And it did sound like a load of old drivel any way but then I'm a craftsman of tangible things and not fancy words or even words for that matter! So, I suppose I'm going to end up writing even more old tosh. I came down to Bath in 1984 and worked on restoring the Georgian houses around the city and in between nipping off doing private work for customers travelling around in my van and setting up shop in people's garages, If you look at the pine Kitchen photo, I made that in the clients garage by hand.
New doors and windows fitted made from idigbo which is very good against rot but you do need to give it two coats of aluminium primer or something like Zinsser cover stain to prevent bleeding coming through, I thin the primer down by 10% to make it flow better but I then give it a second coat, thats not what it says do on the tin but after ringing the technical dept and explaining about the thickness and how horrible it was to use he said it was a good idea with two coats, it also sinks into the timber more rather than sit on top.
Steelworks and RSJ's are an essential part of modern building practices these day but they look so awful in older cottages I came up with a way to clad the steel beam using real oak planks, glued together in such a way as to create the appearance of a solid oak beam. Sometimes I will make metal straps and apply polyurethane and earth pigments to imitate old rusty straps, these straps are a great way to hide joins especially when the beam is long as shown in the photo's. In certain situations I will make fake joints to imitate a second beam at 90 degrees to another as in the photo above, this also provides interest in long expanses of wood.
The Chapel at Rudge 1839 There are many companies on the internet that claim to restore windows back to there original state but I've yet to find any that seem. Restoring the chapel doors in Rudge These doors look pretty terrible and some might think there only good for fire wood, even the client set fire to the right side. I'm bias but wooden joinery may be a pain to maintain but looks 100% better than this, certainly on a cottage anyway New doors and windows fitted made from idigbo. House in Bath Street This listed house in Frome was a completely different kettle of fish, the window completely through me when I started work.
