It was established that much of the walls were unstable and had to be rebuilt. On dismantling, the stones were so friable that they crumbled in our hands. There were not enough usable stones we could use to rebuild.
Reinforced lime concrete beams were cast in a continuous beam over ground floor windows and doorways to stabilize the walls. We then used mass thermolite blocks with lime mortar to repair and tie in to the existing walls which had the added benefit of lightening the load of the remaining ground floor walls. The thermolite blocks were rendered with lime and the remaining stone walls were pointed by trowelling on and brushing off lime mortar, as the joints were too small to point individually.
We tried to re-use as many of the original materials and features, such as relaying the slate floor and the cobbles in the courtyard.
Materials brought in included reclaimed wide floor boards from a Victorian warehouse, local green oak for lintels and rag slate for the cottage roof. To gain enough height in the first floor, we had to use a steel ridge beam to support the rafters.
Interesting features include the two storey fire place which is overlooked from a window in the bedroom above the lounge. The original joists were built in between the new structural joists as a reminder of the past.
