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Andy joined Carpenter Oak & Woodland in 2005, to help the company provide a greater focus on customer service, marketing and sales. Andy’s background is varied indeed – helping him to bring a wide range of skills to the team. An avid lover of carpentry, Andy has also spent time in furniture restoration and conservation – something he still enjoys as a hobby.
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I see that Home Building & Renovating magazine has revisited an oak frame house we were involved in about ten years ago. It demonstrates how the beauty of an oak frame holds its appeal for the owners who are obviously still very pleased with their home. It also demonstrates how a self managed project can significantly undercut the budget of one done through a large main contractor. The McAvoy's managed to build for £900 per square metre, which even then would have been a very competitive rate. Mind you self management should never be undertaken lightly. In this case the owner's son is an architect with significant experience in building in oak frame so he has all the credentials to ensure a successful outcome.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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At some point every self builder is trying to pin down the cost of their project and they will get such varying advice that it must be enough to put many off the process altogether. We are frequently asked for guidance on the cost of an oak framed house but I fear that in giving it we only add to the plethora of information already swimming around in people's heads. Build It magazine regularly publish building costs for different build types and earlier this year Grand Designs magazine made comparisons between homes built in steel frame, brick and block, pre-cast concrete panels and timber frame.
In summary steel frame came in at £1,000 - £1,100 per sqm, brick and block at £900 - £1,100 per sqm, pre-cast concrete at £1,200 - £1,500 per sqm, conventional timber frame at £750 - £950 per sqm and post and beam timber framing at £1,000 - £1,200 per sqm.
Clearly this puts oak framing in a very favourable light with all methods of construction except conventional timber frame. However many people underestimate the proportion of their budget that will need to be allocated to interior fixtures and fittings.
If you're trying to build on a tight budget it's worth bearing in mind that you can spend £5,000 on a kitchen or £50,000 on a kitchen. Some self builders are choosing to spend some of their available budget on an oak frame that will enhance their home for ever and install a low cost kitchen that they'll replace in a few years when they have more funds available.
On this basis you may be surprised to find that an oak frame is within your grasp!
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