Living in the Forest – Classic West Coast Timber Frame Aiming for Greener Standards
By William Edmondson
My first home in Whistler was a beat-down timber frame house – real old-school Whistler living with dirty carpets and dirtier Aussie roommates. And the bathroom – let’s just say the great outdoors was a more appealing drop-off. While the surface of the home was never mom-worthy, the timber that stood strong overhead always kept me feeling like I was living the dream: skiing in the mountains, living amongst the trees.
That was 15 years ago. A lot has a changed in Whistler since then but the allure of the timber frame home is still growing tall. With its roots firmly planted in Europe, timber framing and its mortise and tenon joints (think Lego with trees) has made its way across the pond and found a new home here on Canada’s west coast.
Once a hand-crafted skill passed down from builder to builder, timber frame construction has now been modernized with computer added design (CAD) and modern numerical control machines, making cuts easier and more accurate. Both innovations have helped the industry grow to where it is today, allowing for more affordable frames and shorter lead-times for projects.
The draw remains the same: from West Vancouver to Whistler, these ‘wood shacks’ continue to symbolize that true mountain home experience – living with the trees. And the west coast offers local access to giant timber, which translates to lower prices and helps drive the continued popularity of this style of build. The draw is obvious – walking into a well-designed, well-crafted timber home makes you feel … well, at home.
While technological advances allow these homes to be built ‘citius, altius, fortius’ – in lay terms ‘swifter, higher, stronger’ – the next step, naturally, is to ‘green-ify’ them.
It’s a step already taken by Kelvin Mooney of BC Timber Frame, who, along with his wife Marnie, is on the brink of designing and building Canada’s first certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) timber frame home. While LEED standards are generally a challenge to meet, especially in the Canadian climate, Kelvin is quick to point out that most of his company’s practices in designing homes are already branching out to meet these guidelines. “We stumbled upon LEED,” admits Kelvin. “We were building this house on an in-fill lot with low impact landscaping, Energy Star windows, high efficiency gas boiler, concrete in-floor heating and a roof built with structurally insulated panels. There wasn’t a whole lot left to obtain the LEED certification … low VOC paint, water-based stains, formaldehyde-free cabinetry, and low voltage lighting.” Marnie adds, “We are always trying to live our lives more responsibly and this was one more opportunity.”
While the building may be more green-oriented, the argument can still be made that some timber frame estates are far from sustainable. Their large square-footage makes a sizable footprint and while, in theory, these homes are made of renewable resources (trees do grow on trees after all) not everyone in the industry agrees.
Daniel Addey-Jibb, a fellow timber-frame builder, offers a counter view. “When huge Douglas firs are specified for a timber frame project they will come from enormous old-growth trees … these trees are a limited resource – once they are fully harvested, they are gone forever. A more sustainable option would be a younger, smaller, possibly plantation-grown Douglas fir.”
Even so, it’s refreshing to see Kelvin and Marnie taking these initial proactive steps and doing so with obvious attention to quality and style. “The idea was originally to build a healthier home, not necessarily a green home,” admits Marnie. “This home offers some direction and a benchmark for conventional building.”
With more steps like this, ‘living in the trees’ may someday be as green as it sounds.
