Planning for my timber frame home

[dashiell1981]

In a few weeks I will be falling the old growth Doug fir logs for my timber frame home. 
The logs are from 5' to 6' diameter, which I will quarter and dry for around five years before I mill them.
I live in northern California, close to Lake Tahoe. I'm looking for someone to take my crappy sketches and draw up a plan that abides by the codes of California and who is familiar with timber frame design.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Billy

[Brad_bb]

If you're using them for beams, I would cut them into slightly oversized beams and let them dry like that.  Allow for shrinkage plus 1/2 inch minimum.  Maybe more since they will be FOH.  This will allow for warpage.  You can resize them after they've dried for a year or more.

Here are a few lessons learned:

• On Timber frame Interior walls, put your braces on one side of the wall or the other, or make the brace full width of the bent.  That way when you infill the wall and drywall it, your brace will show.  Centering a brace in an interior bent will usually get covered up when infilling.
• Rock Wool is a great insulation for interior walls.  It's very sound deadening, won't hold water, very good insulation, and is fire proof.  It's a little more expensive but worth in on interior/separation walls.
• If using oak rafters, keep the length down as much as possible.  If you can find a way to break them up into shorter pieces, they will cost less and warp less.  Be careful when it comes to oak rafters.  FOH Rafters will tend to bow.  Split heart rafters will also tend to bow.  Boxed heart should fare better if well centered and the rafters are at least 4x6.  Oak can have a mind of it's own as it dries.  If it starts drying before being installed, they can bow and crown, making installation more difficult and requiring come-a-longs and blocking when you go to install sheathing.
• [font=Segoe UI, Segoe UI Web (West European), Segoe UI, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif]When shipping timbers or other materials, make sure to take pictures on the sending end and receiving end.  This will help protect you.  If you send something and the receiver says you didn't send it, you have the pics that may show you sent it and that they should have it there.  The same thing goes if you're the receiver.  Snap some pics before it comes off the truck and take some pics once on the ground.  Pics have saved us on a number of occasions where otherwise we'd have had to send duplicate material at our cost.   They eventually found the missing material in their yard/site.  This applies to any materials you receive onsite.  Photograph, photograph, photograph!  Inventory everything received.  It could save you a lot of money.[/font]
• Top quality foundation work is worth it.  Shoot the top of foundation at all our post locations with laser as there will be variation in height.  You will need to modify your post lengths accordingly for your frame to sit level.  
• Wood should never touch concrete.  Separate you posts from concrete by using knife plates, or at the very least, 1/4 inch Plexiglas plates under the post.  Knife plates will bold into the concrete with anchor studs and affix to the post with a peg.  When using plexiglass plates, you'd have to use straps to connect the concrete and post to prevent uplift.  I'm sure there are specific requirements in Cali for earthquake that cover what you can and can't do for this.

[Don P]

I'll echo what Brad said about sawing oversize now, drying and remilling the dried cant when you are ready to build. If they are of much size or length I'd go more like 1" over.

Jim Rogers, the moderator of this board has a design service and would be a good person to tap for plans. You will need an engineer licensed in CA to seal them.

[Brad_bb]

I have a woodmizer beam planer that runs on the sawmill track.  It acts more like a jointer and planer.  Most Walnut, Ash and Cherry beams I cut boxed heart, 1/2 inch over will do it, but if it's not boxed heart, or I suspect it will move more due to large knots or other features, then I will allow more overage.   I just pulled out a live edge Mulberry, and it will take between 1 and 1.5 inches to get the two sides parallel and flat again.  Luckily I allowed extra thickness on this piece.

[Ljohnsaw]

Billy,
Where "close to Tahoe" are you?  On 50 or 80?  Placer, Nevada or Eldorado county?   I'm at Yuba Gap off 80, Nevada county.  What's your snow load?  Where did you find old growth DF?

I used Fire Tower Engineered Timber out of Rhode Island.  Ben is licensed in California.  I drew up my plans in Sketchup and bounced them back and forth to FTET until they were happy with all the fine details.  Excellent company to work with.  You will also have to have a fire suppression (sprinkler) system designed for your cabin as well.  Good luck!

[dashiell1981]

Your close to me. I live in Baxter, which is right above Alta off 80. I believe the county requires 100 lb snow load here, however our other buildings are all designed for 200. We have a quite a few old Doug firs on the property. I've picked out 4 for the post and beams. Planning on 40' lengths, however I need to find or buy new 20' extension for the Woodmizer.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Need to learn sketchup!

[dashiell1981]

I've read in a few books that quartering the log and removing the bark, plus storing under cover works to get the drying process started. Is there a reason it's not a good idea to quarter?
I'm still looking for a used 20' extension for the LT40, or I would rough cut the beams. I'll break down and buy new if I can't find one.

[Ljohnsaw]

Ah, Baxter where the mud slide closed down the freeway a couple years ago.  That sure was a mess - got rear-ended when the guy behind me wasn't paying attention to the road...

I don't think quartering would be a good idea.  If you "split the pith" you will cause the timbers to bow as they dry.  You either want to box the heart or cut free of it.  I need some 56' or so firs for my main beams.  Got 4 extra? ;)  I could do some Sketchup work for them!  I have lots of time in the winter when I'm shut down on my cabin from November to June.

[dashiell1981]

Yes, the mudslide was a mess. Had like a hundred cars waiting outside our business to get through. It was our land that slid on to I-80, plus there was smaller slide on Baxter rd a few weeks before.
Part of the issue is that these trees are so big that I can't move them as a whole with the equipment I have. I have to quarter them to skid them out with a backhoe. My current mill only cuts 24" wide also. I know a quarter section will exceed that 24", so some additional chainsaw work will be needed.
Or get larger mill, anyone want to buy 2006 LT40 super with new computer haha!

I will do some more research on the subject and probably try to get them milled up faster.