Listed Building Renovation & Heritage Contractors in Somerset

Our approach to listed building renovation in Somerset begins with understanding the building - its construction, its materials & the way it has weathered over time.

We repair rather than replace wherever the original fabric allows, matching materials carefully & keeping interventions as light as the building will permit. Renovation work is sequenced so that structure, weathertightness & services are resolved before finishes, giving a historic property a sound, lasting basis for everyday family living.

New work can sit comfortably alongside a historic building when it is carefully detailed & honestly constructed.

We build listed building extensions & alterations to the design & consents agreed for the project, working alongside the architects, conservation officers & heritage consultants appointed to it. Our role is delivery: sourcing materials that read correctly, detailing junctions between old & new with care, & building to the standard the building deserves. We do not provide planning or heritage advice ourselves, but we are used to working within its constraints.

Historic walls need to breathe. We carry out stonework repairs, rebuilding & repointing using lime mortars & traditional techniques suited to the original construction.

That includes raking out inappropriate cement pointing, matching stone & mortar colour & texture to what is already there, & repairing masonry so the finished work is difficult to distinguish from the original. On our Widcombe project this extended to repointing stonework, damp proofing & carefully reinstating the surrounding paving so it blended with the existing.

Many historic buildings in Somerset need structural attention before anything else can begin.

Our teams have carried out underpinning, masonry stabilisation using helibars & resin, roof & chimney repairs & timber repairs on period & listed properties. At Thurloxton Manor we underpinned an entire end of a Grade II listed stable block to carry an additional storey; at Widcombe we underpinned the front corner of an 1830s country house & stabilised existing walls while retaining the original roof structure.

Joinery is where heritage work is most often won or lost, & it is made in our own workshop rather than bought in.

We design, make & install traditional sash & casement windows, timber doors, staircases & bespoke architectural joinery to suit each opening. At Widcombe our master joiner produced 38 individually measured windows - no two openings identical, several with arched heads - handcrafted in Accoya for durability & stability. At Thurloxton Manor the sash windows were made to match the existing building & suit its listed status.

Inside a period or listed home, quality of finish is everything.

We undertake plastering, joinery, panelling, flooring, kitchens, bathrooms & full internal reconfiguration, matching new work to old so rooms flow naturally. Exposed original features - a stone wall cleaned, raked out, repointed & sealed, or pine flooring matched between rooms - are treated as the focal points they are.

Improving the performance of a historic building has to be designed around its fabric, not imposed on it.

Insulation, airtightness & glazing upgrades all change how a building handles moisture, so each measure needs to suit the construction in front of it. Our Rectory project - a large Victorian property reconfigured & renovated towards the EnerPHit (Passivhaus retrofit) standard, with Ben certified in Passivhaus - shows how far this can be taken when the detailing is worked through with specialist consultants.

Heritage projects involve more people than most. We coordinate the trades & the programme, & work collaboratively with architects, structural engineers, heritage consultants, conservation officers & specialist subcontractors.

One experienced team managing the site means fewer gaps between disciplines, clearer decisions when something unexpected is uncovered, & a single point of contact for the client throughout.