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Timber Posts

By Mike McLaine on March 06, 2014

The thing I love about timber framing is that there are so many choices when it comes to the look:  do you want your timbers big or small, rough or smooth, chamfered or rounded over on the corners, exposed steel or hidden steel, traditional joinery or steel plates.

Timber Frame Pergola Posts

Douglas Fir Timbers and Built Up Timber Posts

How do you want your timber posts to look?

Porch timbers

Canted Timbers on a porch

The timber posts are the unsung heroes of the timber frame.  After all, the posts are what carry the weight of the frame to your foundation.

Timber Posts with Glulam Arches

A photograph of the perimeter posts, beams and glulam wood arches going up. Notice the size of the man on the staging to get a feel of the scale of the frame. The 12×16 posts are about 40′ tall and the arches are 25′ long.

Posts can be massive:

Heavy-Timber-Welcome-Center-hi-resOr elegant:

Beautiful Curved Timber Pergola Overlooking a Lake

Beautiful Curved Pergola Overlooking a Lake

They can have steel joinery:

More Steel Plates

More Steel Plates!

Or they can be made out of peeled logs:

Galvanized Steel Cap

Galvanized Steel Cap

If you’re interest in building a timber frame, or have any timber work questions, we invite you to get in contact, ask an expert, or share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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3 comments
  1. Emery says:

    Nice post Mike!

  2. Chris cedrone says:

    I need some big post for a pergola. The biggest is 3.75”x10”x24’
    Can you help us. Also needs to have no knots

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