Timber Frame Manufacturers

At Frameworks Ltd, we have been manufacturing sustainable oak timber frames since 2003.

We love nothing more than constructing with oak as it has such incredible beauty, resilience and strength. These qualities make oak an ideal material for use in the construction industry, as does its innate warmth and ecological benefits as a natural product.

It’s for these reasons and more that oak has been used in this country as a traditional building material to create timber frames and structures for hundreds of years.

Until about twenty years ago, the appreciation and manufacture of timber frame buildings had somewhat lulled. However, more recently the historic importance of timber frames and interest in the skills needed to manufacture timber structures has seen a welcome revival.

Understandably, there is now a huge environmental push towards living a greener lifestyle. Countless inspirational home improvement television programmes on air showing us many ways that this can be achieved. This desire to live a more eco lifestyle, coupled with the undeniable beauty and aesthetic appeal of green oak, has led to traditional timber framed buildings becoming increasingly popular in recent years.

The timber we use for manufacturing our frames and restoring frame buildings is sourced locally from Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset. We look for long straight oak which is relatively defect free. Once it has been delivered to our workshops, we begin the laying up process needed to mark the joints. Each timber is selected depending on where its final position in the building will be.

Every timber frame building is made by breaking it down into its constituent 2D frames and manufacturing each one independently. The method we use is called 'French Scribe' as each timber is scribed to fit its final position perfectly. We presume this was the method of framing we adopted after the Norman conquest.

Once all the timbers have gauge lines on them and are laid up correctly, we can scribe and cut the joints for that particular frame. When the peg holes have been drilled the frame can be re-assembled and checked for accuracy. This frame is now complete and the next 2D component of the building can be started.

Framing in this way ensures that the building will fit together correctly when it's being craned into position on site and also that it will be a quick process as all the work has been done back at the workshop. The frame can now be pegged together using cleft oak pegs approximately 12 inches long.

Once other parts of the build have been completed such as roofing and so on, some people opt to have the frame sandblasted to remove any unwanted marks such as water stains it may have picked up along the way.

Use the gallery slide at the top of this page to view some of our frames being built in situ.

Discover how we put our frame manufacturing skills to work by exploring the oak extensions and garden buildings our oak garages and carports and oak porches and pergolas pages.  Please contact us for a friendly chat if you would like to discuss your timber frame ideas.