Traditional Oak framed Buildings built under permitted development rights.

The traditional oak building for use as a car port, garage, office, garden room, gym, swimming pool enclosure etc. is a fairy well established principal of the type of outdoor garden buildings that can be erected under permitted development.

Most traditional oak buildings are real timber framed structures using oak posts and beams as the main support framework in the very real sense of the word. Most of these buildings are aimed at the higher end quality home market due to their higher costs and extensive use of natural materials formed in the traditional craftsmanship way.

Most manufacturers use green oak framing for their traditional oak buildings while other use the more expensive kiln dried oak which has the greater advantage of material stability.

The material of the detached garden building is pretty much irrelevant to permitted development rights and many home owners only select these more expensive oak garden buildings when formal Planning Consent is required. This becomes very relevant especially in rural locations where this type of oak framed timber building is usually more in character with the local area of a Conservation Area or a site within the AONB. Therefore the Planning Department can often dictate the way in the design of a detached garden building that requires formal Planning Permission.

Most detached traditional oak framed garden buildings have the appearance of old timber barns and it does not take long for the usual moss and weather staining to soften a new oak framed building into its rural environment.

However, some traditional oak framed timber garden buildings require steep pitched roofs if they are to fit in with the local context and design of other building on or near the application site which often means that the ridge height will exceed the 4M maximum height requirement forcing the scheme into formal planning permission.

Some homeowners would prefer to run the risk of being refused Planning for a design of building that they feel is more traditional and in keeping than compromise their requirements for a lesser design built to fall in line with the dimensional constraints for permitted development.

Therefore, some home owners who can afford the extra expenses of these quality traditional oak framed timber buildings are happy to incur the extra time and costs involved with running their preferred scheme through the lottery of the planning system first before accepting the PD compliant building as a last resort compromise.

For a diagram of the restrictions affecting detached garden rooms click here.