About Us
Tbe Country Oak Story...
We are a family run business, creating beautiful Oak frame Buildings in the Heart of Hampshire for the last 25 years. Promising a Bespoke building service with emphasis on quality workmanship and customer satisfaction.
​
From our humble beginnings creating Garden Summer houses, to now working on large Self Build Homes and Boutique spaces, our love for the broad range of design possibilities continues to grow. Our Clients come to us with a broad range of requirements and indeed tastes. However, we believe that Oak as a material is so versatile it can be utilised for not only the most Contemporary Modernist Buildings, perhaps using a combination with glass, but also a traditional Tudor style Cottage built from scratch in the 21st Century.
​
We only use oak and never use any softwood in our frames because oak has a natural resistance and durability. In fact, we believe that Oak Framed buildings become even more beautiful with age.
​
Alongside Homes, we also offer bespoke Garages, Outhouses, Extensions and Commercial Spaces/ Boutique Studios.
​
Our Ethos
We are exceptionally passionate about Sustainable Design, and believe that all buildings should be built with a conscious attitude towards being as sustainable as possible for the future; whether that be through the materials used, use of new technologies or simply design that utilises the natural resources around us.
​
At Country Oak, only the finest English and European Oak is personally selected from carefully managed Woodlands. Our exceptional combination of traditional handcrafted woodworking methods alongside new developments in Design and Engineering ensures our customers benefit from buildings of Character, Functionality and Strength.
​
Favouring a handcrafted approach over the use of machines in align with more traditional methods, the results are clear in the quality of the bespoke craftsmanship. This is why we only use traditional jointing techniques such as draw-bored mortices and tenons, dovetailed lap joints and bridle joints.
All of our Joinery is custom made at our Workshop in Winchester and we never outsource projects to factories. We believe that this is evident in the Superior Aesthetic finish of the building and the hard wearing longevity: we make buildings to last a lifetime.
​
Our Team
Our Team consists of Architects, Joiners and Traditional Craftsmen who all share a passion for the traditional methods of Oak Construction.
​
Founded by Director Nick Welch in 1995, we remain a fundamentally family business with Nick's daughter running the Office and his sons regularly assisting on site . Nick still oversee's every project personally and likes to complete much of the Joinery himself, as this is his greatest passion. As a small Boutique company we can offer constant communication and meetings directly with the Director throughout the build, providing you with ultimate reassurance. This is just one of the many ways in which we differ from our competitors, and we pride ourselves on delivering a professional, but personable service.
Alongside our architectural team, we can offer consultation around the design process, or even end to end Project Management utilising the companies' vast experience that compromises hundreds of builds. Our expertise in the process allows us to help you foresee and prevent possible problems. We work closely with Framelines Architects and a number of Local Architecture Companies based in Winchester, as well as Bentley's SIP Panels.
​
Our Oak Framer's are all experienced professionals who have been in the business for many years and can provide true expertise from their knowledge of the material, to their construction.
