The Oakmasters Blog

Oak has always been popular among self-builders and ambitious renovators for its character and natural warmth, but in recent years we’ve spotted a trend in clients discovering the potential oak has to shine alongside other materials and finishes. Here’s some ideas on how oak can be a stunning part of a bigger design jigsaw.

As a hard, open grain wood oak is not only beautiful, it is one of the most dependable and resilient of all natural construction materials. Oak’s unique characteristics combine strength with pliability, environmental sustainability and unrivalled durability. Whether you’re remodelling an existing building or creating an entire self-build property, here are four reasons to work with oak.

Whether they call it the loft, the attic, the roof space or the eaves, most of your customers will have some kind of attic or loft space in their home. For some, the loft is a dark, unvisited space full of cobwebs and suitcases. For others, it’s a third or fourth bedroom, added in to increase space and value. In other cases, it’s used as an outlet for their work or their hobbies: a music room, an office or even a gym. With the right plans, permissions and investment, adding a loft space can give your customers’ homes a completely new lease of life.

Oak barn conversions are often high up on the wish list for many people planning a new home, thanks to beautiful examples of such renovations being shown on countless property TV shows. But how easy is it to carry out such a project, and what are the options and considerations facing you if you decide to go for it?

This two-storey oak extension has almost doubled the size of the house and has dramatically added more natural light with the garden-facing aspect glazed floor-to-ceiling. Interest and continuity is added with oak frames between the large panes. Throughout the interior of the house, oak beams and frames provide structural form and visual continuity.

Many people dream of building their own home in a beautiful, rural location, but are unsure where to begin when it comes to making this a reality and getting the project off the ground. There are many routes to go down regarding the materials to use for your build. However, choosing oak for your country property makes for a stunning end result, bursting with warmth, vitality, character and impressive environmental credentials.

For many of us, a garage is a deal-breaker when it comes to choosing or rejecting a property. A house can have it all: the spacious downstairs, the double bedrooms and the sought-after en-suite, but if it doesn’t have a garage to house the cars or store the equipment needed for various hobbies, a lot of us will simply walk away. Here is a run down of the differences between ready to build and bespoke garages.

When it came to their family home, Mick and his wife Julie wanted to bring handcrafted brilliance to an ambitious extension project. The Georgian country house, which started life as a pub, has doubled in size with a triple-gabled oak framed extension. Packed with unique timber features and full of natural light, it maximises the character of the 300-year-old original structure. Rather than simply adding floor space, this large extension makes a statement in the best possible way.