Framing through a Montana winter

Short answer: yes. We framed Morton’s — about 6,800 square feet up at the Homestead — straight through a Montana winter. It kicked our butts and it turned out phenomenal. Both halves of that are true and you should weigh both.

What winter actually costs you

Daylight. In December up here you are working a short day whether you like it or not. That alone changes what a week produces.

Snow. Every snowfall lands on the deck you were about to work on, and it has to come off before anything else happens. That is time nobody quotes for.

Everything takes longer. Cold hands, heavy clothing, ice on surfaces that need to be walked on with material in your arms. A crew does not move in January the way it moves in July, and pretending otherwise is how people get hurt.

Why you might do it anyway

Because the alternative is often worse. Framing is what gets a building dried in. If waiting until spring means the whole schedule slides a season — and everything behind framing slides with it — then a hard winter on the frame can buy back more than it costs.

That is the actual decision, and it is a schedule decision more than a weather one. What does the delay do to everything downstream? If the answer is “nothing much,” wait. If the answer is “it pushes the finish work into next winter,” it’s worth having the conversation.

What we’d want to know before saying yes

Access, mostly. Whether the site can be kept open, whether a crane can get where it needs to be, and what the approach looks like after a real snowfall. A house that is straightforward in September can be a different proposition in February purely because of the road to it.

We’ve done it, we’ll do it again, and we’ll tell you honestly if we think your particular job should wait.