Churches, halls, civic
Heritage restoration
Repair and replacement in kind for churches, halls and civic buildings, working to a conservation architect's schedule.
The work
What it involves.
North Otago is built out of the stone under it, and a great deal of it is now a hundred and forty years old. Limestone fails at the bed joints, at the parapets and wherever a Victorian builder used an iron cramp, and the repair is almost always more careful than the original work was.
We work to a conservation architect's schedule where there is one, and we will tell you honestly when a building does not need one. Most of what we do is indenting: cutting out the failed stone and letting in a new piece so the repair is invisible in ten years and honest to anyone who looks closely.
New stone is matched to the original bed and the original quarry wherever the quarry still exists. Where it does not, we say so in writing rather than substituting quietly.
We hold a Heritage New Zealand archaeological authority where the site requires one, and we have worked on eleven Category 1 and Category 2 buildings since 1998.
How the work goes.
- 01 Condition survey Stone by stone, photographed and scheduled, with a note on what is failing and why.
- 02 Match and sample A sample panel cut and set on site so the architect and the trust can see it before the whole elevation is committed.
- 03 Indenting and repair Failed stone cut out and new stone let in. Lime mortar, matched to the original analysis.
- 04 Record A photographic record of every replaced stone, handed over with the building.
The stone we use
- Oamaru limestone
- The original material of most of the district. Still quarried at Weston.
- Lime mortar
- Analysed against the original and mixed here. Cement mortar is what destroyed most of what we now repair.
- Stainless cramps
- Replacing the Victorian iron that rusts, swells and splits the stone it was meant to hold.
Enquiries
Come and see the stone.
The yard is on Severn Street and there is no charge for talking something through, however long it takes.
03 434 7712- Yard and office
- 18 Severn Street, Oamaru 9400
- Open
- Monday to Friday8am – 4.30pmSaturdayBy appointment
- Working across
- North Otago, Canterbury, Central Otago, Southland