sustainability
Grade 2 Listing & Conversion
We worked with a number of conservation specialists, listed building advisors and ecology specialists in the conversion, always with the mindset of retaining, repairing, conserving central to our project.
Recycled Doors
Where possible we have recycled. The old front door was repurposed to use as the door to the main living space. The old upstairs door was repurposed for the plant room door on the terrace. All the internal doors were made from recycled scaffold boards as were the beautiful sliding doors on the old stable stalls.
Stable Stalls Retained
The original stable stalls in the Red Barn were repaired using Sapele and retained. The objective was to provide an honest repair and keeping the wide doorways means accessibility is great too!
Repaired Brick Cobbled Floor
The old brick cobbled floor was painstakingly repaired and cleaned, and is one of the things that gives The Red Barn it’s unique character. Ty-Mawr’s sublime floor system was used in the entrance hall, downstairs shower room and accessible bedroom and is recognised in terms of sustainable construction
Lime Repointing & Turning Bricks
Over 500 bricks had spoilt externally. Take a look at the pictures below! These were carefully removed, turned and reinstated rather than wasted. As much cement was removed as we could and the whole building was repointed using lime. The boundary wall on the terrace was repointed by Ginny, and the other side by Adrian. Not competitive at all, but you can judge which is best!
Insulation & Plaster
We used NBT's Pavatex natural insulation, made from waste wood collected from sawmills. It has excellent heat storage capacity, keeping rooms cool in summer, as well as excellent acoustic and thermal insulation properties. The Red Barn was lime plastered using Baumit products, a healthier alternative to gypsum or other cement based products.
Locally Sourced
The oak staircase and double-glazed windows were made 5 miles away by Brooks and Sims. Dan and Julian from JN Conservation (our star builders!) worked with us for nearly 2 years and live locally. Adrian and I learnt to lime point, insulate and plaster, and we had to travel all of 50m to work each day!