Warren Project

To many it is assumed that Oakwrights only build oak frames from their own designs. John and Janet Warrens project shows how successful projects can be when Oakwrights collaborate with other architectural design practices. In John and Janet’s case they worked with Eleanor Hall of Hays & Partners to come up with the architectural design for their house and then Oakwrights were brought in as specialists for the design, construction and erection of the oak frame.

Vindication for how well the team worked together was shown when John and Janet’s house won the Daily Telegraph and Home Building & Renovating award for best traditional design of 2009

The story of John and Janet’s project starts over thirty years ago when Janet dreamt of one day building an oak framed house. In retirement this dream has come true.

Plot acquisition

To build your dream home you first need a building plot and John and Janet gained their plot in the form of a bungalow just opposite their house that had been built for Janet’s parents in the 1960’s.The bungalow sat on a good sized elevated plot with a number of large outbuildings surrounding it. The planning authority allowed the outbuildings to be taken as part of the volume for the new design along with the bungalow and this gave an overall area on two floors of 150 meters square for the new design.

Design brief

The brief to Eleanor Hall of Hays & Partners was to design a character packed energy efficient home which is flexible, accessible and to comfortably house visiting grand children.

Early on in the design process Eleanor Hall established that the orientation of the new house was critical to make the most of the views and with the use of wings create private sunny areas. It is often found that to maximise the potential of a plot regarding shape of plot view and sunlight a bespoke design is the best way forwards.

The wings of the design create private space which is enhanced on sunny days with the back drop of the brook that runs along the boundary. John and Janet’s main brief for the design was to keep the house simple and uncluttered

Procurement

John says he chose to work with Oakwrights for a number of reasons. From his first call to the Oakwrights office there was willingness to visit John at home to discuss his ideas. When John visited Oakwrights in Hereford he was particularly impressed with the use of modern design techniques linked with CNC machinery to produce a traditional product to the highest standard. John also liked the Oakwrights infill panel system which he felt was more technically advanced than any other systems that he saw. A real passion for oak framing linked with an open way of working led John to choose Oakwrights.

Rather than go out to formal tender John chose to work with mainly local contractors who were recommended to him. As John and Janet were retired and living on site in a large static caravan John chose to be on site each day of the build and work with the trades people. So rather than gain fixed prices from each sub contractor John chose to agree a day rate as he would be on site supervising progress each day. John said that he thoroughly enjoyed working along side the tradesmen building his dream retirement home. Regarding highs and lows of the project John said that there were no real lows as he adapted the philosophy of working with the team on site to work out the best solution to any problem he came across. John said that if ever they wanted advice they spoke to Chris and Andy in the Oakwrights office who were always able to give advice and point them in the right direction.

While this form of procurement is not the easiest to work with if you are on a fixed budget it does enable you to work hand in hand with your site team and normally leads to a really good looking completed project as it most certainly does in the case of Wagtail Cottage. Working with your team on a day rate basis does allow you flexibility to change and come up with new ideas as the project progresses without having to go back and renegotiate every time a change occurs.

Construction

The first person who John chose to work with was David Hargreaves a local ground working contractor. David proved to be one of the finds of the project as not only did he carry out the ground works but he followed through with all of the brickwork general construction and in liaison with John project management.

Oakwrights arrived on site just before Christmas 2007. Pete Jacklin and his team spent the first week erecting the oak frame and then followed on with the installation of Oakwrights patented infill panel system. From the day Pete arrived on site to the day he left it just rained and rained and rained. Note picture below. It was the continuous rain while the frame was being erected that gave John the idea of building the pond in front of the house. John had noticed one afternoon that when the sun did momentarily shine it reflected off a big puddle in front of the house and gave a lovely rippled affect against the frame. John says he went back into the static caravan and told Janet that they would have a pond in front of the house to cast rippled reflections into the garden room.

The next main members of the team were Joiners Paul and John Edwards who made all the windows and doors for the project but also cut the softwood roof and carried out all other first and second fix carpentry work. It was the finer detail where Paul and John came into their own such as making and fitting all the oak sprockets soffits and closer boards for the roof.

John used a local plumbing company to install a ground source heat pump from Dan Foss linked in with under floor heating from Eco Home Tec. The electrical system was installed by John Booth of Congleton. John said he mainly worked out the system with the electricians on site and kept it fairly simple. The whole build process including house, Oakwrights garage and landscaping took eighteen months from start to completion.

Layout of house

First floor

The new house has two bedrooms on the first floor with one further bedroom on the ground floor with an en-suite bathroom. The double bedrooms on the first floor have been designed to meet the requirement of visiting grand children with shared family bathroom.

The landing forms a library area for John and Janet’s extensive collection of books. The landing also has a study, reading come hobby area that is open to the vaulted space of the sitting room below. The open space allows John to communicate with Janet while he is up and she is downstairs.

Following discussions with Rob Gay, frame designer and the Oakwrights Engineer, John has used a cement screed on the first floor incorporating his under floor heating system. Engineered oak floor boards have been glued down to this screed. In the family bathroom John used a ceramic tile that had a slate finish.

Ground floor

The ground floor is all set out on one level with a full bedroom suite setting the house up for future one level living. On the one wing there is a single storey utility room which leads onto a large kitchen. The kitchen has a range cooker and painted style shaker units with a vaulted oak ceiling above. At the opposite end of the kitchen to the range cooker there is a Clearview wood burner to give additional warmth to those winter days when sitting around the kitchen table eating crumpets.

John says that the temperature for the house is set at 19 degrees that gives comfortable day to day living and that they light the wood burners in the evenings to make the kitchen and sitting room cosier.

The kitchen floor has ceramic tiles. Janet says that this is a farmhouse style kitchen with dogs, children and family coming in with muddy boots and she wanted a floor finish that was easy to maintain.

From the kitchen you enter the hall with staircase and large oak window giving light to the area. The hall leads on to the ground floor bedroom suite and the large open plan sitting room.

The ground floor bedroom suite is set within in its own wing and vaulted oak frame giving it a further feeling of space.

From the hall you enter the open plan sitting room and garden room. The sitting room has oak floor joists above two thirds and then leads onto the garden room area that is vaulted up to the landing and library area above. A warm and cosy feeling is created by the oak floor joists over and the clear view wood burner set within its brick inglenook. To the west side of the sitting room the garden area is fully glazed letting light cascade into the open plan space.

The decoration of the house is trade white throughout which John said he may change in the future but he finds that the colour of the oak works well in softening the white and giving a successful finish.

When it came to preparation of the frame John cleaned the oak frame by sanding some but not all of the marks off the oak. The frame was then decorated using a clear OSMO liquid wax.

Sustainability

Oakwrights houses are constructed using FSC sourced oak. This managed timber linked with the fact that we expect our frames to last for at least three to four hundred years and only look better with age means that oak frame could possibly be considered the most sustainable form of construction. A ground source heat pump has been used linked in with two wood burners to give a renewable heat source to the house with minimal running costs.

Conclusion

The well thought out design and layout of this house will be enhanced by the oak frame as it gains the character and patina of age. Congratulations must go to John and Janet for carrying Eleanor and Oakwrights designs through to such a successful conclusion. This home is a classic example of a couple who have never built a house before embracing the true self build ethos to create a dream home. John and Janet’s enthusiastic and pro active approach to the project really enabled them to get the best out of all members of their team.