A Traditional Style Oak Frame Self-build

Steve and Sheila Best had waited most of their lives to be together and were determined that their first home would be suitably special. The couple attended the same Essex primary and secondary schools and, throughout these formative years, Steve had adored Sheila from afar. “She never noticed me, though, and when my family moved to Kent in 1970, we went our separate ways,” he recalls. “But then 33 years later, when we were both in the process of getting divorced, we got in touch again through Friends Reunited.”

This time Steve’s feelings were finally reciprocated, and the couple decided to sell their respective houses and pool resources to build a new home together. “It was Steve’s lifelong dream to build a house from scratch, and I was equally enthusiastic,” says Sheila.

A farmer alerted Steve to a potential building plot close to his village home near Canterbury, and an initial cursory drive-by confirmed it would be perfect. A small bungalow stood on the secluded but overgrown two-acre site, which was ripe for redevelopment, and Steve and Sheila were thrilled when their sealed bid for £225,000 was successful.

The brick bungalow boasted just one cold water tap and no inside toilet or kitchen, so they fitted a cheap bathroom and camped out in the building for 18 months before planning permission for a replacement dwelling was finally granted.

From the start the couple knew that they wanted to build a traditional oak framed cottage, and contacted TJ Crump Oakwrights, who specialises in designing and constructing oak framed buildings. Visits to its headquarters in Hereford and looking around a number of Oakwrights’ properties inspired them further, and designs for a pretty three-bay cottage were duly produced by the company and submitted for planning permission.

“The planners responded by saying that they didn’t like the size, the style or the position of the house on the plot,” says Steve. “They preferred to see a brick-built chalet bungalow in the Kent countryside, and no compromise could be reached. Then we had the idea of photographing the existing bungalow and superimposing a picture of an oak framed house to illustrate exactly how it would look on the plot, and the planners changed their minds almost immediately.”

The months spent waiting to secure planning permission had been well used to clear the densely overgrown plot and, in January 2005, the couple were finally in a position to begin building. In order to maximise the site’s potential they chose to submerge one third of the 220m² property below ground — constructing a potentially self-sufficient basement annexe, which contains a living room/home office, plant room, bedroom/store, small kitchen and bathroom.

“We were worried about penetrating damp, so a specialist contractor was employed to prepare the groundworks and build the tanked blockwork basement,” Sheila explains. “A bricklayer constructed our plinth, chimney and open fireplaces; Oakwrights then delivered and erected the oak frame, and we were left with the skeleton of a house to complete. It was a mammoth task which took all our time and energy.”

With no previous experience, and an inherent fear of heights, Steve sensibly practised his roofing skills on a more modest project before setting to work on the house. Oakwrights had supplied a detached oak framed garage, which Steve erected while the basement was being constructed. Following some initial guidance he was able to tile the garage roof — a process which he thoroughly enjoyed. “By the time I started on the main house my fear of heights was diminishing,” he laughs. “Completing the roofing work myself saved us money and was probably my favourite part of the entire project.”

While Steve was happily working on the roof, Sheila took charge of rubbing down and treating the woodwork, including bespoke oak windows and doors made by a local joinery company. The oak frame was sandblasted prior to fitting the windows, and Steve and Sheila were responsible for clearing up the mounds of fine sand which managed to blow deep into every crevice.

“Once the windows were in and the roof was on, we wrongly assumed we were on the home straight when, in fact, we’d barely scratched the surface,” says Sheila. “Some evenings we would be tearing our hair out trying to solve what seemed like never-ending problems, such as getting the floor levels right, but as the build progressed we became more confident and adept at working things out. In fact, we’re now keen to project manage similar builds for others.”

A plumber was employed, who laid underfloor heating throughout the three storey house, but Steve took charge of the electrics himself — with a qualified electrician overseeing his work and signing it off at the end of the project. He also tackled the plasterboarding – which proved to be no mean feat, working alone on a rickety stepladder in the vaulted master bedroom – and the couple laboured for long hours laying floors, fixing insulation and taping around the exposed oak timbers to protect them during plastering.

Unexpected help came from a neighbour who happens to be a plasterer by profession. “Our bungalow had apparently been built from bricks taken from an old oast house which once stood on our neighbour’s land,” Steve explains. “He was keen to rebuild this structure, and offered to undertake all the plastering and rendering on our cottage in exchange for the bricks. He even carefully demolished the bungalow for us once the new house was completed.”

Keen not to spoil the finishes by cutting corners, Steve and Sheila took care to complete the interiors to an extremely high standard, paying great attention to every detail. Oak flooring has been laid in several rooms, and certain items of furniture were made to measure. These include the imposing oak table and chairs, which stand to one end of the kitchen in a glazed dining space projecting out into the garden.

“We weren’t tough enough with suppliers, and on reflection we should have pushed for better prices on materials,” says Sheila. “The house cost £347,000 to build, but we could probably have made savings in some areas. There’s very little we would change though — it’s been fantastic to design something totally from scratch, right down to the bathrooms and kitchen.”

Fitting the oak staircase, with its carved acorn newel caps, totally transformed the house, and finally Steve and Sheila could ditch the ladders and easily access their three en suite bedrooms on the first floor. Just over two years after work had first started on site, the cottage was complete. Carpets were laid, and the couple moved into their brand new home.

“We had set our moving in date for April 27th 2007 — Sheila’s birthday,” says Steve. “It didn’t look as though we would make it, and Sheila wasn’t worried about overrunning, but I was adamant we would be in on that date, and we were. I had an ulterior motive, because I wanted to propose to Sheila in the house on her birthday. She said yes, and our wedding was set for the following May. I’d been in love with her when I was eight, but had been too shy to tell her back then, so I definitely wasn’t going to let her go twice!”

DIY Electrics - The Self-builder's Loophole

Before 2005, many self-builders opted to do their own wiring, but this all changed with a new addition to the Building Regulations known as ‘Part P – Electrical Safety’, which was introduced in order to reduce the number of deaths, injuries and fires caused by faulty electrical installations. Thousands of dismayed DIYers have since given up on doing their own electrics. However, the rules are somewhat misleading and there is in fact very little work around the house that can’t be carried out by the homeowner — you just need to notify your local authority’s Building Control department so that the work can be vetted. Alternatively, you could get a qualified electrician to sign off the work, meaning you won’t pay Building Control charges. The only work that doesn’t need to be vetted is repairs and maintenance work, and the addition of extra power or lighting points, or other alterations to existing circuits (except in specially defined areas such as kitchens, bathrooms or outdoors). See partp.co.uk for more information.

Further reading:

• Building with Timber Frame
• A Three Bedroom Oak Framed Home
• An Oak Framed Self-build in Oxfordshire