Keeping Timber Frame Techniques Alive

Keeping Timber Frame Techniques Alive BUILDINGS New Techniques 34-4-30 An Illinois business is so dedicated to preserving old barns that it has a "Personals" section for barns on it's website, trying to match old timber-framed barns with new owners. Trillium Dell Timberworks doesn't get money for selling the barns, but often contracts to move and restore the buildings. "We try to save barns by matching existing owners with new owners," says Tim Narkiewicz, one of the business's project managers. He emphasizes that Trillium Dell is not just a barn restoration company; it's a timber frame construction business with employees skilled in various styles of wood joinery with mortises, tenons and wooden pegs. Trillium Dell's mission is to preserve that building style by putting up new buildings and restoring old ones. In the last couple years, projects have included many restorations of barns and historical mills, Narkiewicz says. Customers include individuals, businesses and public agencies that have parks or museums and are interested in restoring, repurposing or moving old buildings. For example, one family donated a pre-Civil War barn to a heritage farm. Other customers want old barns transformed into homes, studios, or garages. The best option is to restore buildings right where they are, Narkiewicz says. For example, if a barn doesn't serve a farmer's needs, it can be altered with taller doors and have loft beams removed to make room for big farm equipment. The next best option is to move the building intact, but that isn't practical to do for more than a few miles. The final method is taking the barn down, transporting it, and reassembling it at a new location. Besides taking it apart piece by piece, Trillium Dell has developed a system of cutting the building in 8 or 10 ft. sections that can be transported easily on a semi. "There's a lot of engineering and rigging to take a barn down safely," Narkiewicz says. Trillium Dell also builds with new materials from wood the company purchases near its Knoxville, Ill., 80-acre campus. Builders can replicate the look of the timbers down to specific saw marks, and building new is often the most cost effective option. "Once a barn requires 30 percent replacement, you could build a new barn for the same price and labor," Narkiewicz says. "Typically there has to be another reason to restore a barn with more than 30 percent restoration required. Usually because it's a building with historic or nostalgic importance. Some customers, such as the Antique Engine & Tractor Association of Geneseo, Ill., choose to build with new materials. Members hired Trillium Dell to build a 48-by 70-ft. clubhouse out of local white oak. They held a modern day barn raising. While much of their work is in the Midwest, Trillium Dell crews travel all over the U.S. and beyond to places such as the Virgin Islands. They shipped one timber frame building to Switzerland. Project managers assess a barn and offer recommendations to barn owners or help in the design of new ones. The work is very satisfying, Narkiewicz says. Besides preservation, timber frame buildings can be built with modern efficiencies and be around for generations. "We can build a product that far exceeds the life cycle of trees we build with," Narkiewicz says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Trillium Dell Timberworks, 1277 Knox Road 1600 N., Knoxville, Ill. 61448 (ph 309 289-7921; www.trilliumdell.com).

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