James contacted Oak By Design in February having had plans passed for renovations to his Warwickshire home.

Part of the plans included a new glazed oak porch, with a glazed oak door and frame.

The previous door and frame and front of the house can be seen on the photo at the bottom of this article.

James sent Joanne a drawing he had, of what he initially thought he wanted, and Joanne provided a quotation for this.

At the time, James had a builder he had used in the past, and who he trusted, but he was extremely busy. Joanne also recommended a few builders she had contact with, relatively local to where James and his wife, Felicity, lived. However, they too were fully committed.

Although James wanted to order the glazed oak porch, he couldn’t, as he didn’t have a builder in place. He left it with us that he’d be in touch.

James kept in touch, and finally in November he confirmed that he had a builder booked for the project. During this time, though, he and Felicity had had time to think about the design of their glazed oak porch. They wanted to make a few improvements!

- Their initial plan had been to have a truss with a king post. This would have 2 glazed units within it. To make the porch as light as possible they decided to have the truss without a king post to enable as much light into the front of the porch as possible.

- The also decided to not have a brick wall of 450mm high as initially planned. Again, to provide as much light into the porch as possible, they wanted the front and sides to have full length glazed units, and to create a more contemporary look to their modernised home.

- They wanted the porch roof to overhang the front of the porch, to provide some protection when entering the porch. They also wanted the front of the overhang to be supported by 2 upright posts. These would also support the front rafters. They had seen something similar on a previous porch we had supplied. The underside of the overhang would be finished with solid oak tongue and grooved boards (these can be seen on the photo above).

- They wanted 8 additional internal oak timbers to affix to the roof on the underside of the plastered, insulated roof. The actual rafters for the roof would be softwood, as they are ‘hidden’ beneath the insulation and plaster board. Kiln dried oak timbers affixed to the ceiling look like the bottom of oak rafters and can add some character to the space. (These can be seen on the finished photo below)

A drawing was provided, showing the amendments made, and a revised quotation supplied.

As the builder started to complete the concrete base, and lay the row of engineering bricks to form a base for the oak framework to sit on, James paid his deposit and ordered the glazed oak porch.

In December, James confirmed that the base was in place and he provided the finished dimensions.

The overall height of the porch was restricted due to the new stone window cill that had been installed on the window directly above the porch. Allowing for the tiles, and ridge tiles on top of the oak framework, it became apparent space was a bit tight on the previous dimensions given!

We therefore adjusted the pitch of the truss, to shorten the overall height of the porch, and brought it down to just over 28°, which was ample for the minimum pitch required for the roof tiles (22.5°).

After the adjustments were made and approved, in the New Year, the glazed oak porch went into production.

James and Felicity had also ordered an oak Pattern 10 door for the glazed oak porch. This is a fully glazed door, again, to allow more light into the room.

They chose a modern, 1.2 metre T bar Handle for the door.

As this door would lead directly into the porch, which has an existing door with a lock, they wanted to have the 2 doors ‘keyed alike’, so the one key opened both doors. This was arranged with our suppliers. They also chose a self-locking multipoint espagnolette system for the door.

We usually offer a choice of 2 Osmo Polyx UV oils, 420 or 429.

James wanted something slightly different and opted for the 426, Larch

This is a slightly warmer colour than the 429, but doesn’t have the depth of colour of the 420.

When the glazed oak porch, and door and frame were ready, the delivery was arranged. The couple were so relieved that, finally, they had got the oak porch they had planned over a year earlier. They were also thrilled with the Larch oil finish.

Speaking to the couple afterwards they said “We are very happy with the porch; both the design and finish are exceptional. Also, the upgraded house frontage is, we believe, perfect!
Many thanks to you and Oak By Design, for all your help with the porch”.