Why choose Border Oak?

We appreciate that choosing which company to work with might be a difficult decision. We are confident that we can deliver a wonderful and well built home for a fair price, this is what our reputation is founded upon. Further more we are a family run business with a long heritage and distinctive product – much copied but never matched.

We pride ourselves on being friendly, hard working, creative, professional and fair.  We employ great people who put our clients first. We are genuinely committed to building the best oak framed home for you, not selling you a lot of oak to make the most money.

Most importantly, we know, and love, our incredible products completely, and care passionately about what we do and how we do it.

Heritage, Experience & Knowledge

In 1980 Border Oak revived the lost art of traditional green oak framing, which had been obsolete for more than 250 years.  We have pioneered oak framing and the self build sector ever since, ensuring that our legacy of oak framing remains relevant and accessible so that people have a genuine choice of where and how they live.

Over the past 45 yeras, we have created and shaped the concept of ‘self and custom build’, enabling thousands of people to commission and build their own home of the highest standards using the best methods and materials.

Sector Leaders

Border Oak has a long acknowledged reputation as industry leaders and sector innovators.

We have pioneered major advances in both the construction and self & custom build market – transforming the products available, the processes of commissioning homes and reinventing the scope of what is achievable for all.

When we revived the art of green oak framing, we knew we needed to invent a high performance Infill Panel and ours was the first and only to be TRADA and NHBC assessed and approved. Whilst the oak frame provides strength, beauty, longevity and character our infill panel (SIPs) provides warmth, flexibility and weatherproofing. Many have tried to imitate our panel system yet it remains the original and best.

Innovation

Border Oak were also the first in the UK to identify the potential of SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels) with oak frames, and to work out how to make it happen. We designed and built the very first commercial SIPs building in 1999 – and still work from this barn at Border Oak HQ today – before creating the first domestic SIPs building in 2000, Pearmain Cottage, which featured on Grand Designs and was a genuinely radical way to build at the time. We went on to devise the details and methods needed to combine green oak with the structural panel system, opening up our portfolio to a vast range of designs suited to any location. SIPs have been a truly radical market intervention, shaping the industry over the past 25 years, and Border Oak remain among the UK’s leading experts in this high-performance product.

We also created the concept of serviced custom build, delivering the first groups of plots for self builders back in the early 1980s. We’ve continued to lead this sector ever since, buying land ourselves and providing ‘ready to build’ sites so more people can find, buy and build without the usual pitfalls. Our customer-focused phased payment structure, which reflects our ethos of fairness and collaborative partnership, is similarly unique.

We’re also the only oak frame house builder fully FSC and PEFC accredited, with our own ethical procurement policy in place. Our small farm is managed under regenerative, organic principles, protecting soil, air and water and helping us pioneer nationally innovative approaches to nutrient neutrality.

More recently, we’ve developed a new construction method using entirely natural materials, built around longevity, adaptability and low carbon.

Innovation isn’t something we chase – it’s in our DNA.

Flexible Construction Packages & Fixed Prices

Border Oak is unique in offering a full, bespoke build service, including project management, for a fixed price, giving our clients real flexibility and genuine peace of mind. We can undertake every stage of your project from design to delivery (even fitting lightbulbs, if required!), while remaining adaptable enough to tailor packages to your specific needs and budget. We’re the only oak frame manufacturer to offer a true turnkey service using our own Project Managers and established labour teams, all within one contract.

Alongside the Full Build, we offer a range of other contracts, including Frame Only, Super Structure and Water Tight Stage, plus everything in between. You can order just the oak frame – handmade using the highest quality oak, with incomparable attention to detail – if you’d like to be more hands-on, or prefer to use local labour you manage yourself. Frame Only works particularly well for developers with the skills and labour to finish the build themselves – and as builders ourselves, we understand how important it is to weave in the trades that follow, so our packages are designed to be straightforward once our crew have left site.

Other popular options are Super Structure and Water Tight, where we either erect the frame, panels, roof and floor, or go further and install windows, doors and external claddings, leaving the interior for clients to complete at their own pace. Our Full Build option remains the most popular: a finished home, using our own labour and materials, with just the furniture to add.

All packages are available across the UK and worldwide. Every contract is itemised and fixed price. We always design as if we were responsible for building too, so you know every technical and construction detail has been considered, and the project is deliverable, cost-effective and possible.

Multi disciplined, reliable, creative & professional

We design and build a broad array of buildings in varying styles, sizes, methods and for domestic, commercial and international clients. We build with green oak frame, masonry, softwood framing, SIPs (Structurally Insulated Panels) and emerging modern timber methods.

Many of our projects combine several methods and a mix of materials, and because our designers have every construction discipline available to them we are able to create the most appropriate home for you and your budget. We also understand that it is possible to have too much oak in your home and that sometimes ‘less is more’. We specialise in refining and editing the oak frame so that it is authentic, structural and aesthetically pleasing – yet not overbearing nor prohibitively expensive. 

You may find that other oak frame manufacturers rely on the volume of oak for their core business and as such incorporate as much oak as possible in order to maintain higher profit margins or to feed a machine. Many treat the the oak frame element in isolation, leaving the remaining project costs undefined and putting your budget at risk. We have always taken a different approach.

Our contracts include the services of our Project Managers. The PMs, supported by a large team behind the scenes, are incredibly experienced – able to bring all associated trades and materials together at the right time, following our detailed build schedules and accessing the many craftsmen, builders and products that make Border Oak homes unique. We have our own labour teams for every construction stage and work in partnership with other specialists to build the best oak framed houses on the market.

Our team is core to our success. We are fortunate to have exemplary and talented staff – from the office to the yard to the building site, many of whom have been with us for decades. We have high expectations of ourselves, and of our buildings and hope that this commitment to people and place shines through the work we do for our clients.

Craftsmanship & Authenticity

Our exceptionally high standard of workmanship and the authenticity of our buildings has been earned over almost 50 years. It has become our distinctive trademark – something that is equally recognisable and inimitable.

Border Oak’s detailing, build quality and aesthetic is nationally regarded as a benchmark for excellence, it is all we know and something we lean into.

Our completed homes invariably attract higher re-sale values than a conventional equivalent. Our reputation for excellence is supported by the many national awards we have won, and the magazines articles, books and television shows that feature our work (including Grand Designs, Restoration Man, Building the Dream, Country Living and many more).

However, the greatest testament to our product is repeat orders from our clients, and word of mouth recommendations.

We aspire to exceed expectations – to continually improve and learn.

We are the original oak framers and Home Makers – we know and love our product and this passion for making exemplary homes really sets us apart.