About
An arborist married a timber framer. This was inevitable.
Canopy & Beam is the Swannanoa workshop of Nora and Wes Calloway and a crew of four — building in the trees around Asheville since 2014.
Nora spent twelve years as a climbing arborist, most of them talking property owners out of cutting down oaks. Wes cut his teeth on timber-frame barns in Madison County, where a joint is expected to outlive the person who cut it. The first treehouse was for her nephew, in a black walnut behind her sister's place in Fairview. The second was for a stranger who had seen the first one from the road and turned around in the driveway.
Ten years on, the crew is six: the two of us, three carpenters, and a shop lead who fabricates our steel brackets two miles from the office. We take on eight to ten projects a year — enough to stay sharp, few enough that one of us is on your site every week it runs.
What we hold to
- The tree outranks the build. If the arborist's report says no, the answer is no, and we help you find another way up.
- Fixed bids, kept. The number we sign is the number you pay, short of you changing the scope.
- Built for the second owner. Hardware you can inspect, decking you can replace, drawings you keep.
Canopy & Beam Builders LLC is a licensed North Carolina general contractor and carries general liability and workers' compensation coverage on every job site.
How a build runs
From site walk to first climb
The site walk
Two hours on your land, free. We look at trees, access, slope, and sun, and talk honestly about whether the idea fits the site and the budget.
Design
Drawings, the arborist's report, engineering, and a fixed bid. Four to eight weeks, priced separately so you own the plans either way.
The shop weeks
Steel is fabricated and timber pre-cut in Swannanoa while permits process — so the on-site phase, the part that disrupts your life, stays short.
On site
Ten to eighteen weeks depending on the build. A small crew, a tidy site, and no subcontractor roulette — the people who start your project finish it.
The first-year visit
We come back after four seasons of sway and growth to check every collar and cable. It is our favorite appointment of the year.