You’d think that after nearly three decades of designing and building bespoke oak framed homes that we wouldn’t be as excited as we are when taking on new projects. Yet, when a new client comes to us with their vision for their new home, we can’t help but feel the same amount of excitement we felt when we designed our first ever house. So why an oak frame?

Oak does that to you, especially when you use it the way we do. Our passion for oak’s building potential means we relish the opportunity to apply our expertise to new projects.

Why do we feel like this? Here are just a few points as to why we can’t get over how amazing oak frames are!

1. Timeless

If you walked into one of our freshly built oak framed homes you would undoubtedly struggle to work out how long it had been there. Oak has a sense of timelessness that few other building materials have. This isn’t to say that oak framed homes always feel old and outdated. The effect is actually quite the opposite. Oak not only has a way of making a building feel like it has always been there, it also makes a building feel like it should always be there. This means that even the most radical of designs, that break all conventions, can still have that all-important sense of place if it uses oak to achieve its goals.

2. More than a frame

As the structural frame of most homes is not worth seeing, we tend to hide them inside the building. Yet, as the whole point of building with oak is to be able to see it as much as possible, you then get to examine what is keeping your home upright. This might seem like a novelty but when you think that what you are observing is the actual skeleton of your home, it can become a very exciting prospect. You can follow a beam along from one room to the next, watching as the frame expands into trusses, purlins and braces.

We always hear from our clients that they very often lose themselves on a quiet Sunday afternoon as they gaze at the delicately designed knot of oak that hangs above them. The continued inspiration you will have from seeing this medley of carpentry and woodwork is a brilliant way of reminding you why you decided to self-build in the first place.

3. Handcrafted

Oak is a material that deserves time and attention and that is exactly what we give it. Once the oak has arrived at our base in Mid-Wales we use just one major machine to plane it down to size and from there, we leave it to the experts. Their handcrafted precision is what sets us apart from other providers and is a big part of why so many people have decided to use us in the construction of their project. Knowing that the frame you call home has been chipped away by experts with decades of experience really does make a difference to how the building feels. The chamfers and other bits of detailing that can only be done by hand add to a homely feel that is both inherent and immediate with our homes. We give oak the attention it deserves and the frames we produce reflect that.

4. Flexibility

Oak is an incredibly flexible material, especially when you handcraft it. No project is beyond its capabilities. We are so confident of this fact that we made the choice long ago not to tether ourselves to a few standard designs. When we say we provide a bespoke service, we really mean it. The reason we can really mean it is because oak allows us to. This remarkable building material gives us creative freedom to design spaces that inspire and amaze. Throw into the mix our determination to handcraft every beam, brace and truss and you have a formula that ensures we continue to create spaces that solve our client’s conundrums.