Why an oak frame outlasts everyone who raises it
Pegged mortice and tenon joints, the movement of green oak, and why a properly cut frame is built to stand for centuries.
An oak framed building is not the same as a building with oak in it. The difference is in how the frame is put together.
Joints, not fixings
A traditional oak frame is joined with mortice and tenon and locked together with riven oak pegs. There are no bolts doing the structural work and no metal fixings to rust or fail. Done well, the joints tighten as the timber seasons, and the building becomes stronger in its first few years rather than weaker.
Movement is designed in
Green oak shrinks and moves as it dries. That is not a fault; it is the material behaving as it should. The skill is in cutting the joints so that the movement pulls the frame together rather than apart. We design for it from the first drawing, and we return at twelve months to check the frame has settled as expected.
Built to a different timescale
A well cut oak frame is essentially maintenance free for generations. The exposed timber weathers to silver if left untreated, and beyond the occasional check of doors and ironmongery there is very little to do. It is why we describe an oak building as a generational investment rather than a twenty year solution.
That is the whole idea behind how we work: to build things that will outlast the people who commissioned them.