renewable energy breakdowns, and room by room load needs. Trautman can “right-size” any system and there are more options than you might think that are smaller, more efficient, easier to maintain, and less expensive.
We supply this report for every house we build.
CLICK HERE FOR A SAMPLE ENERGY REPORT
TAKING IT ONE STEP FURTHER
Trautman can also be tasked with designing and spec’ing every aspect of your HVAC system to provide a user-friendly roadmap for your local contractor’s install.
Trautman and Timberbuilt are trying to be aggressive about right-sized, comfort driven HVAC systems, to educate our clients about their options, and to build more high-performance homes that are designed to make renewables a realistic, cost-effective option.
When that happens, we all win.