Oak trusses for a restored barn in Normandy
Twenty-two long oak beams with honest character, chosen one by one to replace a collapsed eighteenth-century roof.
- Location
- Normandy, France
- Timber
- European oak
- Scope
- 22 hand-selected beams up to 9 m
- Year
- 2024
The brief
A restoration architect was rebuilding the roof of an eighteenth-century stone barn. The original trusses were beyond repair, and the new oak had to match their proportions, their straight grain and their slightly rustic surface.
The timber
Long, straight oak is rare. Our buyers walked the log yards of partner sawmills for three weeks before we had twenty-two beams up to nine metres long. Each one was sawn with the heart boxed in, as the old carpenters did, and documented with its region of origin.
The result
The beams were delivered green, as traditional joinery requires, and shaped on site with pegged mortise-and-tenon joints. The barn is now a home again, with its timber roof open to the room below.
