Penicuik House

I went to Penicuik House this week. The remains of the big house, and it is huge, are being conserved following a fire in the late nineteenth century. For a house that has stood as a ruin for over a century, its in remarkably good shape. The locality is beautiful and even the graffiti has something pleasantly historical about it.

The beechwoods there, beside the Pentland Hills, are superb, as are the house grounds which are open to the public. But I wasn't there just to enjoy the woods and the grounds. I went to learn some extra skills with the Scottish Lime Centre who, while based in Fife, also have a training centre there. It allows people like me to learn at the feet of the craftspeople who can repair traditional buildings, ie pre-1914, to the highest standards. If a little bit rubs off on us then the buildings will be better placed to face the elements for another hundred years and the folk who live in them will be saved considerable sums of money. Repairs with the widely available materials that most builders use cause medium and long term harm that is costly to fix. Cement pointing on traditional masonry can rot stone quickly and subsequent repairs in cement to the crumbling stone can only compound the problem. However it's not all doom and gloom. Repairs can be done well and one of the many things we learned this week was replicating masons tooling to match surrounding work.

Glasgow

I just finished repointing the most needy parts on a house in one of Glasgow's Conservation Areas. I used a lime mortar appropriate to the wall type on this building. Cement mortar would have been inappropriate. In short it can be lead to disaster on pre-1914 buildings because it causes damp and stone rot. And yet you see it everywhere.

Next week I am going on a course to learn skills to make surface stone repairs that match original work, unlike the one hidden beneath the masonry paint in this picture.