Sustainability

Timber is one of the most sustainable building materials available. When it is growing, huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are converted into wood; this carbon dioxide remains 'locked up' in the timber until it is burnt or returns to the natural cycle. This makes it one of the few materials which actively reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our timber is grown in the UK or mainland Europe (primarily France) and does not take as long as one might think to grow. Typically oak will be useful as a framing timber even after 70 years and will reach its prime at about 120 years. The use of timber stimulates the forestry trade which responds by planting more trees. We undertake to ensure that for every tree we use we plant ten. These oak saplings are offered to our clients as a gift or planted out on suitable land elsewhere.

TREE PLANTING

The majority of the trees we supply are donated to forestry charities such as the Woodland Trust, South West Forest and Silvanus. Some of the trees we offer to clients are donated to schools; the two photographs below show trees being planted by children at a Devon school

 

Children planting trees 1 Children planting trees 2

 

OAK FOREST TO SAWMILL

The photographs below show the progress of oak trees from growing in the forest to being stacked, sawn and ready for transport to our yard and carpentry

 

Oak forest 1 Oak forest 2
An Oak woodland in summertime Felled oak trees awaiting transport to the sawmill
Loading trees 1 Loading trees 2

Felled trees being selected by sawyers for transport to the sawmill. The trees will be kept 'in the round' i.e. unsawn for about a year to 'mellow' before being sawn.
Milling oak 1
 Milling oak 2
On receipt of a cutting list from a customer such as Carpenter Oak Ltd the trees are firstly slabbed to an accurate dimension.
Milling oak 3 Milling oak 4
The slabs of oak are fed through the sawmill once more and cut to a rectangular section suitable for a post, plate, purlin etc before being loaded onto a lorry for transport to our yard.
    Our thanks go to Frederick Madeline, a timber merchant from Normandy who supplies a substantial quantity of our framing timber, for the use of the above photographs.