Private House, Gwernaffield
Flintshire, UK
A young family purchased a Grade II listed building that once formed part of the Gwysaney Estate in Wales.
Despite the listing, the house had not been looked after. Externally, modern, low-quality, single-glazed windows and doors had been added, along with exposed concrete lintels. The doors and windows were rotting, and had gaps all round from bad installation.
An external store had been roofed over with concrete and corrugated metal. The chimney stacks had metal flues poking out of them, and were adorned with aerials and satellite dishes.
Internally, all the ground floors had been dug up and replaced with concrete floors finished with vinyl, ceramic tiles and carpet. All the internal walls had been parged with cement and skimmed with gypsum plaster. Damp was prevalent in the walls and floors.
The new owners wanted to sensitively restore this previously vacant building back into residential use in a manner that was sensitive to its historic character and appearance. At the same time, they wanted to improve the thermal performance of the building using traditional building materials in a manner more suited to the age of the property.
The new owners therefore planned to:
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replace the modern doors with ledged and braced doors
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replace the modern windows with flush timber casements with conservation double glazing, bedded and pointed in traditional putty
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refurbish historic windows
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replace the existing rooflights with smaller conservation rooflights
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remove the corrugated roof, blockwork and concrete steps to the external store and install a flat membrane roof with stone pavers and metal balustrade to form an external terrace to the living room
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reinstate a pentice roof to the east elevation; repoint any damaged stonework with lime mortar, removing any cement based render
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install wood burning stoves and associated flue liners for localised heat production
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remove the existing concrete floors at ground floor and replace with breathable foamglas insulation, lime screed and stone finish
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remove the existing concrete parging to the internal walls and replace with insulated lime and cork render, with breathable wood fibre to the external walls, finishing with breathable paint
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face the concrete block wall with snecked rubble stone
