Understanding the Building Restoration Process

Building restoration aims to preserve the integrity and charm of ageing structures. Whether it’s a historic landmark or an older property, restoration maintains its original character while ensuring it meets contemporary standards. Before knowing the stages of restoring old buildings, let’s explore the common reasons behind building damage.

Major Causes of Building Damage

The prime causes of building damage are listed below:

1. Foundation issues
2. Water infiltration
3. Extreme weather
4. Lack of maintenance

What are the Stages in Building Restoration?

The stages of the building restoration process include:

1. Assessment: The professionals fully assess your building to determine the project scope. Usually, the process can take up to 3 to 4 weeks. After evaluating the condition of your building, the experts will come up with some recommendations.
2. Initial design: The evaluation will give the expert a foundation for their initial designs. The experts consult with stakeholders of the building while taking these factors into account:
3. Restoration goals
4. Materials
5. Safety, efficiency, and aesthetics
6. Suggested improvements
7. Detailed design: The final plan outlines the project details and the requirements that must be met. These requirements include structure, movement, infiltration, security, energy efficiency, maintenance, budget, etc.
8. Tendering: This stage involves inviting contractors to submit their bids. The contractor reviews the proposals and makes certain recommendations to the property owner.
9. Structural repairs: The experts reinforce or repair foundations, roofs, load-bearing walls, and other critical elements. Issues like subsidence, wood, or cracks must be fixed to ensure the building is safe and secure. Structural repairs can also involve waterproofing, strengthening, or sealing elements that have weakened over time.
10. Restoring architectural features: Building restoration preserves unique architectural features like windows, ornate mouldings, and facades. Original materials are repaired, cleaned, or restored wherever possible. The goal is to retain the building’s essence while adhering to current standards.

What’s the Significance of Building Restoration?

Building restoration comes with several benefits, as listed below:

1. It plays a significant hand in enhancing property aesthetics.
2. Building restoration also ensures a building’s structural integrity and reduces safety risks.

As you can understand, building restoration in Herefordshire is a complex process with several stages. Following the above steps can inject new life into an old structure.

M Salt Limited is a family firm that focuses on repairing and renovating protected and ancient buildings. We understand period buildings and realise that appropriate treatments must be implemented to preserve their beauty. Contact us.