Frame design

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Our frame design team

Naturally, our frame designers are at the heart of our design process here at Oakwrights. When working with them during your self-build journey, they will not only help you to finalise the ‘look’ of your oak frame, but they also carefully configure the numerous joints that will provide your build with a lifetime of structure and stability.

Addressing the aesthetic appeal and structural integrity of your frame is paramount to the success of your design, which is why all our frame design trainees spend time in our workshops and join our teams on-site during their induction. This is a vital aspect of their training, so they have a complete understanding of how our frames are taken from concept to creation.

Our frame design process

Your frame designer will have an in-depth knowledge of your project when you are introduced to them. Typically they will meet you on-site to discuss your project and talk you through the upcoming process, keeping in close contact with you during the design stage to ensure your oak frame meets your exact requirements.

Once finalised, you will be sent copies of your design to sign off. At this stage, we will invite you to our offices here in Herefordshire so you can discuss and ‘walk through’ visuals of your frame, including on-screen 3D models. Following your approval, your frame will be jointed and passed on for final checking with another designer.

Your drawings will then be sent to an independent structural engineer who will review them for Building Control. Having been assessed, your designer will convert your drawings into machine files and compile a set of fully dimensioned fabrication drawings for our workshop team. At the same time, a timber-cutting list will be produced and sent to the sawmill. What was once a vision of yours begins to turn into a structural reality from this point onwards!

Building with green oak

We only choose to construct our homes, extensions and outbuildings with the highest quality green oak, as it is better to work with and as it ages, exudes an abundance of character both inside and out.

Green oak is also a popular material for sustainable construction: an important topic which this blog delves into more about.

Once your build has been constructed, you will find that over time your oak will shrink across the grain as it dries out. This shrinkage is taken into account by your designer at the design stage, when they model in mortices, tenons, housings, and drillings for pegs accordingly. Over the coming months and years your frame will become stronger, so, you can feel assured your home, extension or outbuilding is framed with a natural product that will last a lifetime.

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