House Extension, Burdrop, Oxfordshire

Overview

This house is fairly typical for listed stone rural properties where 2 or 3 smaller houses had been amalgamated over time to include a partial basement now 3 floors of living. Over its life a number of significant alterations and re-ordering works had taken place and as a result a number of areas needed to be re-visited and made good. The “barn” which was attached with a link roof was thatched and was in need of full re-thatching however with the high costs for the structural repairs and the re-thatching of this element of the building it had to become a viable usable space rather than a large outdoor garden store so the proposals included its conversion and re-use as an office/guest room.

All the works required careful discussion with the Conservation Officer to agree the various elements of repair and extension, one example of this is the glazed extension to the rear of the property which allows a Dining area into the garden and a more spacious kitchen area, but at the same time we re-built and re-established the internal corner masonry to help define the main house more clearly, this have been lost with inserted windows and doors. The house also included an extension to house a large Plant Room area for Ground Source heating which was included in the works with new underfloor heating laid throughout the building replacing the existing concrete floors.

Having had previous experience of thatching in Norfolk and other parts of Oxfordshire I used my working knowledge to help to prepare the repair schedules for the barn roof which was re-thatched in new straw thatch over a fully repaired structure. Like many farm buildings the roof beams truss diagonal members were pairs of split branches with twists and bark still on them which we retained where sound and replaced with like for like timber where the purlins had failed or were undersized for the job.

Historic windows to the front of the building were repaired by a specialist window company retaining the crown glass and replacing lost wrought handles where time had replaced these with modern alternatives.

All stone repairs and new stone works were undertaken with local Hornton stone and lime mortar to a mix to copy the original fines and granular mix. All cement mortar was removed. A new garage building was added with PV panels to provide some positive offset generation for the Ground Source heat pump system.