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This is a great directory and likely to be an invaluable resource for people who are undertaking a project that incorporates an oak frame or indeed any post and beam timber frame construction. The directory is a list of practices across the UK with experience in this form of building. The use of large sections of green timber in a building does present some architectural challenges that not everyone is familiar with. We would certainly recommend using an architect with some knowledge or experience of oak framed homes. You can search by county or postcode and the site sensibly lists architects in adjacent counties as well so you should be able to find someone in your area. Of course we are always here to help you find the right architect for your project but this site is another addition to the ever growing resources available to anyone embarking on a new oak frame house project.
More blogs by Tim Burrell
As a bit of a whisky fan I was intrigued to see that Whisky Galore, a New Zealand based web site has picked up on the timber conservation work to Shackleton's huts in the Antarctic. Various people from Carpenter Oak & Woodland have been involved in this project over the years. Every year during the short window of the Antarctic summer an international team of conservators takes on another phase of the work. This is a far cry from building oak framed homes in the relative warmth of the UK. During last year's expedition time was spent clearing ice and snow from underneath the huts and to the delight of the team they came across crates of whisky that had been stored there. They say that only three crates were recovered!
More blogs by Andy Parker
Most of us these days have a greater awareness of our impact on the environment and at the very least are conscious of the need to reduce it even if we don?t always feel able to. For this reason we are often asked where the timber for our oak framed houses comes from and if the source is sustainable. The other question that comes along with this is if we use English oak in our frames and what are the largest sizes we can get.
At one of our CPD seminars recently (these are seminars we run for industry professionals who have to demonstrate that they keep their knowledge up to date so that they can retain their membership of their professional bodies) these very same questions were raised.
I was speaking at the seminar at the time and one of the delegates; a timber miller in the UK, kindly suggested he show us some photographs of a parcel of forest he had recently been to see in France.
At 32 metres to the first fork this oak demonstrates the excellent construction grade timber available to the oak framing industry
I?ve often explained at these seminars that there is a world of difference between managed oak trees in France and the oak trees we see in Great Britain. We stopped managing oak forest several hundred years ago but in France the practice continued. Oak sourced from the UK is from mixed forestation, limited in size and often of dubious construction quality (however it often has some wonderful characteristics for furniture making, turned bowls and so on). However the same species of oak (quercus robur) in France grows tall, straight and with good construction characteristics.
This is a typical example of a managed oak forest in France and a great source of material for our oak framed houses
Hence a lot of the timber for the oak framing industry does, out of necessity, come from France. If you are concerned about the sustainability and impact on the environment bear in mind that the net stock of forest in Europe is increasing year on year and although it would be ideal to source the oak more locally even coming from France, the use of timber in construction is still significantly better than the energy consumed in using concrete or steel.
More blogs by Andy Parker
In my blog about the In Touch with Timber conference recently, I touched on the building of large timber framed supermarkets. I assumed that retail giants like Tesco and Sainsbury were motivated by profit and nothing else in a very competitive market, so it pricked my interest that timber space frames are now more financially attractive than steel to the commercial sector, as is so often the case in continental Europe. Could this be the kick start for a major expansion of the timber engineering industry in the UK?
First and foremost it appears, getting people into the supermarket is the primary objective of the retail sector. Once people are in they spend. Everything the supermarkets do is customer led. Environmental or "green" issues are very fashionable. People feel good about helping the environment and want to be green, and look favourably on companies that are also trying to be green. So the supermarkets are now competing with each other to be greenest. Tesco announced plans to spend £100m on research into wind, solar and geothermal power, twice as much as Gordon Brown promised in the last budget. Interesting that Mark Soutar, Head of Environmental Construction for Tesco said that they got more publicity by sticking two little wind turbines on the roof of one of their stores which only powered the signage than any of their other environmental measures.
Anyway back to the engineered timber building. Apparently, with the massive rise in steel prices closing the gap, it is still more expensive to build in timber. So why is timber more attractive to large retailers? The timber trade says:
All of which are true of course, but the supermarkets say:
I say:
More blogs by Scott Fotheringham
In response to my blog in July several people have asked how to achieve an externally expressed frame without continually breaking the thermal envelope of the building.
Our view is don't make the oak frame part of the thermal envelope because the only guarantee you'll get is that it will leak somewhere at sometime. In how many places and how often will depend on the skill with which a system is fitted but all the systems we see are extremely complicated with lots of components. In other words they're prone to human and component failure.
Although some 'purists' don't like the idea, the best way to achieve current building regulations and get the appearance of an externally expressed frame is to use air dried oak cover boards over a complete external thermal envelope.
There are a number of products to which one can apply render and if the cover boards are fixed to the panels first the render then 'fills' between the cover boards so that they aren't so obviously surface mounted. Be sure to use good thick cover boards to prevent cupping. Below are some pictures of a really well executed 'externally expressed' frame using this approach. This new oak framed house is in Twyford, Hampshire.
The rear elevation of this new oak framed home in Hampshire demonstrates the use of cover boards to create the externally expressed frame
Thick cover boards prevent cupping so this exposed oak frame will look good for many many years to come.
As an aside I find it difficult to see what's 'purist' about an oak frame that uses numerous modern components to try and make it meet current regulations!
More blogs by Andy Parker
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