Circular brick window with steel star glazing bars set into a rebuilt red brick elevation, with scaffolding still up alongside.

Domestic — Heritage

Heritage and Listed Building Work

We are a heritage-approved contractor, so we can take on the buildings that need one: listed buildings, churches, country houses and period homes in conservation areas. This is careful work rather than fast work, and it is priced that way, because the wrong approach does damage that is expensive to undo.

Book a site visit Call 01883 337 700

Buildings that need a heritage-approved contractor

Listed buildings — Where listed building consent decides what can change, inside as well as out.

Country houses — Historic houses and their outbuildings, often lived in while the work goes on.

Period homes in conservation areas — Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses and older cottages.

How we protect the building

Every heritage job starts with a survey of what is there and the condition it is in, before anything is priced. Where consent is needed, the approach is agreed with the council's conservation officer before work starts. Materials are matched to the original — lime mortar rather than cement, and timber repaired rather than replaced wherever it can be — and everything that is staying is protected while the work goes on around it. Method statements and risk assessments are written job by job, because no two old buildings are the same.

Examples

Heritage

A run of freshly painted white timber windows with glazing bars on a period bay, seen from the scaffold boards alongside.

A run of arched multi-pane timber windows on a period building, newly painted white beneath a curved lead roof, seen from the scaffold alongside.

Whitewashed brick fills the panels between the studs, and the floor is worn brick paving laid in courses.

A run of braced trusses carries the gallery roof, with plastered panels between the studs and boards underfoot.

One stone lintel does for the whole mantel, with a metal canopy hung over the open fire.

The iron candle ring hangs on chains under collar trusses and curved wind braces.

Past a blur of dark timbers: dry-stone walling, a boarded ceiling on beams, a lit woven pendant.

Two brick stacks rise through a sweep of clay peg tiles over rendered infill panels.

Moss has covered most of the thatch. Under the eaves, brick and stone fill the black frame.

How it works

Survey

We come out, measure up and talk through what you actually need, before anything is priced.

A price for the job

An itemised written quote once we have seen it, so you can see what each part costs.

The work

We manage every trade on the job, with one of our surveyors running it throughout.

Handover

Finished, signed off and cleared up, with the certificates that go with the work.

Book a site visit

Common questions

Q.01Do I need listed building consent?

If the building is listed, almost any change that affects its character needs consent, inside as well as out. We check what applies at survey and agree the approach with the conservation officer.

Q.02Do you work on churches?

Yes: roofs, stonework, joinery and interiors, worked around services and the people who use the building.

Where we serve heritage sites

We work within about ten miles of our Godstone office, covering the key towns below and the villages around each of them. Not sure if we can reach you? Call the office on 01883 337 700 or send us a message.

Planning work on a period home?

Tell us what you are thinking and we will come and look at it.

Book a site visit Call 01883 337 700

Any questions?