Advice & Guidance

Understanding the value of heritage is as important as technical conservation and an understanding of traditional materials. Heritage values are often perceived as soft and intangible, this makes them vulnerable and difficult to hold on to when a project comes under pressure from more recognisable project issues such as budgets and ease of construction.

When projects encounter difficulties during the planning stage, it is often as a result of an inability to recognise and engage with the 'soft' heritage values. This gives rise to delays, additional costly redesign work and a great deal of frustration. An understanding of heritage values at an early stage, could reduce or remove many of these barriers and result in a better outcome for all.

Ashlar stonework was designed to provide a smooth polished surface to walls. The mortar joints joists were built to be very thin, almost invisible, only a couple of millimetres wide. It required great skill and craftmanship to achieve such a high degree of accuracy.

It may look like a plain stone wall, but the internal working of stone masonry is pretty complex. Anyone considering adding insulation to stone walls needs to tread carefully.

What you see from the ground is often deceptive, its only when you get up close with a scaffold that you really get a feel for the condition of your property. Areas that looked solid from the ground have often been forgotten about for decades, while the weather has taken is toll. Often only patch repairs are carried out, to reduce costs, but this can only ever be a temporary solution.

Eventually someone will have to sort it all out.

Climate change is affecting us all , but in unexpected ways. It not all about warmer temperatures and fitting more insulation. For our traditional buildings it can be simpler and more dramatic than that.