Hello everyone
I'm glad to find this very interesting site. I didn't know such a thing existed.
I'm happy to lurk away in the background, but I'll try to add something useful if the opportunity arises, and I hope to learn a bit too.
I'm in private practice as a consultant, but I've managed a portfolio of 130 old buildings for a state National Trust, and I've worked in heritage conservation in the UK and the USA.
My qualifications are in architecture, but I practise in Adelaide as a heritage consultant.
A lot of my work is the restoration of building facades but I do internal work as well, either restoration or original finishes and elements or sympathetic modernisation or extensions. It's very satisfying work.
To give you some idea of what I do, below is a 'before' shot of a facade renovation presently underway. The house is covered in stucco, the verandah is missing and the front window has been replaced with the 1960's 'picture window'. There's serious rising damp in all front walls, and the roof needs replacing. Click on the pics to enlarge them.
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅
Below again is the current state of work. Under the stucco we found some very high quality ashlar bluestone masonry ( 'bluestone' in Adelaide is actually a kind of slate, sedimentary not volcanic like the bluestone of the farther east. ). I found a good (salvage) match for the remaining window, some more bluestone and some 63mm x 230mm sandstock bricks (modern clay bricks are 76mm x 230mm).
The 1960's picture window was removed and the whole front wall was rebuilt using the salvage materials and all the masonry work was repointed and relined. The roof was replaced with corrugated galvanised iron.
I don't always do this but in this case because the purlins were in good nick and we wanted a very original look, the roof was fastened with original style springhead nails (which don't make little dark dots like tek screws do) and all the joints in the gutters and downpipes were soldered rather than siliconed and riveted.
Still to come is the rebuilt verandah, the 'acroteria' or 'indians' on the corners of the gutters and a few other bits and pieces, such as the picket fence. As I said, it's very satisfying work.
Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