The first step before building your own home is to have the most detailed plan possible. The main cost driver is volume. Try the designer as many times as you like.
Snow load and seismic hazard are read town by town in appendix C of the code. A 2.0 kPa default underestimates by 30 % in Quebec City and 48 % in Gaspé — a rafter there would be a full size too small. If your town is not listed, enter your own snow load. The preliminary sizing uses allowable stresses and National Building Code of Canada 2020 snow loads; the design to CSA O86 is your engineer’s, and in the US, your engineer checks it against NDS and ASCE 7.
Drag the drawing to turn it any way
The floor plans at the size of your frame. If there is none at that exact size, the closest opens, and the page says so.
A real sheet from your frame
The designer is free: your email opens it in this browser. Your dimensions stay put, and your frame is drawn as soon as that is done.
Your email to open the designer
Because your frame is saved under your email, and that is where your set will be delivered.
Up to failure
We pile snow onto the most loaded truss of your frame until it breaks. Each piece turns red as it nears failure; the deflection is exaggerated so you can see it.
An order of magnitude to understand, not a design: clear wood without defects (real timber breaks sooner), unfactored loads, uniform snow, no wind or drifts. The design limit is the one that sizes your frame. An engineer’s seal is still required.
Where should the windows go?
The designer places windows between the posts of YOUR frame, below the corner braces, where they cut heating and cooling the most. Tell it which way the long wall A faces and, if you like, what a window costs over a wall: the suggestion stops when more glass no longer pays back.
The moisture simulator runs a wall through years of real weather, hour by hour: vapour diffuses, condenses, then dries or builds up. Pick a wall, its membrane and a possible air leak. It is a simplified calculation (diffusion only, no liquid water): it bounds a risk, it guarantees nothing.
What does it cost?
The takeoff of YOUR frame, multiplied by prices read at their source: the wood (mill lists and sawn timber), panels, drywall, rigid insulation and polyethylene (Canac survey). What has no price read stays “to enter”. This is neither a Biobâtir price nor a quote, and the total covers only the priced lines.
Windows to price
Keep your list
Download the cost list of your frame, line by line. Your email is only asked for this download.
A quote request: nothing is payable now.
To enter (no price read)
Send me the plans
Your frame’s plans as PDFs: the assembled view and the exploded view, every piece with its mark. No dimensions: an engineer must review and seal the frame before anything is built.
Show me your frame
Your frame reaches me exactly as you drew it. I email you a short form so we can talk about your project.
Piece sections are not shown here. A timber frame must be reviewed and sealed by an engineer before anything is built. I do not have a partner engineer yet: I will tell you when I do, with the price. The sealed drawings are paid for in advance.
