We're Foxtail Oak, an oak frame design-and-build firm with a workshop near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire; the list below works whoever the quotes are from, us included.
If you've had two or three quotations for an oak garage and they're thousands of pounds apart, the likeliest reason is that they aren't pricing the same building. The only way to find out is to put them side by side and check the same things on each one. This page gives you the list.
Does the quote cover the whole garage, or just the frame?
This is usually the biggest difference, and the easiest to miss. One quote may be for the oak frame alone, delivered or raised on a base someone else has built. Another may be for a finished garage: the design, the planning application, the engineering, the slab, the frame, the cladding, the roof, the doors, the electrics and drainage, and making good afterwards.
A frame-only price will always look cheaper, because it covers less of the job. Whatever a quote leaves out, you'll pay someone else for. List what each quote includes, line by line, and put a figure against anything that's missing before you compare totals. What each level of scope costs from us, on a real footprint, is worked through in How much does an oak frame garage cost?.
Is the price for the same size of building?
Check that both quotes are for the same dimensions. If a quote gives a rate per square metre, check what it is measured on. Our garage rate is per square metre of external footprint: the overall width times the overall depth, measured to the outside of the frame. A rate measured on internal floor area will look higher per square metre, even when it comes to the same total.
What oak is it, and what grade?
Framing oak is graded twice: a visual grade for knots, shakes and appearance, and a strength class for what it can carry. Ask for both in writing. Two frames the same size in different grades can look quite different and carry quite different loads.
Ask too whether the frame is oak throughout or a hybrid of oak and softwood. A hybrid is cheaper, and it isn't the same building.
Is there sapwood in it?
Sapwood is the paler outer layer of the log, and it is much less durable than the heartwood inside it. Oak with the sapwood cut away costs more, because more of each log is wasted. Ask whether the frame is sap-free.
How big are the posts?
The section size of the posts and beams is one of the main things that moves the price of an oak frame. A heavier frame uses more oak and looks more substantial. Ask for the post and beam sizes on each quote so that you are comparing like with like.
Is it planed or sawn?
Sawn oak is left as it comes off the saw. Planed oak has been machined smooth, often with the edges chamfered. Planing takes time and takes timber off, so it costs more. Both are legitimate. They look different and should be priced differently.
How is it jointed, and how many joints are there?
Ask how the joints are made and fixed: draw-pegged mortice and tenons, or screws, bolts and brackets. A draw-pegged joint pulls tighter as the oak dries. Ask how many joints the frame has, too. Much of the cost of an oak frame is in the joints, because each one is marked out and cut, so a frame with more braces and more detail costs more to make than a plainer one of the same size.
Who does the engineering?
Ask whether the frame has been checked by a structural engineer, and who pays for it. Building control may need calculations. If a quote leaves engineering out, it is a cost you will still have to meet.
Who builds the base, and what happens if the ground is poor?
Ask who lays the slab and foundations and whether they are in the price. Ask what happens if the ground turns out to need deeper or piled foundations. Nobody knows exactly what is under a site until they dig, so a quote should say how that is handled rather than stay silent about it.
What is the roof, and what are the walls?
Check the roof covering on each quote: slate, clay tile or something else. Check how the walls and roof are built up. A garage that only needs to keep the rain off is a different building from one that will be insulated and used as a workshop or a room, and it should cost less.
Are the doors, electrics and drainage in it?
Garage doors, lighting, power and a way for the roof water to drain away are easy to leave off a quote and expensive to add later. Check each quote for them by name.
Is the frame designed for your site, or is it a standard design?
Ask whether the building has been designed for your site or comes in a set size. Both can be the right answer. A standard design repeated many times can be cheaper to make, and that is a fair saving, not a shortcut. The two aren't priced the same way and shouldn't be compared as if they were.
Who raises it, and who handles delivery?
If a quote is for supply only, ask who unloads the frame, whether a crane or a telehandler is needed, who pays for it, and who raises the frame. Ask what the base has to be ready for and how accurate it has to be. Each of those is a cost if it lands on you.
Does the price include VAT?
Some quotations include VAT and some don't. On a garage for an existing house, that is a fifth of the price. Check before you compare. A garage built at the same time as a new house, to be used with it, is normally zero-rated.
Can a lower price be honest?
Yes. A cheaper quote isn't always a worse one. A simpler design, fewer bays, open bays instead of doors, a standard size, a hybrid frame or a firm with lower overheads can all bring a price down legitimately. The point of comparing line by line is not to prove the cheaper quote wrong. It's to find out whether it's for the same building.
What should you check on every quote?
- What's included, line by line, and what isn't
- The dimensions, and what any rate per square metre is measured on
- The visual grade and strength class of the oak, and whether it's oak throughout or a hybrid
- Sap-free or not
- The post and beam sizes
- Planed and chamfered, or sawn
- Draw-pegged mortice and tenons, or screws, bolts and brackets, and roughly how many joints
- Who does the engineering
- Who builds the base, and what happens if the ground is poor
- The roof covering, and whether the walls and roof are insulated
- Doors, electrics and drainage
- A design for your site, or a standard design
- Who delivers, unloads and raises the frame
- Whether the price includes VAT
What's in ours?
FOXTAIL OAK Our frames are green oak as standard, to QPA visual grade and D30 strength class. We pay a premium for sap-free green oak, we plane and chamfer it, and we draw-peg every mortice and tenon, on every frame. Where a project uses air-dried oak instead, we can't guarantee it's sap-free, because it comes to us already cut. We'll adjust a design to meet a budget, but not the grade, the sap-free oak or the pegged joints.
On a design-and-build garage on ordinary ground, our price covers the design, the structural engineer's design and calculations, the planning application and the building regulations drawings, the base, the oak frame made and put up by us, the wall panels and cladding, the roof structure, the roof covering with gutters and downpipes, the oak fascia and barge boards, and managing every trade on the job. A two-bay garage comes to about £55,000 to £67,000 including VAT and three bays to about £69,000 to £84,000, at rates of 9 October 2026, and the price calculator on our prices page gives the same figures for your own layout. Garage doors are priced per job. The price does not cover the council's planning and building control fees, deeper or piled foundations, bringing supplies from the house, diverting existing services, or landscaping.
We try to make the first price we give you the highest the job should ever come to. We allow for the worst reasonable case, then go through the specification with you and take out anything you don't need. We don't price-match other quotations.
The full list of who does what, for each way to buy, is on the garage page. If a line in our quote doesn't match one in someone else's, ask us and we'll tell you what ours includes.
Frequently asked questions
Should I take the cheapest oak garage quote? Not until you've checked it's for the same building. A cheaper quote can be honest, because a simpler design, fewer bays, open bays instead of doors, a standard size or a hybrid frame all bring a price down legitimately; but a frame-only figure set against a finished garage isn't a saving, it's a different job.
Why is a kit price so much lower than a finished garage? Because it covers less of the job. A kit is the oak frame alone, delivered or raised on a base someone else has built; a finished garage adds the design, the planning application, the engineering, the slab, the cladding, the roof, the doors, the electrics and drainage, and making good, and whatever the kit leaves out you'll pay someone else for.
Related. How much does an oak frame garage cost? works the rates through on a two-bay and a three-bay footprint. Does an oak garage add value to your home? is for anyone weighing the spend against a sale.
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