Roo's summerhouse

I’ve been lucky to witness the building of this lovely green oak structure, which will be a summerhouse when finally completed. It’s designer, Roo, specializes in working with green oak and has a passion for traditional skills and sustainability.

The series of photos below show the stages of development so far – but do keep checking back, as I’ll be posting more images as the build develops. The finished structure will be octagonal in shape and complete with oak shingle roof and natural edge lap boarding on the sides.

All of the oak poles used for the framework, were sourced from a local woodland. There was a lot of preparation involved, since every one had to be de barked before assembly…

The mortise and tenon joints took a lot of working out, since there are no right angles or straight edges to work from! However, each piece fitted together perfectly and the framework appears very strong indeed…

Fitting a corner strut for added strength…

The top photo shows the build so far. There's an extension to construct at either end, which will give the octagonal shape - more photos will be coming soon...