- Expertise
- Carpenter Oak CPD Programmes
- Timber Frame Building Regulations and Planning Permission
- Architectural Design Services
- Encapsulation Panels
- Oak Frame Design
- Oak Windows, Oak Frame Doors & Glazing
- Commercial Oak Framing
- Cedar, Larch & Oak weatherboarding and Fixings
- Timber Framed Construction
- Roof Boarding
- Timber Engineering
- Modern Oak Staircase
- Encapsulation Systems
- Oak frame porch
- Complete Build
- Oak Frame Restoration & Conservation
- Self Build Log Cabin – Design and Build
roof boarding
Our roof boarding service is designed to complement our timber framing service. The boarding, whose finish harmonises with the timber frame, has the bonus of providing a water-proof ‘hat’ to the build as soon as the frame is erected, enabling the drying process to begin and work to progress outside of the temperament of the weather. It takes approximately 6 weeks from the date of an order for the boards to arrive – we require extra time if you’d prefer them painted.
Materials
We supply a choice of white or redwood, depending on your preference. The timbers are sawn on one face using a fine-toothed band-saw to give a fine architectural finish that reflects the surface texture of the frame. Striking a good balance between the quality of the finish and cost of the materials.
Fire Protection
After cutting the timber needs to be fire treated (unlike the Oak frame) to pass building regulations. We subject the sawn boards to Dricon Euroclass B KD treatment to inhibit the spread of flame. They are then kiln-dried to remove most of the moisture to reduce subsequent shrinkage in the boards. It may surprise you to know that the main timber frame structure doesn’t require fireproofing – it is sufficiently fireproof on its own.
Painting and shrinkage
The next step in the process is to paint one side and two edges of the boards in a dust-free workshop with a base coat to prime the surface and block the pores, followed by top coat in a colour of your choice. We recommend pre-painting the boards to minimise the redecoration once the green oak rafters have completed their shrinking (care by the sandblaster is needed to avoid damaging the painted boards).
Roof boarding Installation
The boards are then installed onto the frame after erection by our craftsman. They are butted up tight which usually results in an average gap between boards of 3–6 mm producing an appearance with an added texture which blends in with the feel of the frame. The damp proof membrane is then applied over the boards using 1,000 gauge black polythene secured in place by the first layer of insulation battens (75 x 50) also supplied by us (if you are following the Carpenter Oak Ltd standard details). We recommend black polythene as it enhances the ‘shadow’ gap between the boards.
Contact us to discuss our boarding service in more detail
Meet the team
Dunstan Hodder
Team Leader
Joined Carpenter Oak: 2014
Interview with Dunstan Hodder
If you had to pick one, which is your favourite Carpenter Oak project and why?
The Bus Shelter in East Portlemouth
When not in the yard, what do you enjoy doing?
Making furniture, drinking beer and being out and about in the great outdoors
If stranded on a desert island, which three people would you take and why?
My family
What is the most embarrassing job you have ever had?
Turkey plucker
What music do you listen to?
Both kinds: country and western
Where is your favourite place in the world?
Home
Biography
I moved down to Carpenter Oak from Bristol in 2014, just before my second little one was born. This is an amazing part of the world to live, work and raise a family. Carpenter Oak is a great place to work, there’s great people with tons of experience, who love what they do.
Chris Amey
Team Leader
Joined Carpenter Oak: 2012
Interview with Chris Amey
What is the best project you have worked on?
Probably Radley College in Oxford where we built an octagonal roof to their chapel extension. It had eight hips landing onto a pendant with St. Andrew’s cross between each and a dome-like lattice of compound-curved slings immediately below. The shape was the most complex I have ever worked on. Erecting on site was interesting – using radios to signal the crane some ten metres below us and harnesses to hang from the apex whilst fitting the sarking. The frame was also stained to darken the oak and the overall look of the chapel is now truly phenomenal. See the case study for some awesome photos and drone footage.
Another recent project was an extension to a listed Wealden Hallhouse in Hampshire. It was basically a replica of such a house tied onto an existing one via a link. Heavily oak framed with flying top plates, down braces, a crown post purlin, pre-Georgian hips, dragon beams with jettied joists and oak balustrades around a beautiful gallery. It will be fitted with lead light windows and brick herringbone infills to match the existing.
Also fitting a huge oak frame mezzanine to a beautiful old grain barn in Dorset with 7m beams up to 400x300mm in section which had to be woven into pockets in the existing walls via a spider crane inside the barn. This included creating and fitting a cantilevered staircase where each tread was a single block of oak appearing to sit perfectly on the tread below. The water-dried blocks were actually bored out from one end to slide onto steel poles and a steel frame hidden in the wall to one side. The effect was stunning.
