Works Carried Out at The Round House, Stoke Gabriel

In this renovation project for a private client in Stoke Gabriel, which we were working on for several months, we were tasked with carrying out the following:

Phase 1

Roadside Elevation

A full repoint to the roadside

The house had a lack of maintenance for at least 25 years and was well past some TLC.

The pointing to the majority of the façade had been washed out by rain, frost, and natural erosion.

This part of the property was the oldest part of the building with a small portion of the roadside having been constructed in an earthen/lime mortar. This was present to around 1.5 metres above ground level.

Partial dismantling and reconstruction of the roadside

A section of the guttering and downpipe was not positioned correctly, allowing water to travel down behind the guttering and downpipe washing the mortar out of the wall, reducing the strength of the wall leading to bulging in the wall. Without intervention, this would have led to a partial collapse of the roadside.

We photographed and numbered the stones. This was then temporarily propped and carefully dismantled and toothed out the stonework. While reconstruction was being carried out, a couple of the stones were relocated, removing straight joints from the façade. This provided additional strength to the structure.

Removal of friable stones

A number of stones were either replaced or temporarily removed from the façade due to the lack of mortar remaining in it. These were fixed back into place prior to carrying out a full repoint of the façade.

Lintel replacement

The lintel to the first-floor window was very rotten with dry rot and woodworm, resulting in little bearing remaining on either end of the lintel.

The lintel was supporting a roof truss, so temporary propping supported the truss during removal and replacement. Seasoned Oak lintels were sourced from Kenmart.

Before...

(roadside with the bulging section behind the downpipe)

After...

Rear Elevation

Partial repointing to the façade

A specialist contractor was brought in to stabilise numerous parts of the building with a helical beam system, and to tie the two leaves of the facades together with a helical bar.

We then carried out partial repointing to the areas where this was carried out. (This can be used as a conservation method to disguise the fact that structural stabilisation has been carried out, but it also provides a more aesthetic finish to the works).

The corner of the rear façade was repointed due to an overflowing downpipe washing out the jointing.

Lintel replacement and arch stabilisation

An internal oak lintel positioned behind a brick arch was very rotten.

To access the lintel, the arch was temporarily dismantled and laid out on the scaffolding to place the bricks back in their positions later on.

The lintel was replaced by a concrete lintel, followed by reinstatement of the arch. The arches to the first-floor windows required some localised repointing, with certain joints requiring polyester resin to be injected in the back of them to stabilise the arches where necessary.

Before...

After...

Front Façade

Repointing

We carried out a full repoint to the façade. Again, as with the roadside, the pointing was washed out, or completely broken down.

Underpinning

The roof on this part of the building was not tied correctly and it pushed on the structure. Again, structural stabilisation was carried out with a helical beam system.

We then carried out underpinning after the stabilisation had been completed, in order to shore up the building.

Before...

After...