Timber Frame Supplier Recommendations

[Mikey]

I have contacted the following companies for quotes, but I was wondering if there were any others that anyone might be able to recommend from personal experience?

 

Also any personal experience with the companies below would be greatly appreciated.

 

The site is based in the South East, just outside Reading.

 

Companies contacted:

 

English Brothers

Merronbrook

MBC

Fleming 

Vision Development (https://www.timber-frame-suppliers.co.uk/)

Timber Frame Tech (https://timberframetech.co.uk/)

Frame Technologies (https://www.frametechnologies.co.uk/)

 

 

 

[BartW]

Hi,

We ended up with English Brothers. Our next door neighbours went with Vision Development.

 

Of the two of us he sang more praises.

[Nickfromwales]

English Brothers have not bowled my current clients over, but there are no perfect TF companies ( given all that I’ve seen ).

MBC TF seem quite steady, with ups and downs to boot, but each instance yields the best final results I’ve seen to date. 
I’ve worked on both of their passive offerings a number of times ( PIR + wool and Warm-cell blown frames ) and am very impressed with both. The Warm-cell blown frames win hands-down imho. Graveyard silent ( resilience to outside noise ) and huge thermal time constant with excellent decrement delay.

PIR filled frames and roofs do not compare very well at all, again imho. 

[Mikey]

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights, this is really useful. Many thanks

 

I will keep this post updated with our quotes and ultimate decision. 

[Kelvin]

If I knew a year ago what I know now I may well have gone MBC. 

[SimonL]

We built our first house in Brimpton, nr Reading, sold it and are now working with Fleming on our project in the Scottish Borders.  We're at building warrant stage (Building regs in England and Wales).  I can honestly say that Flemings' service, advise and communication to date has been excellent. Working with them we got planning approval in 11 weeks from submission and all it cost us was our application fee to the Council.  We looked at MBC but unfortunately they did not have an inhouse design team, and as we knew exactly what we wanted it made sense to engage with a company that had an inhouse design team.  We also spoke to a number of other TS and SIP providers but unfortunately got the impression that they were only interested in selling their portfolio of designs and not in anything of a bespoke nature.  Fleming have also proactively offered to amend their quotation downwards to us on the basis that some building material costs have come down in price! You don't hear of that happening often!

[Redoctober]

2 hours ago, SimonL said:

We built our first house in Brimpton, nr Reading, sold it and are now working with Fleming on our project in the Scottish Borders.  We're at building warrant stage (Building regs in England and Wales).  I can honestly say that Flemings' service, advise and communication to date has been excellent. Working with them we got planning approval in 11 weeks from submission and all it cost us was our application fee to the Council.  We looked at MBC but unfortunately they did not have an inhouse design team, and as we knew exactly what we wanted it made sense to engage with a company that had an inhouse design team.  We also spoke to a number of other TS and SIP providers but unfortunately got the impression that they were only interested in selling their portfolio of designs and not in anything of a bespoke nature.  Fleming have also proactively offered to amend their quotation downwards to us on the basis that some building material costs have come down in price! You don't hear of that happening often!

 

We too are in the Borders but completed our build some 4 years ago. We used Flemings and were equally impressed. Whereabouts [roughly] are you in the borders?

[SimonL]

Hi Redoctober our plot overlooks Yetholm Loch near Kelso. Glad to hear you had a good experience with Flemings.  Whereabouts are you?

[Redoctober]

1 minute ago, SimonL said:

Hi Redoctober our plot overlooks Yetholm Loch near Kelso. Glad to hear you had a good experience with Flemings.  Whereabouts are you?

 

North of Coldstream - Darnchester - take a look at my blog for our build experience etc. May be of use albeit the prices etc are now dated!!

 

 

[SimonL]

Not far from us at all then.  Thanks for the link to your blog. We built our last place in 2003 so were shocked by some of the prices we've seen/ been quoted.  Ah well we'll just have to do as much as possible ourselves

[SimonL]

Great blog!  Good to see you've incorporated a green oak porch and garage.  We're building a 'green oak' garage and workshop with a 1 bed 'flat' above it using green oak construction methods but we will be using local larch and Douglas fir instead of oak.  We're also incorporating some stone cladding on the house, using stone from the demolished Minto House, which is available in abundance from a local landowner. Rest of the house will be render on block and Scots larch cladding.  

[markharro]

Another vote for MBC - they are bringing our frame next week!

[deancatherine09]

We went with MBC - they finished putting the frame up last week. Apart from one issue we've had with the wrong membrane being fitted (we spec'd a fire rated breather membrane on one elevation) they have been great. Back in May to do the airtightness works.