They say that fashion trends in cycles, fades out, and then eventually comes back into style..

 

Once upon a time, it would have been something special, very uncommon and unaffordable (for most people) to go to the trouble to render plaster over a stone built house of this size, or any house at all, in fact. A hundred years ago or more, somebody rather wealthy and fashionable did exactly that to this property. For decades after, this building would have gleamed both, bold and bright, looking very beautiful against the blue sky and green landscape where it is located, near St Austell in Cornwall. And, it would have been very noticeable indeed.

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Today, however, we see render everywhere. Yes, pretty, but much more common, therefore, less impressive. The reason being, is that modern construction methods and materials have changed over the years with the goal of creating buildings which are better insulated, quicker to build, and damp resistant. One of the main building materials which we now commonly use to erect our cavity wall masonry structures here in the UK, is the 'concrete block'.

 

We build with concrete blocks where possible, because of the reduced amount of time required in man hours, to erect these masonry walls, when compared to building with bricks and / or stone. Which, in turn, equates to cheaper labour costs. Concrete blocks are also cheaper to manufacture than bricks and stone. The downside of building with blocks, is that, compared with bricks and stone, a block wall is rather unsightly hence, 'the rendered block wall finish' which is far prettier. Some blocks can also be quite porous and so, a coat of render is often required to 'waterproof' the external side of the block wall and prevent moisture ingress into the building.

 

Modern 'through colour' renders are beautiful in their own right. They have many qualities and are a far superior product when compared to the traditional cement and lime renders of the past. Some of the benefits are that, there is no need for painting as they come pre-coloured in a variety of colours as standard, they are breathable, which helps with lowering humidity levels inside and therefore, limiting the internal mould growth throughout the inside of the building. They are relatively easy to apply which helps reduce labour costs and they only require a good pressure wash as maintenance, once every couple of years - which will keep the walls looking fresh! ​​

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Now, back to stonework and the present day.. Ironically, to have a wall built from natural stone is a very expensive process indeed. By far in fact, the most expensive way to build a modern house. From the initial mining of the stone, to the cutting and shaping of it into smaller, usable pieces. The 'dressing' of the stones to make them fit the modern house deign (cavity wall structure), to the manual handling, sizing, grading, laying and traditional (flush) jointing of the stonework. These are all elements which contribute to increased man hours and higher build costs. A hundred years ago or more when we were building stone houses as 'solid wall structures' there was far less cutting and shaping of the stones to be done. Simply because there was no cavity, and no insulation built into the fabric of the walls. Even though more stones were used to build the houses, the process still would have been less timely, due to the fact that the houses were less complicated to build. All of these extra costs far outweigh that of brickwork and block work structures, with rendered finishes. Which, in turn result in fewer natural stone houses being built, making them more desirable and prestigious to own, due to their rarity.

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Whilst working on our renovation project down in St Austell, it was requested by our clients to "repair and restore the external face of the building". We gave them their basic options but concluded that without further investigation into the condition of the structure underneath the cement render, that we couldn't yet advise them to the best of our knowledge. We agreed to carefully remove a discreet patch of the contaminated plaster to discover a beautiful, cream coloured, granite stone construction, which lay hidden below for all of those years. Our clients and I were delighted with the discovery and in this moment they excitedly asked us to continue to remove all of the existing render, repair and restore the stonework and bring this building back to its original glory. I replied "Yes, of course! Let's add some more period features along the way and make this building something special".

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The finished product turned out to be something special indeed.

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Restoration Work Included:

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• Removal of cement render which surrounded the entire building

• Raking out all mortar joints of the stonework in preparation for lime pointing

• Lime mortar repointing all of the newly exposed stonework

• Removing and rebuilding areas of damaged stonework throughout

• Installation of reclaimed granite stone, stooled, window sills 

• Removal and replacement of brick window and door surrounds with a better quality, reclaimed cream brick

• Installation of real oak lintels to form the new window and door heads

• Dismantle and rebuilding of two chimney stacks using the original bricks

• Replace the roof covering using the original 'Delabole' slates and reclaimed ridge tiles

• New uPVC sash windows

• Reclaimed hardwood front door.