Old House Handbook A Practical Guide to Care and Repair, 2nd edition

by Hunt, Roger; Suhr, Marianne

• ISBN13: 9780711281479
• ISBN10: 0711281475
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-10-10
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Summary

This fully revised and updated book is the authoritative guide on how to look after your old house – whether it is a timber-framed medieval cottage, an eighteenth-century town house or a Victorian or Edwardian terrace.

Written in association with The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, the authors’ approach is one of respect, restraint and repair rather than ‘restoration’, which can so easily and permanently destroy the special qualities of an old building.

From the foundations to the roof, from the need for modern services to traditional paintwork and finishes, from windows and doors to breathability and damp in walls and floors, this handbook provides informed practical guidance. It is essential reading on maintenance and repair for all those with an old house.

Author Biography

Roger Hunt, co-author (with Marianne Suhr) of Old House Handbook, is an award-winning writer and blogger with a particular interest in sustainable and vernacular architecture and the materials and techniques used in construction. He is the author of Rural Britain: Then and Now, a celebration of the British countryside, Villages of England and Hidden Depths, an archaeological exploration of Surrey’s past.
He lectures on building-related issues, is a judge of annual awards for new housing and serves on the editorial board of the SPAB magazine. His latest renovation project is a 1900 house on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA.

Marianne Suhr is a Chartered Building Surveyor specialising in the repair of historic buildings. After a scholarship with the SPAB, she worked for seven years in architectural practice, then full-time on hands-on repair projects including three very different old houses. For the SPAB she has run over 40 homeowners’ courses and numerous ‘limedays’. She is co-author (with Roger Hunt) of Old House Handbook, and has written and lectured extensively. A co-presenter of three series of BBC2’s Restoration, she recently set up the Old House Consultancy, advising on repairs and alterations in the Oxfordshire locality.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Look Before You Leap
2. Getting the Work Done
3. Breathability and Damp
4. Walls
5. Structural Movement
6. Roofs
7. Timber Carpentry
8. Solid Floors
9. Chimneys, Flues and Fireplaces
10. Windows, Doors and Joinery
11. Plasters, Renders and Roughcast
12. Paints and Finishes
13. Building Services
14. Living for Today and Tomorrow