A Traditional Oak-Framed Self-Build

It started out as a project to fulfil a dream spanning three decades — to build an oak frame house in which they could comfortably reside for the rest of their lives. "We originally thought we’d build a small retirement home," says Janet Warren who, with husband John, has ended up creating a masterwork in oak that now serves three generations of their family — for circumstances necessitated the return home of daughter Helen, her husband, Mark, and their children, Daisy and Jack. "We had fantasised about self-building for 30 years, so when the opportunity finally arose we jumped in with both feet," Janet continues.

The ‘opportunity’ came in the form of a bungalow – just across the lane from the couple’s previous home, in the heart of a quiet Cheshire village – which had originally been built for John’s parents in the 1960s. The property was small and poky, but sat on a good-sized elevated plot, possessing a number of large outbuildings. "We considered extending the bungalow in oak, but the property had already been added to in the past and was badly laid out," explains John. However, before permission could be granted to knock down and rebuild, an agricultural tie – preventing the land being developed solely for residential use – stood in their way. "We had to put the bungalow up for sale — if nobody bought it for agricultural use, we could remove the tie," Janet explains.

Luckily, there were no takers and once the restriction was removed, the planning authority allowed the outbuildings to be taken as part of the volume for the new design, along with the bungalow (which could be calculated as two storeys), giving an area of at least 150m2 for the house, which would be positioned further back on the site than the bungalow. During this process, John and Janet concentrated on formulating a simple but specific design wish list: "We wanted a half-timbered house [which consists of heavy timber held together with pegged mortise and tenon joints] with dormers, to fit in with the landscape, that would be cruciform in shape with a catslide roof," says John. "

Inside, we wanted a traditional rural kitchen and a big lounge to entertain in, complete with an inglenook fireplace and access to the garden. It was also important that we would see a lot of the oak frame," says Janet. In addition to this, the house had to be energy efficient and as flexible as possible — largely because Janet suffers quite badly from arthritis but also to ensure it would be accommodating for visiting family members.

The couple briefed architect Eleanor Hall of Hays & Partners to come up with a design based on their requirements. The daughter-in-law of one of the neighbours, she was very familiar with the local vernacular. "We talked over our ideas and Eleanor did four sketches. Together, we played around with them until we got exactly what we wanted," says John. The next step was to find an oak frame company that would do the design justice.

After a few enquiries, TJ Crump Oakwrights became the clear choice. "Tim Crump came to visit the site himself; he was very enthusiastic and sketched the elements that would be necessary to meet Eleanor’s design," says John. "There was an initial wait," he continues, "but the frame took just three weeks to make." The couple visited Oakwrights several times to understand how the frames are manufactured. "The oak – which is French – comes to the factory rough cut, then a machine translates the CAD drawings to cut the beams perfectly to size," explains John.

Oakwrights arrived on site one rainy day, just before Christmas 2007, and began building the house’s shell on top of slab foundations. The team spent a week erecting the oak frame and then followed on with the installation of the infill panel system, which is made up of plywood and insulation; lime render is applied over this. From day one, the rain didn’t stop. "A huge puddle formed in front of the house which produced a lovely rippled effect against the frame — this gave me the idea of putting a pond outside the garden room, to recreate the effect permanently," says John.

Once the superstructure was up, joiners Paul and John Edwards began making the casement windows and doors for the house; they carried out all of the first and second fix carpentry work and cut the softwood roof, making and fitting all the oak sprockets, soffits and purlins etc. Fermacell boards in the roof maximise insulation levels. John and Janet sold their house and moved into a large static caravan. Being on site every day, they project managed the build themselves, with the support of main builder Dave Hargreaves, "who turned out to be a gem," says John. "While there were no problems with the build, there were lots of decisions to be made, so living on site was wonderful as I could be involved in everything."

John opted to pay the subcontractors day rates, as opposed to fixed prices, and worked alongside them, helping out — an experience he thoroughly enjoyed: "We made good friends with many of them," he says. Keen to be as eco-friendly as possible, the couple installed a ground-source heat pump from Danfoss linked to underfloor heating from Eco Hometec. "It cost us £1,000 just to install an Uponor pipe that runs from the garage to the house," says John, who is a qualified fuel technologist, "but heat pumps can vibrate oak frames so it was important not to site it inside the house."

A cement screed was applied on top of the underfloor heating, and ceramic tiles and engineered oak flooring [which is less prone to warping over underfloor heating than solid wood] have been laid on top. "We did consider solar panels, and if we were in our forties, we would have gone for them," says John, "but we have ensured the house is as well insulated as possible." Woodburning stoves from Clearview have also been installed in both the lounge and kitchen — firewood is provided from the site.

June 2009 saw the build process come to an end, with the house, an Oakwrights garage and landscaping – which the couple carried out as the project went along – taking 18 months from start to finish.

The resulting house is a triumph in responsive house building. It is a response to its site, certainly, and a victory in budget management, with John and Janet now mortgage free; but more significantly, it is a house that was created in direct response to the flexible needs of its owners, incredibly without appearing as if any compensation has been made — and as well as meeting the couple’s future needs, it also easily accommodates the rest of the family.

The small first floor of the house was designed almost entirely for visiting family members, and has two permanent bedrooms, with a reversible oak partition creating a third bedroom for Jack, in what was to be John’s open plan study/hobby room. An internal balcony hangs over the living room, so that the family can all communicate with Janet – who is largely limited to the ground floor – but it also creates a dramatic internal feature.

With the majority of the living accommodation positioned downstairs, the ground floor is arranged into three distinct wings to break up the bulk of the house and reduce its impact on the site. The ‘eastern wing’ consists of John and Janet’s bedroom, which has an impressive vaulted ceiling and leads onto an en suite complete with steam cabin (John’s indulgence), as well as outside onto a private patio. The large living room in the north-west wing doubles up as a garden room, with a wall of full-height glazing. "We enjoy sitting here in the evening, as we can capture beautiful sunsets," says Janet. "We didn’t face it south because we didn’t want too much solar gain." The third, southerly, wing houses a large farmhouse kitchen.

"We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the build," concludes Janet. "We feel we have a house that fits in beautifully with the village and perfectly meets our needs; there is nothing we would have done differently. We don’t really know if we’ve made much profit, but then we haven’t built a house to sell, it’s to live in."

FURTHER READING:

• A Traditional Oak Frame Self Build 
• The Evolution of Timber Frame
• Financing a Timber Frame Self Build