Oak Porch Required To Complete A Beautiful Dales Home

Gabby phoned Oak By Design in October, after searching for an oak porch online, and liking the Oak By Design website.

She lives in the beautiful spa town of Ilkley, in Wharfedale, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. She had recently bought an 18th Century stone-built cottage and wanted to add an open oak porch to the entrance door to the home.

There was already a wide step in front of the existing oak door, and the porch needed to fit around the step.

She spoke to Amanda about the design of oak porch she initially thought she wanted.

Gabby then asked if we could recommend a local builder.

Amanda recommended Jack Stout. She sent Gabby a number of oak porch case studies from our website, which Jack had installed.

Happy with what she saw, Gabby arranged for Jack to visit her home to discuss the works she required. Jack showed Gabby photos of a porch he had just installed for a client in Silsden. This particular porch had the lower part of the porch made with solid oak boards to offer some protection from the weather. Gabby liked the look of this and asked Amanda to supply her with a quotation based on 4 oak posts, a truss with a king post and 2 diagonal braces and 2 curved braces on the front elevation.

Amanda supplied her with a quotation and drawing of the proposed oak porch with 4 posts in November.

After receiving the drawing and quotation, Gabby spoke again to Jack and Amanda about the design.

Quite nearby where the porch would be sited, are French doors which lead from the kitchen. They step out onto stone steps, which are topped with gritstone (or sandstone) with a bevelled edge. These match the stone steps that lead into the house.

Jack suggested that the porch have stone dwarf walls with copings to match the curved edged gritstone steps.

He also suggested that the porch have 2 oak posts, but have a curved bracket on the back of each of the front posts to add character to the side elevations.

Gabby also decided on a change of truss design. She decided to have a king post, and 2 upright intermediaries.

Amanda provided an amended drawing and quotation and sent these to Gabby.

In the New Year after Gabby had returned from a Christmas break, she contacted Amanda to order the oak porch. They arranged to have the porch ready for the end of March when Jack would be able to install.

In the meantime, Jack ordered the coping stones from DNB Home and Stone, a company based near ourselves in Tockwith. He then built the stone walls, ready for the copings. These would match the steps that lead to both the door and the French doors.

Once the coping stones were ready and installed, delivery of the porch was arranged and Jack installed the porch. Gabby also chose to have solid oak tongue and groove boards fit above the oak rafters, prior to the roof being installed. These provide a very finished look to the underside of the porch roof.

These are provided fully oiled, ready for installation, as are our porches. Gabby chose Osmo Protection Oil in 429, a very natural, matt finish.

The existing black wall light to the right hand side of the door was removed, and a black pendant light finished off the porch which matched perfectly the black monkey tail door handle on the beautiful existing oak door and the black wall mounted letter box.

Speaking to Amanda after the porch had been installed, Gabby said how thrilled she was with the porch and how it really suits her period home.

Having the time to discuss various options for a design of a porch can pay off. If you’re not 100% sure about a design, think about various other options. It certainly paid off for Gabby.

A few weeks later Gabby rang Amanda again. Her daughter was looking for a modern oak door, and after seeing the oak porch wanted Oak By Design to make her one.

As soon as we have the finished photos of this, we’ll be sharing the details!