If you cast your mind back to last summer, you might recall that we started following renovations at an old, stone-walled terraced house in Appleby.
33a Chapel Street’s journey from a flooded, damp building to a warm and cosy home is well under way, and you can see the progress so far in our latest video – a seven-minute recap on the works that have been done and the materials used.
You’ll see how the old concrete floor and renders have been stripped out, replaced with an insulated limecrete floor and different types of lime plasters on the walls. These will stop moisture being trapped in the floor and walls, helping this older building to ‘breathe’ (release moisture) in the way it was intended to.
The house now boasts a new roof, specified by a conservation architect to be breathable while also keeping in heat.
These techniques and materials go hand in glove with older buildings constructed before 1920, when cavity walls started to come in.
If you’ve got one of Cumbria’s lovely old solid or rubble-filled stone or brick walls, you’ll pick up lots of information from all our videos following this renovation.
You’ll also see some of the measures that have been taken to minimise damage if the house floods again in the future, including raising up the electrics on the ground floor, beyond the previous flood level.
Keep an eye out for more videos soon!
We’ve been able to follow this renovation with video diaries thanks to support from Historic England.