DESIGN
Every frame we make is designed before any oak is cut: a design visit, sketch options, a 3D model of the whole frame, an engineer's check where the building needs one, and the drawings the workshop works from. Nothing is cut until the design is signed off.
1 · THE DESIGN VISIT
We take photographs and a 3D scan of where the frame will go, then sit down with you and work up the design at your table. The visit takes about an hour, and on a porch the design can be worked up in that time; on an extension or a house the design takes weeks, and it is the stage most worth not rushing.
Before the design visit there is a phone or video call. We go through your photographs, how much you'd like us to do, your budget and your timing, so we both know whether a visit is worth it. Within our design-and-build area there is no charge for the design visit.
Outside that area, the design visit costs £300 including VAT (£250 plus VAT), and we deduct it from the order if the job goes ahead.
2 · SKETCH AND OPTIONS
Yes. We sketch options and develop the design with you, from what we know about the kind of building you want and from your own specification. On a porch, the first choice is usually gable, lean-to, hipped or corner, depending on what is above the door.
If the project needs planning permission, we bring in an external architect we work with, who handles the planning drawings, the planning application and, where the project needs them, the building regulations drawings. If you already have an architect and a design, we work to it.
Two rounds of changes are included. After that, further design time is charged.
3 · THE 3D MODEL
Yes. We draw the frame as a 3D model in Shapr3D: every post, beam, brace and joint. You see the model while the design is worked up, and you get a copy of it to look round for yourself.
4 · THE ENGINEER'S CHECK
Where the building needs it, our consulting engineer checks the frame and signs it off. On a garage and on a balcony that is always the case, on an extension it depends on the span, and on a porch it rarely is.
Every balcony has a structural engineer's sign-off, and it is in the price. On a porch we design and build, any structural calculations the porch needs are in the price too.
5 · WORKSHOP DRAWINGS
The workshop drawings show every member and every joint in the frame. We draw them in-house from the 3D model, and they take about one to two weeks after the design is signed off.
When we supply a frame only, it goes out cut and numbered, with assembly drawings, for you or your builder to put up. If you are an architect, we can send drawings as DWG, DXF or PDF.
6 · SIGN-OFF
Before anything is cut. Nothing goes to the workshop until the design is signed off, because a frame cut wrong can't be adjusted on site. We price to the design and tell you what any change does to the cost.
You sign the final drawings, and nothing is cut until you do.
The lead time runs from the day you order and covers design sign-off, engineering where your job needs it, and the frame's turn in the workshop.
COME AND SEE US
The frame on the stocks, the carpenters at work, and a cup of tea.
Arrange a visitTALK TO US
The fastest way to find out if your project is one we'd take on.
01873 379050
