about

About Valley Creek Timber Frames

I’m Neal Piskorick, founder of Valley Creek Timber Frames in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Valley Creek was created from a respect for traditional American timber framing and the buildings that have given the craft its lasting character: barns, workshops, carriage houses, cabins, and simple rural structures built with purpose, proportion, and visible structure.

My background in surveying and design influences how I approach every frame. I pay close attention to layout, proportion, structural relationships, and the way each piece works together as part of the whole. My timber-framing education has developed through formal workshops, hands-on work, independent study, and continued exploration of traditional joinery and historic framing methods.

That traditional approach is supported by modern design tools. Each frame is developed as a detailed 3D model before fabrication, allowing the overall structure, timber relationships, and individual joints to be worked out before a timber is cut. Mortises, tenons, housings, braces, and other joinery are drawn as part of the frame itself—not added as an afterthought. It is a process that combines the clarity of traditional layout with the accuracy and visualization available through modern design.

I am especially drawn to the practical side of traditional timber framing: straightforward structural systems, efficient use of heavy timber, square-rule layout, mortise-and-tenon joinery, and details that serve a purpose rather than simply decorate the frame.

Valley Creek Timber Frames focuses on thoughtfully designed pavilions, cabins, workshops, outdoor structures, and custom heavy-timber projects. The goal is not to imitate the past, but to carry forward the qualities that made traditional timber buildings so successful: clarity, durability, honest materials, and a strong sense of permanence.

To me, a good timber frame should feel right before anyone starts explaining why. The proportions should make sense. The structure should be understandable. The joinery should belong there. And the finished building should feel as though it was meant to stand for a very long time.

That is the standard I bring to every Valley Creek project.