Planning and Executing a Commercial Project

Northern Timber Crafters

Oct 9

3 min read

We wanted to do a deep dive into a recent project to shine a spotlight on our planning and execution processes here at Northern Timber Crafters. This blog will focus on a recent commercial project near Boise, Idaho: a 13,000 square foot convenience store. This job was large, complex, and required a keen attention to detail and a good heap of teamwork.

Let’s break down how this was accomplished:

STEP 1: RECEIVE PROJECT PLANS

For this project, the General Contractor reached out with the project plans and requested a bid. This 91 page document was then scoured for all the timber feature needs including:

8 hammer beam trusses that spanned 60’
4 hammer beam trusses that spanned 30’
1 king post truss that spanned 50’

The plans also requested a mix of traditional and metal joinery, and contained over 2,000 metal hardware components for post and beam connections.

Sample: Project Plans from GC

STEP 2: MOVE PLANS INTO CAD AND GET ENGINEERING STAMPS

Once the timber features were all identified, we provided preliminary CAD drawings using Sketch-up. Once reviewed with the GC, we sent these to our engineering partner and worked thru the process to receive engineering stamps. These trusses were very long and required steel gusset plates and tie-rods in order to meet engineering requirements. The final engineering drawings were 25 pages and included details on the timber trusses, metal plates, framing beams, and joinery techniques.

When General Contractors bring us in during the planning process, we can provide value engineering suggestions - which in turn saves the GC money and often improves their final installation experience.

Sample: CAD drawing from Northern Timber Crafters

Sample: Engineering drawings from Northern Timber Crafters

STEP 3: ORDER EARLY

Once plans were stamped, it was time to get all the wood and metal components ordered. Delivery of large beams can take 6+ weeks and specialized metal components can take even longer so ordering on schedule is critical.

This job required over 2,000 pieces of connection hardware, 1,400 pieces were used in building the timber features and 600 were needed for other project requirements. We ordered it all, and then separated the portion that needed primed and painted satin black. The 600 "other" pieces were labeled and loaded onto a pallet for separate delivery. This is a lot of hardware to keep track of so to make it easy for the GC, we created a detailed spreadsheet that outlined all the hardware locations, sizes, and installation guidance.

Sample: Hardware Location Sheet from Northern Timber Crafters

STEP 4: GET BUILDING

This is by far the best part of the project - going from a piece of paper to the actual timber features! The most unique thing about these trusses was their length. 60' is wider than a traditional basketball court so they took up a lot of space in our shop so we had to get creative with stacking and storing them during the building process.

STEP 5: DELIVERY

As the trusses, and other timber features were finished, we coordinated three separate deliveries to the job site. We left the trusses partially assembled for ease of installation. The drive from Ponderay to Boise is especially scenic and goes thru several mountain ranges and eventually follows the curves of the Payette River canyon. Because of the size of these trusses and this challenging route, this load needed a pilot car to safely lead these trusses to their final destination.

STEP 6: INSTALLATION

The onsite GC received our CAD drawings again, now with detailed installation instructions. They installed our trusses with their crew and called with any questions along the way.

Sample: Assembly Instructions for GC's Installation Crew

Timber Features Fully Installed by GC's Installation Crew

This article highlights one of the things that make us different from other timber framing shops - our ability to participate in the planning process and execute the final design. We may be a small shop in North Idaho but we are confident that we can partner with General Contractors to pull off extraordinary projects throughout the United States. For more information on commercial project considerations, check out this blog article.