Office Training CPD Day at Ilfracombe and Woolsery
— 09 Nov 2016
Inline roof solar PV installation.
Plain clay tile detailing and re-roofing.
Reuse of historic thatching battens, thatch build up and works in progress.
Reuse of historic thatching battens, thatch build up and works in progress.
As part of our ongoing in house training the Architectural staff took a day visiting two of our projects on site to look at conservation in practice, health and safety issues and logistical solutions for complex sites.
The morning was spent at the Grade II Listed Church of St Peter in Ilfracombe which was completed in its present form in 1903 to the designs of GH Fellowes-Prynne. The original construction of the church was undertaken to a very high standard however some of the more bespoke details of the church have failed and a colony of seabirds roosting at the ridge and parapets has led to extensive plant growth on the north sea facing slope of the roof. The whole church is now being re-tiled with repairs to lead valleys, chimneys and parapets. A solar photo voltaic (PV) array is also being installed to allow the church to generate electricity from the sun.
The site is very constrained and so an ingenious 'flying' scaffold solution has allowed works to proceed efficiently, with savings in time and broken tiles in avoiding carting the historic tiles up and down three storeys.
The issues looked at during the CPD included:
- The detailed design and fixing of tiled roof and modern fixing requirements.
- Limitations of the size of a roofed over scaffold.
- Lost time in working without a roofed scaffold.
- In – roof PV.
- Cast iron rainwater goods repairs.
In the afternoon, the team visited Woolsery where the grade II listed Farmers Arms and Manor Inn Hotel are undergoing extensive renovation. The team looked at the overall site layout, where a wood chip powered district heating system is being installed and complex temporary works are underway.
A fully roofed scaffold over the Farmers Arms pub has allowed re-roofing works to the historic building to proceed in the dry. The thatching is underway by a local thatcher Ian Rose of North Devon Thatchers who explained the layering and detailing of the thatch to ensure the building is warm and dry for many years to come, on fire issues associated with thatch and the extensive yet unobtrusive repairs that have been undertaken to the roof structure of the pub which will allow new loadings of lime plaster ceilings without losing historic fabric or compromising the historic fabric and architectural character.
