Choosing the right English oak suppliers is important when sourcing high-quality oak timber for your construction projects. At Whippletree, we pride ourselves on being more than just oak suppliers in the UK; we are British oak suppliers committed to providing premium English oak and providing our clients with an expert oak consultancy to ensure your project's success.
Oak has been a preferred building material in the construction industry for hundreds of years, and for good reason. Its exceptional strength and natural beauty make it an ideal choice for various applications.
Here are just some of the many advantages using English oak brings:
- Excellent Strength and Durability: Oak is a medium-density hardwood (around 720kg/m3), yet its strength and durability surpass those of many other timber species. In this regard, oak can even outperform some tropical hardwoods. This makes it ideal as structural oak timber.
- Low Maintenance: Oak is one of the most durable timber types. It requires little maintenance and can last and remain unscathed for a prolonged period. Exposure to the sun and rain enhances its aesthetic, bringing out a silvery weathered look.
- A Stunning Appearance: Whether aged by weather or preserved with a fitting finish, oak's beauty increases over time. Its distinctive look manifests a vintage appearance, with rich colouring and an attractive woodgrain adding a layer of elegant texture. Its overall rustic look is stunningly pleasing, making it perfect for oak beams and cladding in renovations.
- Versatility: Oak is exceptionally versatile, highly adaptable and malleable. It starts soft but becomes rugged and durable when dry, making it a stellar choice across many projects. From oak flooring supply to oak cladding supply, oak can be used for internal and outdoor work. For interior works, it's suitable for supportive frames, beams, decorative features and flooring. It can be used for fencing, wall cladding, decking, and even waterworks for outdoor work. Because oak has natural strength and durability, it is also ideal for building retaining walls and raised beds.
- Affordability: Oak is a highly affordable hardwood. It falls in the gap between cheap and abundant softwoods and expensive tropical hardwoods. It excels in terms of durability, strength, affordability and availability.
Whippletree's Oak Performance Consultancy
At Whippletree, we understand that simply supplying fresh sawn oak supplies or seasoned oak is not enough. The true potential of English oak lies in understanding how it performs in specific environments and applications. That is why we offer our clients a specialised oak consultancy service, which helps you maximise the longevity and beauty of your oak requirments.
We are often asked to help establish the best ways to make our English Oak perform to its optimum ability. This usually involves examining the existing and end site conditions, expected movement, and ways of allowing for a range of movement within the environment.
A Typical Example: Winchester Cathedral South Transept Renovation
- Project: Winchester Cathedral's South Transept renovation
- With its massively thick stone walls, no damp-proofing, and a generally cool environment, the question was what moisture content the English Oak flooring should have and how movement could be allowed across large areas of unsealed flooring.
- We were introduced to Nick Cox Architects through the contractor Owlsworth IJP. Together, and with the help of the cathedral building team, we looked at 12 months of environmental data. This led to coming up with the optimum Moisture content for the 240mm and 290mm wide solid English Oak boards, but also to the realisation that there could be a potential movement from season to season of between 1.2mm and 1.45mm that needed to be allowed for.
Once this was established, we produced two test samples with the correct widths, moisture content, and fixings. These were left within the Cathedral throughout the initial stages of the renovation. We monitored the samples regularly, checking for any changes in moisture content, board width, and cupping.
The test samples performed very well. The Oak flooring was dried accordingly and laid. After many months, we returned to check the floors, and the wide boards were all very flat with no signs of movement.
Our Sustainable Approach
Whippletree is committed to responsibly sourced oak. Unlike the wood supply industry, which artificially dries its timber, at Whippletree, the process of cutting down and hauling the timber and then cutting it for stock is the main use of resources, fuel, and electricity. This ensures a more natural and sustainable approach to timber processing.
Whippletree can meet your needs whether you are looking for air-dried English oak, kiln-dried English oak or green oak suppliers. We offer a wide range of oak beams suppliers, oak planks suppliers, oak cladding suppliers, oak flooring suppliers, oak fencing suppliers, and more.
UK-Wide Service
We serve clients across the UK. So, if you are searching for English oak suppliers for any construction job, look no further than Whippletree. Contact us today to discuss your project and discover how our oak timber for construction and expert consultancy services can benefit you.
