04 / 08 Oak framed buildings
Hopton Oak builds made to measure oak pergolas for patios, paths and decks across Shropshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands. A pergola is an open oak frame that gives a mix of sun and shade. Ours are cut to fit your space, joined with traditional pegged joints and can usually be fitted in a single day.
Oak pergola built around a patio in Reading.
A pergola is the simplest oak structure there is: posts, beams and a row of rafters over the top, with no solid roof. It marks out a part of the garden as somewhere to sit, gives broken shade in summer and gives climbing plants something to grow over.
Because there is so little to it, the timber does all the talking. Heavy oak sections, clean joints and a shaped end on each rafter are what separate a framed pergola from something bolted together out of fence posts.
Every pergola we make is a custom fit. Whether it is a small corner or a wide terrace, we measure the space and draw the frame around it, so the posts land where they should and the beams line up with the house, the doors and the edge of the paving.
Our oak pergola in Reading was built around the customer's patio. The oak beams frame the paved area and let in sun and shade in equal measure.
Usually a day. The joints are cut before we arrive, so the work on site is setting out, standing the posts and raising the frame. In Reading the customer started the morning with a bare patio and had a finished oak pergola by the evening.
If the posts need new concrete footings those go in beforehand, so the frame can be raised onto a firm base.
Over a patio next to the house is the classic place, but an oak pergola also works over a garden path, along a boundary as a walkway, or on a raised deck. One of our recent pergolas stands on a hillside deck and frames the view across open country.
If you want proper shelter from rain, look at a gazebo instead, which has a tiled or slated roof on the same kind of frame.
In most back gardens, no. A pergola normally counts as a garden structure and falls under the same permitted development rules as other outbuildings in England: behind the front of the house, and no more than 2.5 metres high if it stands within 2 metres of a boundary. Listed buildings and conservation areas are different, and we will flag it if your home is one.
You deal with Tom and Charlie the whole way: the people who design it, make it and fit it. More on how we work.
We visit, measure up and talk through how you want to use the space.
You get a design and a clear quote, and help choosing the oak and the details.
The frame is cut the traditional way, with mortice and tenon joints held by oak pegs.
We bring the finished frame to you and raise it. Smaller frames often go up in a day.
Something we haven't covered? Call us on 07951 041977.
Yes. A pergola can stand on its own four posts or be fixed to the house wall on one side with a wall plate, which leaves the patio clear of posts next to the doors.
Yes. Oak is strong enough to carry a mature wisteria, vine or climbing rose, and the open rafters are spaced with that in mind if you tell us what you want to grow.
It is the usual choice. A pergola is open to the air on every side, so green oak dries evenly in place. Small surface splits appear as it seasons, which is normal and does not affect the strength.
We're based in Shropshire and the Worcestershire border and do most of our work across Shropshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands. We have also built in Reading and Northumberland, so if you're further afield, ask.
Send us a few details and photos of where it will go. We'll come back with ideas and a clear price.
