Refurbishment and period restoration

Sussex has a lot of old houses, and a lot of old houses that have been repaired with the wrong materials. Much of our restoration work is undoing what was done in the 1970s and 80s with cement and sealants, and putting the building back to something that works the way it was built to.

Old buildings work differently

A modern house keeps water out. A solid-walled older house lets water in and lets it back out again, and everything about how it is repaired follows from that.

Repoint a solid wall in hard cement and the wall can no longer breathe. Moisture that used to escape through the mortar goes through the brick or the stone instead, and when it freezes the face spalls off. The mortar survives and the brickwork is destroyed. Lime mortar is deliberately softer than the masonry around it, so it takes the damage and the brick does not. The same logic applies to plasters and to paint: gypsum and modern masonry paint trap moisture in a wall that needs to dry outwards.

This is also why so much “rising damp” in old houses turns out to be a cement render, a raised path or a blocked gully rather than anything rising at all.

What we take on

• Brick, flint and stone repair, and repointing in lime
• Lime plastering and limewash
• Structural repairs: bowed walls, failed lintels, cracked and spread masonry
• Rot and beetle damage in timber frames, floors and roofs
• Roof repairs and re-covering, including peg tile and slate
• Chimney rebuilding, repointing and flashings
• Full house renovations, including houses bought to be done up

Listed buildings and conservation areas

Listed building consent is a separate application from planning permission, and it is needed for internal alterations as well as external ones, which catches people out. Conservation areas restrict permitted development rights, so work that would be automatic elsewhere needs an application.

In practice a conservation officer wants to see that a repair has been specified sympathetically, that original fabric is being retained where it can be, and that replacement is a last resort rather than a first move. We are used to that conversation and to working to it.

Ditchling sits inside the South Downs National Park, so applications there go to the National Park Authority rather than Mid Sussex District Council, and policy is tighter.

Repair rather than replace

The cheapest thing to do with a rotten window is usually not to buy a new one. Splicing in new timber where a cill has gone is slower per hour and considerably cheaper overall than replacing a whole sash, and it keeps the glass and the joinery that give the house its character. We will tell you when something genuinely is beyond saving. Most of the time it is not.

Working across Cuckfield, Lindfield, Ditchling, East Grinstead and the wider Sussex villages.