Woodpecker-European Timber Framing Ltd. was founded in Canmore, Alberta, in 2005 and is celebrating 18 years in business (2023). Peter, the founder and president of WoodPecker, realized his vision and grew the company from a one man business to one of the biggest Timber Framing outfits in Western Canada, with a full CNC joinery shop.

Whether it is a traditional hammer truss, a dove tail joint or a Mass Timber structure with Glulam or CLT and slide together connectors, we have completed a vast number of projects in the last two decades. The “European Advantage” brings a lot of expertise in Mass Timber. Being from Germany himself, Peter likes to mix carpenters with European backgrounds into his team to pass on the knowledge of a building technology that is relatively new to the Canadian market.

We also incorporate and promote sustainability at Woodpecker through our “Zero Waste” policy, which includes purchasing materials from sustainably operated businesses as well.

WoodPecker has a clean safety record with next to no accidents over the past two decades, and we’ve achieved this through our strict company safety policies and constant training.

WoodPecker has been COR certified for more than 12 years.

Sam has been part of our Woodpecker team since 2016 as our head estimator.
He brings more than 25 years of experience as a professional timber framer, business owner, specialty builder and craftsman. He also has a bachelor of science degree in national history education and professional training in fine craft, entrepreneurship and construction management. Furthermore, he taught for the Timber Framers Guild, started a wood composite bicycle manufacturing business and was the Exhibitions Manager for a contemporary art museum. Sam loves innovation and spreadsheets and, when not pouring over plans, specifications and spreadsheets, Sam can generally be found cooking, skiing, dancing, riding bikes, making stuff or traveling with his family and friends.

He started with Woodpecker over 11 years ago. Originally, he comes from a completely different field –as a top chef from Germany and was cooking for places all over the world.

At Woodpecker, he manages all of our work sites, from scheduling, crews, equipment, quality and safety control. Thomas’ dedication and commitment to safety has ensured Woodpecker’s COR Certification. In summary, he is responsible for all aspects of communication between the shop and the work site, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.

Besides working at WoodPecker, he hand crafts beautiful cutting boards and other accessories made from a variety of different woods and epoxy. He enjoys the peace and quietness of living in the foothills and the natural surroundings of the mountain parks in comparison with his stressful working daily schedule.

Claudia is our office manager who takes care of all aspects of accounting, administration and human resources. During her career path, she was working in different industries, such as banking, tourism and municipal government, where she acquired a lot of professional experience in administration, bookkeeping, and customer service. Claudia loves orange tea and updating our admin processes to become more paperless and efficient. But mostly because she hates papercut.

With over 35 years of experience as a Master Timber Framer, Stefan is one of our most experienced crew leaders. Stefan has been with Woodpecker since 2013 and as our lead site foreman, Stefan´s attention to detail and dedication makes every project he works on special. Because of his vast experience and extensive training, Stefan is also our ‘man’ when it comes to special projects, such as working with reclaimed timber, hand scribed logs, etc… We really appreciate that every aspect of his work is done with precision and attention to every detail has been considered. Canmore is home for Stefan where he enjoys the serenity and beauty of the Rocky Mountains, as well as the natural wonders of Alberta and British Columbia.

Rolf has more than 25 years experience in the timber framing industry and is our CNC Robot operator. He is very detail oriented and ensures all timbers are precisely cut by our CNC machine. He started with Woodpecker in 2015, shortly after he moved to Canada from Switzerland, where he took his apprenticeship and worked as a timber framer for many years, which has given him a deep knowledge in every aspect of timber framing. As our resident cowboy, he loves horses and all things western!

David is our Drafting & Design Manager who graduated from SAIT with a diploma in Architectural Technology. He is involved in all aspects of Design and Cadwork and works closely with Architects and Engineers, as well as our production team to ensure accuracy and quality. He is committed to the Timber Frame industry and enjoys the challenge of designing buildings where the structural components are not hidden. In his words “I like the fact that every component is unique in the structure, and I pay attention to each timber in every timber frame I create”.

As an avid skier and hiker, Canmore is a perfect place for him to live and work. He also enjoys astrophotography and the mountains provide an amazing foreground for shots of the Milky Way.

Peter is Woodpecker- European Timber Framing Ltd´s founder and president. He moved from Germany, where he completed his apprenticeship as a carpenter after leaving his job as a police officer. Until now, he has been operating in Canada for almost 25 years. He bring to WoodPecker the expertise of the old techniques used in Germany crafting Timber Frames for over 800 years. Peter´s vision, when he started his own business, was to use the unique attributes of Canadian Timber coupled with European Craftmanship to build the best Timber Frames in the world. He has successfully continued to grow his business, while constantly focusing on advancing technology, sustainability and efficiency. Peter is respected in the Canadian Timber Frame community and continues to Steward Environmental Building methods in Canada.

Theo started with Woodpecker as an intern in February 2019, during his university studies in Hildesheim, Germany, in order to become a timber engineer. Because he loved the timber industry (and Woodpecker, of course) so much, that he moved to Canada immediately after he finished his degree and has worked with Woodpecker ever since. His career path started with an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker in 2013. Theo is our senior drafter, project manager, and he takes on the engineering of detailed connections. Woodpecker’s office wouldn’t have any eggs without him.

Mike has been part of our Sales Team and Project Management Team since 2022 and brings over 20 years experience in the construction sector, ranging from general contracting and custom home building of residential projects to commercial project management. He likes to be creative when solving problems and values any opportunity to build long lasting business relationships. Besides working, he loves to ski both up hill and down, as well as enjoying hockey, hiking, camping and biking.

Alex has been part of our team since 2017, he mostly runs crews and organizes construction sites, where he installs our heavy timbers. If you can’t find him there, he is probably operating the CNC machine, or doing absolutely anything necessary to keep the operation running smoothly. Furthermore, Alex has a bachelor degree in wood technology from Belgium and loves to be physically active at work. Alex hates emails.

Lindsey joined the Woodpecker team in late 2020. She is part of the core shop team who handles the inflow and outflow of materials. She organizes the timber yard and shop as well as running the staining and finishing department. As the Assistant Shop Manager, Lindsay is in charge of running the shop when the Shop Manager is not there.

She has an Industrial Design degree and has worked in a range of industries whilst living overseas—from prepress for a printshop, to maintenance for an ocean marina, to tradeswoman for an exhibition design company.

Mountain life has suited Lindsey well, and she enjoys hiking, chasing frisbees, and adding her art to the world. She has been known to spray paint work tools pink to avoid them disappearing from the job site!

Pavel started with Woodpecker as a site carpenter. Because of his skills and organizational talent, he quickly evolved to become a crew foreman. Today, he is running some of our largest job sites with crews up to 10 people. Pavel’s background is the hospitality industry, where he worked as a chef in high end kitchens for many years. Because of his passion to photography, he is also Woodpecker in-house photographer and responsible for many of the beautiful project pictures on our website.