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WELCOME TO THE
BARN RAISERS
WEBSITE
178 Petticoat Lane, East Haddam, CT 06423, 860-873-3828, cell 860-478-0405 |
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ABOUT US I’m Brendan Matthews, owner of The Barn Raisers. With over twenty years of experience, I am skilled in the traditional art of Timber Framing. I design and build barns that are constructed with the integrity and look of traditional New England barns. My structures are used for many purposes: for horses and other animals, as garages, studios and shops, as additions to homes, as small houses and vacation homes. Whatever you can imagine. What is Timber Framing? It is a term describing a type of construction using posts and beams held together with traditional joinery: mortise and tenon joints, intricate scarf joints, housed dovetails and many other time-proven timber joinery devices. The style I prefer is called English Square Rule and dates back to 14th century England. The joinery is held together with pegs, no nails or bolts are used in the frame. This style of construction has stood the test of time and is known to be stronger while using less timber material than conventional stick framing. WHAT WE DO I will provide structural frame drawings and do all the design work associated with the timber frame of a structure. For classic barns, I will design and complete the structure, start to finish. For buildings which are insulated or used as living space, I will design, cut and raise the frame and can provide S.I.P. (structural insulated panels) installation. You would choose a general contractor to carry out the rest of the construction. I design each structure individually and build no two alike; I pride myself in creating timber frame structures which express the owners’ interests and manage to do something unique in each frame: carvings, curved members or unique joinery. RAISINGS The company name states it; the “barn raising” is a major component of our tradition - I believe the raising is a significant aspect of having a timber frame barn. If the owner is into it, we like to do traditional hand raisings with a big crowd of people. We can help you organize the event. And we also do raisings using a crane, but they are not as much fun. WHERE WE WORK I’m located at 178 Petticoat Lane East Haddam CT. 06423 and will build within a 45 min. radius of here. I will cover all of Middlesex county, and parts of New Haven and New London counties. I will on occasion build elsewhere in New England, if I’m doing just the frame. It would be cut here and sent to location to be raised.
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