- Thread starter stuwlam
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Matthew,
I've just read (some) of your blog. Hope everything keeps on track for you and your brother.
IMHO I think you are incredibly brave, and I hope everything goes well on the big day.
I just hope that if I ever had to do something similar, I could approach it with the humility and equanimity that you are displaying.
Phil
I've just read (some) of your blog. Hope everything keeps on track for you and your brother.
IMHO I think you are incredibly brave, and I hope everything goes well on the big day.
I just hope that if I ever had to do something similar, I could approach it with the humility and equanimity that you are displaying.
Phil
LadyArowana
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Ah yes, come to think of it Zebra is in the rather plush stables below the mews house, and Doug ( DJH ) is probably feeling well enough to be down the pub with Vicky.
All the very very best wishes Matthew, an extremely brave and selfless thing to do.
All the very very best wishes Matthew, an extremely brave and selfless thing to do.
Zebra
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Oh dear Stulam, a broken hind fetlock, very painful. You can have my stall on the ward though, I've been moved to the Outpatients paddock. The ward is definately mixed, I was in between a penguin and a llama.
Words fail me Matthew, what a selfless thing to do.
Words fail me Matthew, what a selfless thing to do.
One benefit of my broken ankle is that lying back with my leg in the air gives me the time to write my Blog post :lol: . So here is this weeks report, earlier than usual! Week eight..... http://oldlawnsrenovate.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-restoration-week-8.html
LadyArowana
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Zebra said:
I'm very glad you are on the mend, I take it the penguin and llama were not from this forum?
It's been a MASSIVE week in our restoration project - see the pics and read all about it here:
http://www.oldlawnsrenovate.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-restoration-week-nine.html?m=1
http://www.oldlawnsrenovate.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-restoration-week-nine.html?m=1
Feltwell
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Good stuff. I take it you know to keep linseed oil & paint well away from the seals on your new glazing units.
Zebra
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You have made good progress, you must be chuffed. And to know it's all been done properly, in the correct materials (that pointing looks great). Are you in a race to get in the dry before winter?
Zebra said:
Hi Zebra, thanks. We are in a bit of a race - main thing is to have all the windows in and the big wall grouted before the weather wins. So far we have been very fortunate and this week has another good forecast. The chimneys are also being partly rebuilt, so the scaffold still needs to extend upwards in the next few weeks. The house will be lime washed when all the work is complete but I'm sure that will have to wait till next year as the frost will finally beat us. Lime plasterers are here this morning so we should get our kitchen back to normal (almost) this week
plasticpigeon
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Looks very nice. Why are you going to limewash the house???
JoceAndChris
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Glad you're going to limewash it, that will cover over all the damage, new bits, and un matching brick/stone. Not sure it would ever have been naked as it is today.
Great work, couldn't sleep last night and enjoyed your blog. I envy how easily the cement came off yours! All a massive labour of love but how satisfying to get the house functioning well.
Windows look a bit of a compromise style wise, I guess you aren't listed? Nice to have the triple glazing though.
Great work, couldn't sleep last night and enjoyed your blog. I envy how easily the cement came off yours! All a massive labour of love but how satisfying to get the house functioning well.
Windows look a bit of a compromise style wise, I guess you aren't listed? Nice to have the triple glazing though.
plasticpigeon
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Would external brickwork have been limewashed??? I know it is all down to personal preference, but it would seem surprising to me to go to the trouble of building brick arches and quoins and the like and then painting over them, especially as brickwork is durable without a covering. I have to admit that I am a fan of not covering up brickwork (obviously a house like Joce's was always rendered and looks very beautiful for it) but painted brickwork often looks a little strange to me.
plasticpigeon
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posted another by mistake
JoceAndChris
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No black and white answers to that question pp!
But it does always astonish me how fancy things were in previous centuries that were meant never to be seen - lots of examples here from the brick vaulted kitchen to the lovely arches of the wine cellar and even the vaulted rainwater chamber that you can't even see down. The many many layers of limewash show that they did not see the bare brick as an acceptable finish, though in the 80s it has been picked back.
Exterior bare brick is common, of course, and lots of lovely examples abound - from Queen Anne styles to present day. But where buildings were added to and there was a clash between the stone earlier parts and later brick parts render was frequently used to consolidate the two. And where cement render is picked off nowadays to let the building breathe the underneath can be so pitted and spalled and woebegone it's best to cover it again with a breathable render.
