Episode Information Argyll: The Oak Framed House

Date Published:

11/06/2008

Tony and Jo, musicians with Scottish Opera, had long dreamed of a home in the countryside. They found a perfect site on the Clyde estuary in Argyll and Bute. Located in a small village on a hillside, it had glorious views as far as the Isle of Arran and was less than an hour's drive from Glasgow. Inspired by local oak-framed barns, they gave architect Andy McAvoy an open brief.

In return, he gave them a design that fused medieval and modern and promised a beautifully simple interior. However, the construction was anything but simple...

Budget And Build

The Cost

Cost of plot: £35,000
Original budgeted costs: £230,000
Final Cost: £380,000

Deeper And Damaged

The experimental design started prosaically with concrete and steel lower floors. This was then topped with a cruck frame - made from curved sections of oak, and commonly found in medieval buildings - and the whole thing was finished with a zinc roof with overhanging eaves.

The two concrete levels would house a kitchen and dining room, entrance area and two bedrooms for Jo, Tony and their young daughter. The oak-framed upper levels would contain a double-height living area, with a raised floor at the back leading to a play area, office and spare bedroom.

The site sloped steeply, and in June 2003 the builders started excavating it into terraces. They aimed to have foundations laid and the lower concrete floors built in seven weeks, when the cruck frame was due to be fitted on. But the soil towards the bottom of the slope was unstable, so the digging had to go deeper than planned. It took 10 weeks before the foundation trenches were carved and filled with concrete.

Pipes for the under-floor heating were laid next, and a concrete floor laid on top of them. Unfortunately, too much concrete was poured (an extra 100 millilitres/four inches in places), which would not only prevent the heating from working well, but would raise the height of the finished house beyond the limit of their planning permission.

If they kept the floor, Tony and Jo would have to make a new planning application, which might be refused.

So the contractors had to dig up the extra concrete. In the process, they cut through the heating pipes in five places, which meant they then had to dig up each section of damaged pipes and replace them.

Transformation

At this point morale on site was low, and Tony and Jo were worried. They seemed to be repeatedly paying bills - including an eye-watering £45,000 for the timber frame - without seeing much progress. However, in October the lower floors were at last complete, and the six sections of the cruck frame were winched into place.

They arrived complete with pins, carefully measured and cut to fit into holes in the concrete plinth.

To help support the frame, architect Andy had also designed a pair of steel stanchions: a combination of slender steel pillar and flat steel plate, clamped to the lower end of the timbers by steel pins.

The frame's arrival transformed the build. The timbers had been cut from curved pieces of oak to use the wood's natural strength, and once fitted they arched above the lower floors like cathedral windows.

Pleasingly Slender

To ensure that his experimental design took shape properly, Andy was very active on site. He helped build the roof rafters and install the zinc roof, specially chosen because its thinness allowed the rafters to remain pleasingly slender while still maintaining a good U-factor (insulation rating).

In late November, the roof was completed, and Tony spent Christmas sand-blasting the oak window frames, so windows could be fitted in January.

When the original Grand Designs went on air, the house was some way from being finished. But it was watertight and all the important structural fittings - glass, steel and oak - were in place.

The Completed Grand Design

Two years later and Kevin returns to find the house complete and looking sensational.

The interior has now been decorated and furnished in an appealingly minimal manner, maintaining a healthy contrast between the old and the new.