We have started a new job in Leavenheath putting in a large new driveway and forming a patio area. Further updates to follow as we progress.

Our project at Holton St Mary is nearing completion. We managed to get the lime painting and woodwork finished before the rain and wind set in, Just look at those moody Suffolk skies!

Read on for the next part in our mini blog series....this week we look at Edwardian Properties (1901-1910):

Properties built during the reign of Edward VII tended to reflect his extrovert style. The houses were wider with gardens for parties to be held in. Whereas Victorian properties were built to be practical, Edwardian properties were generally built with style as the focus. They were often built more in the suburbs, where there was more space

Edwardian properties also tended to have more windows, and the rooms and hallways were wider. They also used wood for styling, with faux Tudor cladding on the outside and parquet flooring inside. After the mass production of houses in the Victorian age, Edwardian properties were often more simple in design, with emphasis on handmade features. They were also more set back from the pavement with front gardens. Red brickwork was common, and also a porch with wooden frames, and the houses were built in straight lines. Porches and verandas were also common. 

An important thing to look out for when buying an Edwardian property, is that they were often built with shallow foundations, making them vulnerable to ground movement. A survey should discover if this is the case. Another useful thing when renovating an Edwardian house is that they were often built with steep pitched roofs which makes an ideal space for a loft conversion.

As ever, if you are thinking of buying and renovating a property from any era, please give us a call or drop us an email. We’re happy to discuss ideas and suggest some of our own, drawing on our years of experience in renovating period properties, and building new houses in period styles!

Following on from last week's blog, our job in Sudbury is now complete. We had to make extensive repairs following another company carrying out very poor work, which ended up causing more damage.

You may remember a few months ago we did a series of blogs entitled ‘period properties: Things that can go wrong.’ We featured several beautiful buildings where we had been called in to rectify mistakes made by other companies, that had not got our wealth of experience, who although may have been cheaper than us, ended up costing the clients far more in the long run. We have been working on another of these jobs this week. 

We were asked to go in and rebuild a sleeper wall at a property in Sudbury, where it had been affected previously after a soil pipe had burst and had been repaired by another company. A sleeper wall is a short wall that supports the joists of a suspended floor. On beginning the job, we had to take the floor up, and we noticed that the previous firm had failed to connect the kitchen waste pipe to the soil pipe, and it had therefore been leaking for months! As you can imagine, the smell was quite horrific, and there was a huge amount of damage, as the water had caused not only the sleeper walls to drop, but also the floors. The owners were also on a water meter and with all the water leaking out, this had given them big water bills too. 

We advised them to get the original firm back to sort out what they had done wrong, and then we would go back in and do what we were initially asked to do. The firm went back a second time, and instead of repairing the damaged internal walls properly, they had attempted to use expanding foam to hold the bricks up! We have advised the property owners to take action to get compensation for this shoddy work, and we are now starting from scratch and doing it all for them ourselves.

We have dug new footings to repair the wall where it has dropped, we have applied a damp course to the property, and we have replaced the old lead pipework with new alkathene pipe, which is light, flexible and durable and not susceptible to corrosion. We have also replaced the stopcock and water mains pipework, and made new connections to the existing pipework. We have then built up the internal wall, and the sleeper wall, and have put in new floor joists for the suspended floor.

We cannot stress enough, how important it is to use builders that are experienced in working on period properties. What may seem like a saving initially, can end up costing you a lot more in the long run when mistakes have to be rectified. At K.E. Jones & Son Builders we specialise in period properties and have over 50 years of experience. We are happy to discuss your needs for any job, no matter how big or small, and as we said, we may not be the cheapest, but we are good at what we do!

We have been working hard all week on the Victorian cottage over at Leavenheath. Structural straps have now been installed along with stud walls. We have also put in a strengthening floor joist. It's coming along very nicely!

We are reaching completion of our project over at Holton St Mary! It is looking fantastic! The lime plastering is almost complete, and the next step is window and woodwork repairs, followed by Bedec aqua advanced applied to the woodwork, then prepping for the lime wash paint on new lime.

We have begun the structural work at the Victorian cottage in Leavenheath. We've been repairing perished brickwork and replacing the old lintels with new ones. 

Over at Holton St Mary we have made further repairs to the timber, more savolit boarding and scratch coat plastering. 

Here's the latest in our mini blog series about period properties. This week we are featuring Georgian Properties, which were built between 1714-1830, during the consecutive reigns of Kings George I, George II, George III and George IV.

Georgian properties were built to be spacious, with grand proportions. Many Georgian properties were built in identical rows over three or four storeys. It was common for the owner and their family to occupy the first and second storeys, which had tall ceilings and windows, and their staff would live on the top storeys, which had smaller rooms with lower ceilings and smaller windows. Windows were commonly sash windows. Georgian properties were built around garden squares, as the houses didn’t have their own gardens. A famous architect of the Georgian period was John Nash, who designed the original Buckingham Palace. London boasts many other Georgian properties as does Cheltenham, and the famous royal crescent in Bath is a magnificent Georgian Building.

Georgian buildings were typically symmetrical, and had huge, main doors, framed by white, stucco-rendered pillars. The bottom floor was commonly rendered, and the rest of the building had exposed brickwork. Later in this period, it was common for the entire building to be rendered. The render was commonly painted white or cream. The exterior would be flat and symmetrical with a balanced interior layout.

Another common feature of Georgian properties was a bricked-up window! The reason for this was that there was a window tax levied on homeowners between 1696 and 1851. The more windows a property had, the bigger it was, and therefore the richer the owner was. To reduce the amount they had to pay, many homeowners at the time bricked up some of their windows, and many were left like this after the tax was lifted.

In 1784, a tax on bricks was also brought in at the rate of 4 shillings per 1,000 bricks. This tax was to pay for wars that were being fought in the American colonies. Some people tried to get around this by making bigger bricks so that they would use less, but the government simply changed the rules and stipulated a maximum size for a brick! The tax was finally abolished in 1850, as it was classed as ‘detrimental to industrial development.’

Georgian interior design features included alcoves, columns that were Roman-inspired, and carved statues. Colours such as greens, mauves and pinks were also common, as were the use of swags, ribbons and garlands as decorations. When restoring a Georgian property, you can make use of the traditional features by enhancing high ceilings with bold lighting, niches and alcoves make great storage solutions, and hunting round salvage yards can yield items that will help you maintain the traditional character. 

We have worked on the restoration of many such properties over the years and are happy to help if you are thinking of embarking on a project restoring a Georgian property.