Ash Road
RETROFIT, DESIGN + BUILD
Our whole house retrofit and renovation transformed this property into a warm, open-plan space. Our client Laura was looking to modernise and significantly extend her grandparents family home, which was suffering from endemic damp and was in desperate need of structural repair.
Warm sustainable living
Laura wanted to transform the interior of the property into a warm, light-filled modern space. Walls and floors were insulated with natural insulation while feature windows and a huge lightbox in the new extension above the kitchen helped to fill this home with warmth and light. We built the kitchen from local and sustainably sourced ash, with reclaimed elements such as the Belfast sink. Throughout the property original features were preserved alongside new modern touches and a new two storey timber frame extension.
Solving endemic damp
We striped the whole of the interior of the house back to fundamentals, solving an endemic damp problem at the front of the house by removing the old unbreathable cement render and letting the wall completely dry out while fixing the leaking drain. We then replastered with lime and painted the walls with natural zero VOC clay paint.
New roof and windows
We completely re-roofed the main house, taking off the old rotten rafters and replacing them with a new timber structure that was optimised in design for a future loft conversion.
New sustainably sourced and locally made timber double glazed windows and doors significantly improved the thermal performance of the property and comfort levels to residents.
Large two storey extension
The single biggest focus on our work at Ash Road was a large two storey extension at the rear of the property which added an open-plan kitchen/diner on the ground floor and a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor.
We dug the foundations for the new extension by hand due to access restrictions and a very cramped site. We used minimal concrete and optimised the foundations for ground disturbance by using pads and an in-situ cast ring beam.
Lime render, restored Bath stone
The exterior of the property was finished with lime render and lime wash, materials which work brilliantly with the original solid wall brick construction as well as the new timber frame extension. We also oversaw work by a specialist local contractor to restore the damaged Bath stone at the front of the property.
