Oak & Steel Covered Pavilion

A rear garden with two problems: tired timber decking that had reached the end of its life, and block paving that had never drained properly.

The paving

Both the decking and its subframe were lifted and removed, along with the existing block paving to the seating area. The ground was reduced and excavated, then built back up correctly — compacted MOT Type 1 sub-base, followed by a full sharp sand and cement bedding system suitable for porcelain.

Around 35m² of porcelain was laid across the former deck footprint and the main patio at the back, set to falls so surface water runs away rather than sitting on the slabs. Edges were haunched and secured, and the whole area finished in exterior porcelain grout.

A separate run of roughly 10m² took the narrow side path from the house to the garage. Here the fall matters more than anywhere: it is set deliberately away from the house, and finished with a shingle French drain so water is taken away rather than delivered to the wall.

The concrete path to the front and side was demolished and taken away, then rebuilt from the ground up with the correct build-up beneath it, and the same grey porcelain carried across the front of the house. That was another 35m², and considerably harder work than the rear: far more cuts, and every one of them visible.

Charcoal borders were set into every paved area, front, side and back. A border does two things — it frames each section so the eye reads it as a deliberate shape rather than a field of slabs, and it gives every cut a clean edge to die into. It is slow, and it is the difference between paving that looks laid and paving that looks designed.

The frame

Over the former decking area we built a 3m x 3m covered pavilion, sized and set out to take an outdoor kitchen in a later phase. The original quotation offered a pre-fabricated softwood frame, with an option to upgrade to a hardwood frame cut to exact dimensions. The client took the upgrade, and the structure that stands there is ours: an oak and steel hybrid frame, designed in-house, made by us and hand cut.

It is a bespoke size, built to fit the space it stands in. A kit arrives in whatever dimensions the manufacturer settled on and the garden has to accommodate it. This was measured off the site and cut to suit, which is why it sits where it does without an awkward margin anywhere around it.

The roof is a pyramid hip, which is the part that takes the skill. Four faces meet at a single apex, and every rafter is a compound cut — the angles change with both the pitch and the plan. There is no way to order it in and no way to fudge it on site. It is cut to the drawing, dry-assembled, and adjusted until the four hips arrive together at the top.

We set the structure out, cast concrete foundations to the uprights and framed the roof.

The roof, and working alongside another trade

Everything above the frame was carried out by DT Roofing, an excellent local firm. Dan and his team did an outstanding job — the detailing, the leadwork, and a bespoke concealed gutter made to serve the run between the pavilion and the garages, which is a genuinely difficult junction and now simply does not announce itself.

Two trades working to the same programme on the same structure is where jobs usually come unstuck. This one did not. The frame was set out to suit his coursing and he worked to our tolerances, and the result is a roof that looks like it was always part of the building. We are happy to say plainly that the roof is his work.

Cedar hardwood slatted screening panels were fitted for shelter and privacy, with mitred ends. A mitre at the end of a slat run means the end grain never shows — every slat closes into the corner instead of stopping at it. Nobody points at it, and it is the reason the screen reads as a piece of joinery rather than a fence.

This is the kind of structure most landscapers buy in as a kit. Doing it ourselves is slower and costs more, and it is the reason the finished building sits with the house rather than looking like something delivered on a pallet.

The pavilion is complete. The outdoor kitchen it was built to house is a later phase — the visualisation shown here is the design it was set out for.