Biography
After a childhood on the Somerset Levels in and around my grandparents’ smallholding with Jersey cows, goats, geese, chickens, pigs and bees; my grandfather seating chairs with rush we picked from the river as well as cane and seagrass, I fled the local town for the bright lights of London, studied art, drove vans and signed on for a bit.
My grandfather died, I inherited his hand tools and enrolled on a carpentry course at Hackney College. I fell in love with the craft the moment I started. It took me to quite a few different places: restoring Oak frame barns, cottages and oast houses in Kent, pulling teak and rock elm hull planks off the Cutty Sark in Greenwich and renovating ski chalets in the Alps. After that, me and my then partner decided to head for the South Hams in Devon to run a B&B by the sea and make sculptures and furniture.
Looking for a more reliable income after roughly four years of that, Carpenter Oak agreed to give me a job. Ten years on I can’t say I’ve ever looked back. It’s enjoyable and rewarding work, the frames and teams vary from project to project and we have a lot of fun figuring it all out together.
Ben Hancock
Architectural Services Manager / Carpenter
Interview with Ben Hancock
If you had to pick one, which is your favourite Carpenter Oak project and why?
Bedales School Theatre, due to the collaborative relationship between the school, the architects and ourselves leading to a fantastic project.
When not in the yard, what do you enjoy doing?
Playing piano
What is the best comedy film ever made?
The Riviera Touch
What do you enjoy most about working at Carpenter Oak?
The Team
Biography
As well as being a carpenter at the company, I also have a background in architecture. It’s therefore my job to work with the company’s design departments and aid our relationships with other architects and keep up Carpenter Oak’s high standards in design.
Paul Slemmings
Design Manager
Joined Carpenter Oak: 1999
Interview with Paul Slemmings
What is the best project you have worked on and why?
Westonbirt Arboretum Restaurant, interesting shape and lots of folk get to see it.
Who do others think you look like?
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
What music are you currently listening to in the workshop?
Captain Beefheart – Clear Spot.
When not in the yard what do you enjoy doing?
Playing mandolin, cycling and scuba diving.
Biography
I studied and worked as an aerospace engineer, namely on supersonic air intakes for the never to happen Concorde replacement. I then worked as a school teacher before getting the carpentry bug on a voluntary course just outside Bristol in 1996. I joined Carpenter Oak Ltd in 1999 as a carpenter and now spend most of my time designing frames and supporting the company’s computers, but still get the chance to dust off my tools a few times a year. So thanks for looking at our site, and should you commission us to design and build a frame for you, I look forward to being part of the process!
Paul Kirkup
Founder
Joined Carpenter Oak: 1990
Interview with Paul Kirkup
Bio chemistry, field officer, artist, photographer, master printmaker, father, carpenter, cyclist, runner of sorts, frame designer, company director and married to the wonderful Sarah, this is my serendipitous journey so far. For me its all about the building of and nurturing trusting relationships, within and without the company, and knowing that wood is good.
I visited Chalkhill Cottage at the end of June 2010 to inspect the progress of works. I am extremely pleased to advise that my clients, together with myself, are delighted with the Green Oak Frame and wish to extend our thanks to Carpenter Oak. I understand that the frame erection caused much interest in the village and indeed whilst I was there people were stopping and viewing the works from the road and also a neighbour’s driveway! The extra mile that Carpenter Oak went, particularly with the client’s children, taking time to explain about oak, giving them hands-on opportunities, allowing their involvement in the construction, then finally issuing them with “apprentice certificates” was very much appreciated. Please pass on this note of thanks to all involved on the project and I personally look forward to working with Carpenter Oak on many projects in the future.
Nigel Henham, Director of DPDS Architecture
It has been one of the pleasures of this scheme to have Carpenter Oak on the project. They have responded to all requests made of them, both during the design and build on the original building in a professional, positive and cheerful manner, meeting and in many instances, bettering, programme dates. After the loss of the building by fire, their response was immediate, positive and, under the circumstances, remarkable, achieving substantial elements of redesign, and delivering the new frame to site ahead of programme, in spite of major commitments elsewhere. I can unreservedly recommend this company, and will have no hesitation in placing further business with them in the future.
SM Strutt, Strutt & Co
Esther and I would like to pass on our thanks for all the hard work, commitment and effort that you put into our project. Out of all the builders and various trades that we have had to deal with your company has been the best on every front.
Robert and Esther Shipp, Clients
We are so pleased with the timber frame that you all worked so hard to produce. The raising was so exciting for us last week and I hope we weren't too annoying being on site staring at the frame for most of that time! It was such a joy to have the guys with us for the week and we are so grateful that we are now the proud owners of a beautiful handcrafted Carpenter Oak frame! You have all worked so hard and made us a beautiful home.