Barn House, Charlcombe Lane

This house was the subject of a rather poor conversion in the 1950s. There were no foundations to speak of – the rubble stone walls sat more or less directly on clayey sand. This scheme used substantial steel support systems to open up the internal spaces at ground floor level, and lowered the floor slab internally to allow underfloor heating. A boot was added to stop the walls kicking out. The first floor structure required major strengthening, and this was achieved using bolted flitch plates on existing beams.

 

In the loft space, the additional rooms needed a complete new floor system and also required that some existing trusses lost their tie elements. Thus the loft floor incorporated a stiff diaphragm floor structure which distributed the horizontal loads from the roof to those trusses which remained intact. An extension was added to the back. The outer retaining wall was rebuilt and reinforced, enabling us to add a new light well in the kitchen area and a driveway where none previously existed.

 

Completed December 2006