On the rubble stone walls of the middle classes render was used to emulate the more expensive ashlar found on high status buildings, it was scored and painted to look like stone. Rubble stone was considered a rough, low status, finish and was simply painted by poorer folk who couldn't or didn't want to go to the trouble of render.
This means that the many many examples of hotch potch brick and stone houses we see presented nakedly have no foundation in any kind of architectural truth, convention, or authenticity. Home owners may see that as wholly inconsequential, but the cognoscenti will either sneer or quietly huff and puff about it, and wish lime renders and plasters were more widely known.
But it does always astonish me how fancy things were in previous centuries that were meant never to be seen - lots of examples here from the brick vaulted kitchen to the lovely arches of the wine cellar and even the vaulted rainwater chamber that you can't even see down. The many many layers of limewash show that they did not see the bare brick as an acceptable finish, though in the 80s it has been picked back.
Exterior bare brick is common, of course, and lots of lovely examples abound - from Queen Anne styles to present day. But where buildings were added to and there was a clash between the stone earlier parts and later brick parts render was frequently used to consolidate the two. And where cement render is picked off nowadays to let the building breathe the underneath can be so pitted and spalled and woebegone it's best to cover it again with a breathable render.
On the rubble stone walls of the middle classes render was used to emulate the more expensive ashlar found on high status buildings, it was scored and painted to look like stone. Rubble stone was considered a rough, low status, finish and was simply painted by poorer folk who couldn't or didn't want to go to the trouble of render.
This means that the many many examples of hotch potch brick and stone houses we see presented nakedly have no foundation in any kind of architectural truth, convention, or authenticity. Home owners may see that as wholly inconsequential, but the cognoscenti will either sneer or quietly huff and puff about it, and wish lime renders and plasters were more widely known.
plasticpigeon
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JoceAndChris said:
Ok. Where do you get info about this from??? I'm not a fan of exposed brick walls inside, or exposing very rough brick or stone, but on my travels through Warwickshire to work, I see rural villages of charming but humble brick houses of many different ages, and to me one thing that spoils the look of a house or a street is when there are random painted or rendered houses, usually painted white which quickly looks dirty. I always think how much nicer it would be if they were returned to brick/stone. I know some houses were built to be rendered, either scored to look like ashlar, or with added fancy stucco, or pebble dashed, but I also get the impression that the underlying masonry was probably not to a standard to be shown.
JoceAndChris
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Well, each house or street is different. There can't be black and white rules about it. I'd hate to see every nice nineteenth C brick built house rendered over, and am really talking about cases where it looks a mess. For example I've just driven through Gt Gonerby where rubble stone cottages that were never meant to be exposed have been stripped to nakedness and had the facade extended upwards in brick, probably to create a taller living space within, and other bits tacked on; it looks a proper mess, and needs a lime render.
As for where the knowledge about architecture comes from, quite simply from books by architects about period architecture. My interest in the subject was started off by this forum and the great debates we've had on this subject over the years. Getting English Heritage involved in my own project, and also plasterers like Phillip Gache, who lectures in historic plastering, reveals a lot of dismay at how much wrongful stripping is going on. Then I'm also a member of a couple of architectural groups on The Other Place and I'm afraid they do rather a lot of posting up of pictures of other people's houses and sneering at what's been done.
When you go round and see plastering rendering and lime washing done properly, taking into account how buildings would have looked, like Plas Mawr in Wales, it really is a joy to behold.
But I can't claim to be any kind of expert and am just grateful to this forum for stopping BC looking like granny in her knickers.
As for where the knowledge about architecture comes from, quite simply from books by architects about period architecture. My interest in the subject was started off by this forum and the great debates we've had on this subject over the years. Getting English Heritage involved in my own project, and also plasterers like Phillip Gache, who lectures in historic plastering, reveals a lot of dismay at how much wrongful stripping is going on. Then I'm also a member of a couple of architectural groups on The Other Place and I'm afraid they do rather a lot of posting up of pictures of other people's houses and sneering at what's been done.
When you go round and see plastering rendering and lime washing done properly, taking into account how buildings would have looked, like Plas Mawr in Wales, it really is a joy to behold.
But I can't claim to be any kind of expert and am just grateful to this forum for stopping BC looking like granny in her knickers.
JohnB
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Here's one house that will be getting a few coats of limewash at the very least, regardless of how it was originally finished! This is brick, block and stonework "improvements" the way the Welsh (or at least one Welshman) did it in the late 1960s :shock:. Every window and door opening has been changed, and the new work done with cement mortar! It's a fascinating archaeological exercise though, wondering what I'm going to uncover next .
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