We use larch for our garden buildings, it is a softwood and great for outdoor use. There is a long tradition of using larch for external use for landscaping, cladding, joinery and structures like ours.

The UK! Our logs are sourced locally to us in the south of England an will mill them into timber on our own sawmill. No imports means we keep our products carbon footprint as low as possible.

No, Larch does great outdoors on its own and will last decades which is why we use it. This means we don’t have to pressure treat the wood and affect the look and colour, no unnatural greens or browns.

Like nearly all timbers it will fade in the sun to a silvery grey. It you prefer the fresh sawn brighter colour you can use a clear UV protection oil. This becomes a yearly or by-yearly job but will keep the frame looking fresh.

The post will last much longer if they are kept above ground away from damp, even slightly. This means they cannot sit directly on the earth but if you have a patio that doesn’t have standing water when it rains or decking this would be suitable and are usually what the frames sit on. If you don’t currently have anything then you will need a concrete post pad, paver or similar.

Mostly no, our gazebos and pergola will stay in place with their own weight and the knee braces on the corners of the openings. Depending on the size and area we may recommend that post shoes are used to fix down our canopy gazebos.

This depends on a few factors. The main questions to answer are, where your house is? You may live in a more restrictive area like and area of outstanding natural beauty.

Where on the property the building is going? Most of our buildings are going in the back garden which is more likely to be a permitted development.

What is the height and size of building? There are limits on building size compared to you total property and height restrictions depending on how close your boundary is.

Check out the Planning Portal, they have a good guide.

This depends on what you are going for, our felt shingle gazebos have a 175mm overhang for example but this is different for other designs and the pergolas. Check for your particular frame.

Maybe! Timber is a natural product and there is a possibility of movement. The most common form is caused by tangential shrinkage in the posts. The outside of the timber dries quicker than the middle causing tension and sometimes a split. Whether this happens at all or to what degree depends on the piece of timber itself, the time of year the frame is erected and it’s exposure to the sun.

This is why it is the posts that are most commonly affected as they are in the sun more.

But hey! The will still look great so why not embrace the process.