Oak Framed Porches in Shropshire

An open porch keeps the rain off the doorstep and frames the door. It is the simplest to build and usually the quickest to fit. A glazed porch turns the same frame into a small room, somewhere for boots and coats that keeps the weather out of the hall.

Glazing asks more of the oak. For our glazed porch in Ledbury we used air-dried oak, rebated the beams so the glass sits neatly in the frame, and finished it with a kiln-dried glazing bead cut with a 15 degree chamfer so rain runs straight off instead of sitting against the glass.

Green oak is freshly sawn. It is the traditional choice, the easiest to work and the most affordable, and it tightens on its pegs as it dries. It will move a little and show small surface splits called shakes, which are normal and do not weaken the frame.

Air-dried oak has been seasoned outdoors, so most of that movement has already happened. It is the usual choice next to glass. Kiln-dried oak is the most stable of the three. Our Hartlebury porch was made in kiln-dried oak and supplied as a kit, which made for a quick install at the customer's door.

The frame is cut and test fitted before we arrive, so the time on site is short. Our green oak porch in Lichfield was raised and fitted in one day. A glazed porch, or one that needs new footings or a dwarf wall, takes longer, and we will tell you how long when we quote.

Often not. In England a porch on a house is usually permitted development if its ground area, measured externally, is no more than 3 square metres, no part of it is more than 3 metres above the ground, and it is at least 2 metres from any boundary that faces a road. Flats, listed buildings and homes in conservation areas follow different rules, so we check with you before any oak is cut.