An Oak Sunroom Is Required For This Coastal Home

Jane and Guy had moved houses quite a few times during their married life. They’ve lived in France, and on a boat, but chose a Yorkshire seaside town for their latest home.

Not far from the beach, the couple bought a semi-detached bungalow, in a private, gated community for the over 55’s.

The bungalow has a level patio at the back of the house, which looks onto fields. Although the couple sat out during the warmer months of the year, they wanted to enjoy the views for the rest of the year.

They started looking for ideas for a sunroom in which they could enjoy the space all year round. Looking for a local company to supply one they came across Oak By Design in April.

They wanted a building made from seasoned oak as opposed to green oak.

They rang, and spoke to Joanne who confirmed the use of air dried oak and kiln dried oak for their buildings. Pleased with this, they then discussed their ideas. They knew they wanted full height glazed units and French doors for them to access the garden, and to also enable them to open the room up to the patio during the warmer months.

They wanted the new sunroom to have the same pitch as the gable end of their living room, which the sunroom would be accessed from.

Jane found a few photos of buildings she’d seen, that she liked the style of, and sent them to Joanne.

After a few amended drawings a final design was agreed on. At 4.5 metres wide, and 2.5 metres deep the sunroom would have a pitch at 35°. French doors would be fitted to the right-hand side, leaving full height, glazed units to the front.

A supply only quotation was also provided.

They then concentrated on deciding on an oil finish.

Oak By Design offer 2 Osmo Polyx UV Oils for the outside of their buildings, a clear satin, and a natural matt.

Jane knew she didn’t want the finish to be ‘orange’ and wanted to have a lighter ‘coloured’ finish.

Living at the coast, they also wanted something hard wearing. In areas of high sun and wind, the oil on external oak will need applying more regularly.

After speaking to Osmo, Joanne arranged for various tinted oil samples to be sent to the workshop and these were applied to oak samples to show Jane and Guy.

The couple arranged to call over to the Oak By Design’s showroom and workshop to have a look around, to see the oak products, and to have any queries answered.

Guy visited on his own in the end, as the couple had recently got a young pup who couldn’t be left for long, but who also didn’t enjoy long car journeys! We do, however, welcome four legged friends to our showroom!

After the visit Guy emailed to say “thank you for your time and the workshop tour, both interesting and reassuring”.

Guy took the tinted oil samples, together with samples of the 2 regular Polyx Oils we offer, back to Jane.

After weighing up all the options, Jane finally decided on the Osmo Polyx UV oil in Natural. The Osmo oils are a hardwearing, natural product that has, as the name suggests, a lovely natural finish. The tinted samples were just a little bit too coloured for Jane.

The couple then approached Jack Stout, a builder who had installed many Oak By Design buildings and porches, as their home is out of Oak By Design’s installation area.

After discussing the project with Jack they decided to book the project in for the following Springtime.

They paid their deposit with Oak By Design, and ‘pencilled in’ Jack.

When choosing the ironmongery for the French doors, the couple chose a ‘From The Anvil' pewter, Avon Slimline handle.

They also wanted to replace their existing white UPVC doors that currently led from the living room to the patio. with a pair of internal oak doors. These are shown below, just after installation. These were measured, and ordered to arrive with the new sunroom.

Spring arrived and Jack built the base for the sunroom and confirmed the final measurements. Once made, the doors and the oak sunroom were delivered to site for installation.

The couple were thrilled with their new room and couldn’t wait to get using it. New furniture was ordered for the room and when this arrived a few months later, the room was complete!

Writing a review on Trustpilot Jane said,

“We found Oak by Design while looking for ideas for a sun room. We had looked at several other fairly local companies, but mostly they used green oak. We wanted seasoned. The reviews for Oak By Design were all positive, and once we had made contact with them, mainly through telephone conversations with Joanne, the first point of contact, plus an onsite visit, we were confident to go ahead with them.

We have not been disappointed, the sunroom is beautiful, extremely well made, and all manufactured to an agreed programme and price”.

Well, we can’t say fairer than that, can we?