Update: MFFC’s New Timber Frame Shop

by Dylan Durkee, Fleet & Facilities Manager

A new large-scale timber frame structure is being built up on the farm. It will serve as a four season shop for future maintenance and construction projects.

Overlooking the Saphouse and situated next to the Pole Barn, this building will house equipment and provide an enclosed place to work on construction projects year-round. This timber shop’s doors will always be open to visitors so they can peek inside and see what is afoot.

• 100% of the timbers and boards used on the property were harvested at MFFC, and approximately 90% were milled on site.

• 85% of the wood is Norway and red spruce and the rest of the timber frame consists of red oak, cherry, ash and red pine.

By sourcing these timbers from on-site log jobs, Dylan and his crew have focused on improving habitat and forest health while using framing techniques that maximize the continued storage of carbon post harvest. These techniques have eliminated the carbon footprint associated with transportation of timber and lumber, ensuring that MFFC’s efforts produce ecologically netpositive project outcomes.

• Roughly 34 trees were harvested for this project, which produced 48 knee braces, 198 pegs, 38 timber components consisting of post and beams and 90 timber rafters and roof boards. All together totalling 102 logs, all sawn on property on our milling equipment.

• This building is not yet completed. It still needs exterior siding and trim and stick framing members for doors. 8 more trees will be cut down and 24 more logs will be milled to complete the project.

The longest/biggest timber in this structure is a top plate that is 26’ long, 12” deep and 10” wide. Akin to putting six and a half 2x12’s together that equal 26’ in length (that’s a big timber) - it weighs just over a thousand pounds.

The peak of the structure is 19 ½’, the structure is 30’ wide by 54’ long. With the overhang on the gable end it stretches to 60 feet.