About Jack oakley

I’ve been building for 30 years. Starting out carving timber, then working in building conservation and joinery/carpentry. I’ve been restoring period features and properties in Devon and the south west ever since. I’ve found so much satisfaction in repairing the degraded, the old and broken, it’s a way of working historically, adding life back to an object or architectural feature, knowing others in the past have also worked on the same pieces. We give up on the seemingly rotten and broken far too quickly. I believe there’s an unhealthy culture of ‘ripping out’ parts of a buildings fabric in the false belief that ‘new’ is better, when often the ‘new’ is made from substandard materials and to lower specifications.

We cannot really reproduce or fake the natural patina that age and time imparts to our buildings and their architectural features. That’s why restoration is so valuable. Good restoration maintains the warmth and history of our buildings for a long time in the future.

These days I live near Totnes and generally work in South and Central Devon and in Cornwall. I work on smaller jobs alone or with my team for larger projects.