Timber Frame Houses: Oak

In the current climate of ongoing concerns over global warming and diminishing resources, building with wood - and specifically species from managed sources, like oak - is both an eco friendly as well as a sustainable option.

By Gordon Miller

Firstly, from a sustainability perspective, European oak from a managed and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited source is about as renewable as it gets. From an environmental angle the beauty of wood is that it is carbon neutral because it has absorbed CO2 throughout its natural lifespan.

What Are Oak's Eco-Friendly Properties?

A spokesperson for eco-homes and sustainable development portal www.whatgreenhome.com, which reviews many timber framed homes for sale, said: 'The great thing about timber, and specifically oak and other native European species from FSC-accredited sources, is that it emits no carbon dioxide, which is one of the main greenhouse gases that cause climate change.'

'For example, concrete has a high embodied energy value and releases carbon dioxide when made. Steel too, through the process of making it, which involves burning fossil fuel byproducts at extremely high temperatures, is a high energy user and releaser of CO2.'

Merry Albright, creative assistant at Border Oak Design & Construction, a family-run business based in rural Herefordshire, says, 'Oak is our preferred construction material. We source all our oak from wood farms which means they are grown to be cut down and therefore the growth and regrowth of the trees is managed.'

'We make all our frames by hand, which cuts down on the amount of carbon needed in production. Therefore, it is just the transportation from the wood farm to our workshops to the site of the house that really emits any CO2.'