Archive for year: 2017
One thing about beautiful, historic houses is that they can often be really, really cold.
As Brits, we are no strangers to wacking on the fire and arming ourselves with fluffy socks and a hot water bottle, but what happens when this simply isn’t enough?
When our client came to us with a brief to create a sustainable and well-insulated home in Broadhembury, we stepped up to the challenge.
They were concerned that it wouldn’t be possible to insulate the existing solid cob and stone walls, which were a large part of the property’s character and charm.
The property wasn’t listed so there was a bit of flexibility on altering the existing fabric, and with our experience of improving the energy performance of existing buildings and working with listed and historic properties, we were well placed to be able to advise.
This time however we wanted to take things a step further. How could we integrate technology usually used when designing new low energy homes on a historic solid wall building?
The emphasis was on creating a living breathing house with natural materials to improve the indoor air quality and create a natural, healthy home.
We suggested bringing on board Ann-Marie Fallon, a certified Passivhaus designer, to model the existing house using PHPP software. This is a time consuming business and involves the input of a lot of data to model the way the house performs now and how it would change following adaptations such as the addition of insulation.
This enabled us to investigate how we could insulate the property and best improve on its energy performance through the type of insulation, its position (internal or external) and thickness. The software also helped us check that no condensation would occur, which is a common concern when insulating solid walls.
The existing walls were a real challenge being constructed of a mixture cob at low level and solid stone at first floor. There was a lack of existing data available for the thermal capacity of cob, and Anne-Marie had to approach the BRE to find information to create her model. This was then used to predict how the house would behave with added insulation and calculate the potential energy savings. Using this data we calculated the optimum thickness of insulation to give our client the best energy saving at the most economical price, without compromising the historic fabric.
Our client was also keen to use triple glazing, and we agreed that it did offer worthy benefits for this project, although came at a higher price. We decided to use triple glazing on the north facing link corridor and high performance double glazing throughout the rest of the house. Drafts in older houses are one of the biggest issues for improving energy efficiency, so replacing the windows made a significant difference to the performance of the house.
For the walls, breathable wood fibre insulation was used internally on the first floor where there was a mixture of cob and stone. This had to be extended along the internal partition walls to prevent thermal bridging and condensation. Part of the existing house was built in the 1970’s and had a cavity wall construction. Here we used the wood fibre insulation externally.
The existing cement render was removed from all walls to enable them to breathe and lime render with small pieces of insulating cork used as the external finish to the older parts of the house, with a more standard lime render in other areas. Additionally, a new heating system was installed throughout powered by a wood pellet boiler and new underfloor heating laid in the new extension.
The design of the extension used an oak frame supplied by Carpenter Oak, which was wrapped in an airtight membrane and rendered in lime externally. This gave a stunning interior space for the kitchen dining room and beautiful spaces where the ‘old meets new’ in the north facing corridor.
So if anyone tells you that an old house can’t be made warm and cosy, while retaining its historical charm and sustainable vision then send them our way!
Today saw the completion of one of our favourite ever projects – the restoration of Staddon House in Walkhampton on the edge of Dartmoor National Park. Our clients, Sue & Geoff Edwards, bought Staddons back in 2014, and after a year negotiating planning consent and 14 months on site the building is now unrecognisable.
When they bought Staddons, Sue & Geoff understood they had taken on a challenge. Having previously restored a house in Cornwall and another in rural Italy, they weren’t under any illusion about the work that would be involved. What they didn’t realise however was that Staddons had much more waiting to be uncovered beneath it’s damp carpets and concrete rendered walls.
On his first visit to the site, Keith McKay the Conservation officer from Dartmoor National Park realised the building might be more than it first appeared. What everyone had assumed was just another Dartmoor Longhouse could actually be something else entirely. As a result the planning process had to be paused whilst archeologists were brought in to help piece together Staddon’s long and varied history and shed some light on how the building had been used.
A stunning Grand Medieval fireplace was uncovered behind the small victorian hearth, lumps of granite on the fireplace in the bedroom were confirmed as Medieval candle sconces. The most exciting news was the uncovering of a medieval beam in the roof space tarred with soot. From all this information it was clear that Staddons had once been a much higher status home and was likely much older than it first appeared. Possibly a high status Medieval Hall House with two storey chamber at one end – perhaps one of the first houses in the village.
The photos attached to this post show how the team at RM builders have brought this fabulous building back to life with the help of the consultants and the passion of the clients. A real team effort from all has lead to a successful result and a studding home.
Thanks to everyone from RM Builders in Tavistock, Rawlings joinery, DB Heating, D Farnham electrical, Devon Stone and Amos lighting for helping us with this amazing project. (Sorry if we missed you off list – we owe you a drink!)
Living Space Architects are based in Exeter, Devon and are specialists in building Conservation and the refurbishment and extension of Listed and Historic buildings. We enjoy working in a Modern Rustic style and introducing new contemporary elements into a historic setting. We work across the south west on refurbishment and restoration projects with a particular expertise working on projects in Dartmoor National Park, Teignbridge, East Devon, Mid Devon, West Devon and Somerset.
