Oak & Clay is a timber frame company in central Virginia. Home is Charlottesville, Nelson County, and Hanover / the Richmond side, plus the Lake Anna / Louisa–Goochland piedmont. We also take custom work in Northern Virginia. Those are places we work, not branch shops. There is one company. Custom work is site-specific. Kits can ship farther than we raise.
If you're looking for a timber frame in those places — a kit, a custom building, a porch, or a set of drawings — this is the honest map. We will travel for custom work when the job is right. We will not pretend to be local to a town we visit twice a year.
What we do here
Custom frames: mortise-and-tenon, hand or CNC, pegged. Houses, barns, pavilions, saunas, additions, timber accents. Species we name: Douglas Fir, White Oak, Yellow Cedar, Cypress. We prefer local and regional timber.
Kits: the live kit is the Nelson Cottage, a 20′ × 24′ king-post frame with a loft, named for Nelson County in the foothills west of Charlottesville, starting at $38,780. A kit can ship. Raising it is a separate conversation.
Drafting: permit, shop, and piece drawings for architects, GCs, other framers, and DIY owners. That work is not limited to central Virginia.
Raising: we coordinate the day. In central Virginia we can be there. In Northern Virginia, and farther out, we'll tell you whether travel makes sense or whether your builder should raise from our drawings.
How the region actually works
Central Virginia is not one climate, one soil, or one building official. A pad near Lake Anna is not a lot in Nelson. A Richmond-side infill porch is not a farm pavilion in Albemarle. Northern Virginia is another set of counties, another set of officials, and usually a tighter site. We treat the site as the site. That's why we ask for county, access, and any drawings before we talk price.
We named the Nelson Cottage for Nelson County because that's the country the frame was imagined for — friends who wanted a mountain getaway in the foothills west of Charlottesville. The kit is not only for Nelson. It is a Virginia kit, and it can go on a foundation wherever the owner and the county will have it.
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia is a market we want to serve: custom frames, raisings, additions, and drafting, not a second homepage. We do not keep a shop or office there. If the site is in NOVA, say so in the first note. We'll tell you whether we travel for the raising or draft it for a local crew.
How to find us
There isn't a showroom in each of those places, and we don't publish a shop address. The public line is the footer: Oak & Clay · Central Virginia · (434) 305-2062.
If a site visit is useful, we set it after we've talked. Call or write first.
Who should write
Homeowners, architects, and GCs in central Virginia and in Northern Virginia. DIY owners. Framers who need drawings. People farther away who want a kit or a custom frame we're willing to travel for. If you're not sure you fall inside the travel line, say where the site is. That's an easier question than a fake service radius.
Start with contact. Tell us the site, the structure, the timeline, and whether you have drawings.
(434) 305-2062 · craft@oakandclay.com
Also: craft · kits · Nelson Cottage