Farm Store Solar Canopy

12’x48’ barn addition featuring a canopy for solar panels and locally milled timber.

Park Hill Orchard
Easthampton, MA
August 2015

When we decided to hire Timberpoint to extend our farm stand and to create a strong mounting roof for our solar energy system, Dan came highly recommended, because we asked a nearby farmer to tell us who had done the excellent work on his barn and share-house. To us, the Timberpoint style of building looks authentic and strong, and is farm tough. And the cost was less than we had imagined. The crew came every day once the job started and the project was completed forthwithly. In retrospect, Dan Pedersen and Timberpoint are the most straight-up outfit we have ever contracted. We plan to use this crew again for the next phase of our expansion.

— Alane Hartley & Russell Braen
Park Hill Orchard

Project Description

We recently assembled this 12’x48′ addition on the cider facility for Park Hill Orchard. All mortise and tenon joinery using local wood. It is a solar canopy, meaning an addition exclusively meant to hold an array of photovoltaic panels. The panels were installed by PV Squared out of Greenfield, Ma.

Challenges on this project involved tying the frame into the main building which was comprised of large steel posts every 12 feet. We had our welder, Mike Poole of Blue Collar Artisans, weld custom plates to the exterior of each of the posts to tie our ledger framing into.

Lucky for us, construction took place during the farms harvest season and the farm crew kept us loaded up with fresh fruit, berries, and many cups of their famous apple cider slushies during the hot days of August.