Fatfield Hall, Fatfield Washington.
Previously called Pipestrille House and recently re-named Fatfield House. This work was for a private client and was a conversion into a home. It was originally a barn and listed and it required some serious intervention.
ProjectThe works required drilling out of cement pointing from the beds and joints, grouting, removal of cement patch render, new stone lintels and corbels, a new roof and gutters, and finally a total re-point of the existing façade, but not before the Pipestrille
Photo [A] shows the serious settlement cracks probably due to flooding. The wall was stabilized and grouted from the bottom upwards. This took careful management of the grouting, and plugging of small holes near the areas was done to avoid spillage.
Cement is an impervious material and should not be used in the conservation or restoration of older or historic buildings, we now know today that stone units within a building need to breathe. Lime being more permeable than cement assists water to evaporate from the stone units taking any salts with it through the lime mortar joints. When these joints are
Photo [C] shows cement pointing. You can see by this photo the rapid acceleration of stone decay due to the impervious nature of the cement. Photo [D] shows this cement pointing carefully removed and re-pointed with the appropriate lime mortar mix.
Photo [E] shows the extent of the cement pointing and render to the face of the wall on this elevation, and photo [F] shows the careful removal of this cement and properly restored using lime mortar, prolonging the life of the stone.
The roof of this property also benefited from a full replacement using as much of the original slates as possible. New corbels and coping stones were also replaced as they were so badly damaged or did not exist at all. The roof timbers were sprayed with appropriate chemicals to preserve them.
Created: 18/05/2010 - [Team Force Restoration Ltd © 2010]