![]() “But I would say 50 to 60 percent is done with a hand tool. ![]() “I have to meet a production schedule,” he said. ![]() And he doesn’t by any means eschew power tools: he uses circular saws to cut beams to length, for instance. While Sweet loves traditional joinery, he will also do hybrid stick-built and post-and-beam buildings, depending on what the client wants. The client has a limited budget and so it will be only partially built out by Sweet’s crews. Now he’s working on a more modest project, a 24 by 32 foot house that will rise two stories above a basement. “At the height of that I had 22 people working for me,” Sweet said. One project ran from 2007 to 2012 and produced over 12,000 square feet of buildings. Sweet said it takes a year to build a good-size building and the company he runs with his son, John Sweet III, completes one to three a year, depending on the size of the crews they field. An internet search will turn up a variety of options for the person looking to hone the skills to build a new frame structure. There are numerous programs teaching timber frame construction, including at The Shelter Institute in Woolwich. It’s out there and it’s happening,” Lamer said. While Lamer agrees that post-and-beam construction is a “small niche as far as the construction industry as a whole is concerned,” it is a viable one, and those trained in it can find jobs: “We have timber framers calling all the time asking for our students. Its program was recently endorsed by the Timber Framers Guild, a national organization promoting timber framing education. KVCC teaches timber framing as part of its Associate in Applied Science degree program as well as two one-year certificate programs in Sustainable Construction. Scott Lamer, the program coordinator of the Sustainable Construction Program at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, said he talks regularly with 10 timber frame companies, some of them very small shops, and adds there are another 10 or so he knows of, but hasn’t had contact with. Sweet estimates “there’s probably seven or eight in Maine that are very serious” about timber frame construction. While many Maine building contractors may employ full-size beams in their projects, those who count traditional timber framing as a major part of their business are probably few in number. ![]() People just like the overall aesthetic of heavy timber and seeing the structure of the house itself.” “It’s popular,” said Jence Carlson, who with his wife Katherine runs Maine Mountain Timber Frames in the tiny western Maine town of Avon. “It gives a different feel to the house.” “It’s the quality, the aesthetic appeal, the simplicity and the tradition” that account for its perennial appeal. It’s waxed and waned in popularity over the years, as has the number of builders who employ it, and now appears to be on a bit of an upswing, said Sweet. In the 1980s there was a lot of interest in timber framed houses. You can step back and look at a building and take real pride in it. COURTESY PHOTO/Maine Mountain Timber Frames “This has consumed my whole life. Maine Mountain Timber Frames uses computer-aided design and drafting software known as Autocad to design all its timber frame structures. Subscribe - Holiday Gift Subscriptions Sign In My Account Logout Primary Menu ☰ X ![]()
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