There are many advantages to using a timber frame – as a building method, it has proven itself over centuries.

Our free Guide to Oak Timber Framing can help set you on the way to building your dream oak frame home. It’s packed with detailed information and advice – and, if you need more help, we’re only a phone call away.

Below are some commonly asked questions which we receive about timber-framed buildings – and our specialist answers.

How do you ensure that the oak timber-frame building is watertight and wind tight, when oak/timber can shrink?

Shrinkage in oak/timber simply has to be planned for and managed – there are oak buildings which are hundreds of years old, showing that this can be achieved without a problem. In many respects, timber is no different from any other building material: all building materials expand and contract to some degree. In fact, with a change of heat, timber expands and contracts less than steel. So, the fact that oak/timber can shrink doesn’t matter, as long as you know how it is going to shrink and that you accommodate this – it’s all in the detailing (whether that’s in the interface detailing or the joints). It’s not a problem to accommodate shrinkage so that the structure and aesthetics of the frame is maintained over time.

Does it take a long time to build an oak timber frame, especially since you work by hand?

Most of our oak timber frames are constructed off site, at one of our yards in England and Scotland, where the green oak frames are built in sections. So, the construction of an oak timber frame on site is very fast – often just a few days.

How long will the oak timber frame building last?

This is a question which no one can answer, any more than they could with other building materials. What we do know is that oak/timber frames have a proven history of lasting, in very good condition, for hundreds of years. If an oak frame is looked after, there is no reason why this shouldn’t be the case – the only reason an oak timber frame can be compromised is if it gets damp and is allowed to remain so.

How ecologically sound is building with timber?

Very. A green oak timber frame (and frames made from other wood) takes less ‘embodied energy’ (the amount of energy used to extract, process, fabricate and build something) than most other building materials, so using oak/timber is a very sound ecological choice. Of course, there is the concern that we are using a finite resource – but, at Carpenter Oak & Woodland, we plant up to ten trees for every one used (this is largely managed for us by an independent body). The typical age of the trees we fell is around forty to fifty years – since trees make their largest contribution to the environment in their first twenty years, there is no environmental advantage to felling older trees. The majority of our timber comes from the UK – both England and Scotland – and all of it comes from sustainable sources.

What about the fire risk?

Oak timber frames perform extraordinarily well during a fire and don’t represent a specific fire risk. The reason for this is that once timber chars, the rate at which it can burn reduces massively. Even if an oak timber-framed building has been burned significantly, it is usually the oak timber frame which survives! Also, timber retains much of its structural strength during a fire, whereas materials such as steel twist and buckle. After a fire, it’s not unusual for an oak timber-framed building to be restored, where a steel-framed building may have to be scrapped. Unlike steel, timber does not need to be fire-engineered or fire-protected to survive a fire. For these reasons, timber is often the building material of choice in areas of the world where there is a greater fire risk.

You might also like to download and read our useful Guide to Oak Timber-Framing. (Adobe PDF document, 1.4MB).