Our Design Approach

There are many different elements to a construction schedule, so it can be hard to give a universal answer. Size is one variable, location another and complexity the third.

Most houses have a 24-34 week schedule. Larger, more complex homes built some distance from our HQ might take longer. As an example – Meadowmead, one of our show homes in Herefordshire, took 50 weeks and is 470m2.

We are also at the mercy of others – including the utility services, planning system, ecology, highways, material availability and many others, which are notoriously unpredictable. We have teams of people managing this side of the project on your behalf. The ever changing weather and possible pandemics are a doddle in comparison!

Building bespoke homes can be complicated, but schedules are as important to us as our clients and is one of the reasons we have dedicated Project Management Team and a full support service (procurement, administration, health and safety, construction design etc). We want to honour the build schedule and deliver on time.

Oak is a veritable construction wonder product – super strong, very long lasting, inherently sustainable and enduringly beautiful. It outperforms most other construction materials – including its engineering capacity and longevity but is also attractive enough to expose internally and externally- unlike most other construction materials which need to be concealed or dressed. Green oak is also wholly natural building material with low embodied energy, high carbon store, and it requires no toxic treatment or intensive processing. Oak has been used to build incredible homes and structures for hundreds and hundreds of years and we are incredibly proud to have revived the craft and to make all of our frames by hand, using methods passed down through generations.

We also use other methods of construction depending on the design and appropriateness – softwood timber framing and SIPS (Structural, Insualted Panel System) are specialities. And our external material palette is diverse – handmade brick, weatherboard, stone, render, slate, thatch, clay tile, metal sheet roofs, corrugated, shingle…..oak framing works well with everything!

Not necessarily. The majority of our projects are designed by Border Oak as we have full design capacity including planning drawings, technical/engineering design, Building Regulations and working drawings.

However we have worked on many projects designed by an independent architect and we are very happy to work alongside your chosen designer and to share our expertise to ensure your project is successful. We always recommend early introductions so that you can get the very best from your architect and oak frame supplier as collaboration is fundamental to dovetail the design to the system.

Border Oak always try to have a steady supply of plots for our clients to buy – these are sites we have found and purchased, often a small group of plots, with detailed planning approval, the services provided and master landscaping included. All fully costed. Take a look at our Plot pages to see what is available now, and also for tips on how to find plots yourselves.

We can also offer a ‘desk top’ appraisal of sites you might find – just send over the details for us to look at and we will try to offer some guidance and options.

Most clients come to us with a plot and we pick up the design phase and take the project on from there, but we are often involved from quite an early stage, typically working alongside your planning agent to help realise the potential of the site and help navigate the approval stage.

Yes! We can build anywhere. All of our oak frames are made in Herefordshire, by hand, in our workshops. We make the frames, test assemble and then pack them to be delivered to site for our carpenters to erect. It’s the ultimate flat pack and location is rarely an issue.

Current locations include projects in Cornwall, Norfolk, the Lake District and South of France.

We have built throughout Europe, America and Asia and all over England and Wales.

It’s worth sending us the background and documents and we will take a look. We can provide you with a planning overview, check the refusal reasons against current policy and offer guidance or run through similar projects where a positive outcome was achieved. We can also provide an introduction to one of the many experienced planning specialists we work with, and those well versed in more difficult planning situations.

Some planning issues can be overcome through good design and strong justification – this is where Border Oak excel. Other refusal reasons might be policy based, so are harder to negotiate, but bear in mind planning policy changes often and there is both a national shortage of housing, and a renewed focus on self and custom build opportunities.

This is very hard to answer in one simple summary as every plot and each house is different.

We tend to suggest around £3,000 per square metre for a complete build project – but bear in mind there are many, many variables – location, specification, complexity of design, site specifics…

We design to your budget as we want to actually build your home, not just design amazing paper projects that exceed your budge – so your budget is crucially important to us. We also offer all of our contracts on an itemised ‘fixed price’ so you know what everything will cost. Any amendments you would like to make or extras you would like to add in are also quoted to you in advance, so you can vary your contract for known items and have full control over the costs – we pride ourselves on transparency and value.

We are also very good at showing you where costs savings might be made and how to make sure your plot and the project work best to maximise value.