Take One

Our first day of filming started early on a spring morning. The site crew left Oakwrights’ yard in Hereford at 5am and arrived on the Hampshire building site three hours later. We were greeted by the film crew who were making a new series of ‘My Flat Pack Home’. Oak frame houses are the earliest flat pack homes, as traditionally, all components are manufactured and constructed in a framing yard, before they are de-constructed and delivered “flat packed” on the back of a lorry.

The featured house is a four bedroom, post and beam frame, designed by one of our principal architectural designers, Darren Blackwell. It will also be fitted with our WrightWall Light encapsulation system around the outside of the oak frame. This system gives a U value of 0.25 as standard, and can easily be enhanced to 0.21 by the addition of extra insulation to the inside stud framework. The owners have chosen to install the additional insulation on this project, which will be carried out by the main contractor, Mapledean Construction.

Throughout the duration of Oakwrights’ frame erection and installation, Nigel, the owner of Mapledean Construction, visited regularly to discuss the follow-on build process. Good communication is essential throughout the duration of a build to help the project run smoothly. The site was well organised, and the slab and brick work spot-on for accuracy. This helped to make Oakwrights’ frame erection and installation of panels run extremely smoothly.

It was explained to Dean, the television producer for ‘My Flat Pack Home’ that we had no intention of this project being a classic television “disaster build”, and I am glad to say that Oakwrights’ work on site ran more smoothly than we could have hoped for.

Getting out on site, three or four times a year, always revitalises our designers’ energy levels and helps to motivate their enthusiasm for what they do – creating dream homes.

The projects designer Will commented: ”It was great to be on site with the team, working hard and seeing the oak frame rise from the ground and take shape as a home. It was also good to have Mike and Jean, our clients, on site to see their house being born. Suddenly all the hard work of planning, design, and paper work, is giving way to the reality that finally the dream is coming to life.”

The house that will appear on TV this Autumn is 1310 square feet on the ground floor. The centre of the house accommodates the hall and large garden room, which will house bi-folding doors opening out onto a rear patio area. The largest wing incorporates a luxurious kitchen and family room, while the other wing accommodates a lounge with wood burner, plus an office and WC.