You dream for years of owning and living within the walls of a log or timber frame home, turning over ideas in your mind, and creating a definitive wish list. The next step is to find someone to design, supply product for and build the home you have envisioned.

PrecisionCraft Log & Timber Homes and its design division, Mountain Architects Inc., created a unique process for designing and building custom log and timber frame homes. They call it their Total Home Solution®.

A Client-Centered Process

Total Home Solution® is a process designed to rethink log and timber home building. It puts the clients and their needs first. Then, it clearly maps out how the design and construction will proceed, and sets forth who does what, eliminating confusion and delays from planning oversights. The three-step process takes a client through design, product selection and construction, where one firm responsibly guides and stays with clients from beginning to end, accountable for delivering results. With Total Home Solution®, the client drives the design, the design drives product selection, and each result is unique.

Says company president, Jim Young, of the design-product build process, “Most people haven’t been down the path of designing and building a custom home, so it seems like a daunting task. We developed Total Home Solution® with these people in mind, because it is a roadmap from concept to end. It’s a solution-based process where you deal with one source --- for design, high-quality product, installation of the log & timber structure, and help finding a quality contractor. At the same time, Total Home Solution® also means a team of qualified project managers to oversee the project from beginning to end.”

Stage 1

Meeting with one of the architects from Mountain Architects starts the design process. As a division of PrecisionCraft, they are familiar with the design parameters inherent with logs or timber, and they weave these concepts together with the client’s program, the site, and extensive background research to develop a conceptual design with preliminary cost estimates. With the client’s endorsement of the design, the company assists the client in selecting the right builder through PrecisionCraft’s Builder Due DiligenceTM program, where PrecisionCraft’s project managers introduce clients to three qualified builders. After selecting a builder, PrecisionCraft will prepare a detailed Builder Due DiligenceTM report that reviews the builder’s references, experience, licenses, and insurance.

Stage 2

With the builder selected, Mountain Architects prepares detailed construction documents. Sometimes special services are required like soil, geotechnical work, or structural engineering, as well as a meeting with an Architectural Review Committee and addressing the presentation requirements. All this is addressed at this stage, along with acquiring necessary permits. With this additional information, the cost estimates and schedule are refined, and the drawings are completed, ready for construction. At this point, the homeowner has entered into agreement with a pre-qualified contractor.

Stage 3

Building begins! While the builder completes the foundation for the home, PrecisionCraft’s project management team works with the builder to coordinate the shipping of the logs and timber products. The logs and timber products are manufactured at PrecisionCraft’s own plant featuring the latest advances in technology and are prepared to the design’s specifications. Following arrival of the logs and timber products at the building site, PrecisionCraft’s professional stacking crew travels to the site to erect the log and timber structure. With the structure up, the builder then completes the interior finishes under the oversight of Mountain Architects to ensure plan conformity.

This has proven to be a highly satisfying process for PrecisionCraft’s clients across the country. “It’s different from the standard approach where the product determines what the home looks like. In our Total Home Solution® process, the design of the home dictates the log & timber products. Here our manufacturing is flexible, and we have control over the product so we can deliver the best to the home,” says Jim Young. He adds, “Clients like working with someone who stays accountable throughout the process from the first design meeting to moving in.”

Green Building

When building green is important, choosing a natural and sustainable product like logs is the perfect option. The people at PrecisionCraft and Mountain Architects are committed to sustainable green building practices. “We support our clients in whatever shade of green they wish to pursue, whether it’s LEED®, Energy Star, or the new residential green building standards I am helping develop through the National Home Builders Council. We believe building and living green is good for health, conserves energy, and protects the environment, and so we back our clients in these efforts,” says Jim Young, President of PrecisionCraft.

Whether it is a custom hand-crafted log home, a timber frame home, or a milled log home, PrecisionCraft’s Total Home Solution® program can make any dream for a vacation residence, retirement home, or a full-time home for a growing family a reality, regardless of size. Whether you dream of building in the Sierras, Cascades, Rockies, Appalachians or points in between, they are there to assist you.

Find inspiring examples, photographs, details, and testimonials from satisfied customers by visiting the PrecisionCraft and Mountain Architect websites.