What we do
Conservation Area & Historic Property Restoration
Restoration for listed, conservation-area and historic homes in Nottingham and across the East Midlands: work that keeps the character of the building intact while bringing it up to standard — in all aspects, not just the paintwork.
Conservation work is mostly a series of decisions about what to keep. An original cornice, a moulded architrave, a plaster archway — once they are ripped out and replaced with the nearest thing from a merchant, the room is quietly a different room, and nothing brings it back.
Old buildings also need to breathe. Solid walls with no cavity deal with moisture by letting it move through the fabric and evaporate. Seal that with a modern impermeable coating and the water has nowhere to go: it collects behind the film, and the paint, the plaster or the masonry gives way. We use breathable products on solid walls for that reason, not as a selling point.
Where something is beyond saving, it gets matched rather than substituted. Profiles are taken from what is already there, so a new length of moulding reads as part of the original run. It is slower than fitting stock mouldings, and it is the whole point.
What we restore
Original features, repaired in place
Original cornices and decorative plasterwork
Cornices, ceiling mouldings and plaster archways repaired rather than replaced. Cracked and blown plaster is patched or re-plastered — in lime where the building calls for it — and missing lengths of moulding are matched to the profile already in the room.
Period architectural details
Panelled doors, moulded architraves, skirting, porches and front doors brought back rather than swapped for stock items. On one Victorian front door, a rotten rail below the original stained glass was spliced with new timber and repainted without the glass ever leaving the frame.
Traditional timber restoration
Rotten timber cut back to sound wood and renewed; floors and staircases sanded back to bare timber and refinished. Two jobs are written up in full: a louvred roof lantern, rebuilt with new lead work, and an original staircase, stripped back and repainted.
Conservation-sensitive decorating
Colours and finishes chosen for the building, and breathable products on solid masonry so moisture can still move out of the wall. Every finish goes onto a surface that has been properly prepared first.
Methods and materials suited to older buildings
Repair before replace, match rather than substitute, and materials chosen for the wall or timber behind them — lime where the original fabric is lime, breathable paints on solid walls. If you are planning wider work on an older house, see our page on period property renovation in Nottingham.
Before you start
Listed buildings, conservation areas and permissions
If your home is listed, or sits in a conservation area, some work may need listed building consent or planning permission — and the rules depend on the property and on exactly what is proposed. That decision rests with your local planning authority, not with us. For most of our work around Nottingham that means Nottingham City Council or Rushcliffe Borough Council.
We can’t grant consent or give formal conservation advice. What we can do is tell you early what we would propose, so you can check it with the authority before work starts — and if consent comes with conditions on materials or methods, we will price and work to them.
How we do it
What the job actually involves
Survey what is there
Working out what can be saved, what needs repair, and what genuinely has to be replaced.
Repair before replace
Splicing, filling and consolidating original joinery and plaster wherever it can be kept.
Match, do not substitute
New mouldings and profiles taken from the existing detail rather than the nearest stock item.
Breathable where it matters
Products chosen for the wall behind them, particularly on solid masonry.
Finish to standard
The visible half of the work, on a surface that has actually been prepared.
Our work
Conservation-area restoration
10 photographs from jobs we have finished. Tap any of them to see it full size, or read the roof lantern case study for the full story behind five of them.
We cover conservation areas in Nottingham — including The Park Estate and Mapperley Park — and across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. If your property is listed or sits in a conservation area, tell us early — it changes what can be specified.
Discuss your period property project 07548 382816
More of what we do: Period property renovation, Victorian restoration projects, Wall panelling, Hand-painted kitchens, Wallpapering, all services