One of the principals of green building is to use local materials whenever possible. Using local materials cuts down on the amount of fuels used to transport the goods from one side of the country to the other, or even accross oceans. This in turn reduces the overall carbon footprint of the building. In addition, using local goods promotes your region's economic strength and community--which ultimately will help you in your business.
At Texas Timber Frames we strive to whenever possible use local sources for steel fabrication for our foundation and connector plates, glass fabrication, and tens of other products that go into building a timber frame home. Ultimately, the biggest part of any job is our timber.
Texas is not a region known for its great forests and logging industry; however, it does have a long history in the timber industry. The 19th century saw the destruction of one of the great American forests in the Pineywoods in East Texas. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of longleaf pine forests were cut down for building materials and farmland never to return. See the link to Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine to learn more about the history of this forgotten forest... http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2009/june/ed_1/
In its place a healthy forest of Southern Yellow Pine, Hickory, and Oak has grown and it has long been a source for building materials in our region. Whenever possible we use timber from this forest to take advantage of the benefits of using local materials. Our latest project is a pool house made exclusively of Southern Yellow Pine from the old Pineywoods forest, while the porch for this project utilizes Eastern Red Cedar found just west of Houston, Texas.
Inquire with us if you have any questions or thoughts on Texas timber and how we can use local materials in your next building project.
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