Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll

Townscape heritage repair:

Relief Land & Ark Land

Inveraray, Argyll · 2017

Our role
Main contractor
Client
The Co-proprietors, Relief Land and Ark Land (Inveraray CARS)
Architect
Gleeson Historic Building Consultants
Value
£0.5m to £1m
Programme
April 2016 to 2017
Scope
Render removal, lime harling, chimney rebuilds, cills, leadwork, rainwater goods

Relief Land and Ark Land are two harled tenement blocks on Main Street South in Inveraray, repaired under the town's Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS). For the co-proprietors we carried out the external fabric repairs to elevations, chimneys and roofs. The work replaced failing cement render with a traditional three-coat lime harl.

Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll — photograph 1
Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll — photograph 2
Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll — photograph 3
Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll — photograph 4
Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll — photograph 5
Relief Land and Ark Land Tenements, Main Street South, Inveraray, Argyll — photograph 6

The challenge

Every flat stayed occupied throughout, with some chimneys still serving fires and back boilers. Once the cement render came off, the rubble walls showed far more voids, open joints and brick build-ups than expected, and several flues were found packed with rubble and concrete. Design details for chimneys, cills and verges were developed with the contract administrator as the true condition came to light.

Our solution

We stripped the cement render and concrete cills, stitched cracks with stone slips, dubbed out voids with stone pinnings and repointed the rubble in lime. The walls were then spray-harled in three coats to the conservation architect's specification: St Astier NHL 3.5 with washed sand and crushed shell on the main elevations, and a St Astier Hourdex mix with Ligaphob on the exposed south gables, chimney stacks and front plinths, protected with hessian while curing. Chimney stacks were taken down and rebuilt with lead trays and new copes, new cills were set to the windows and new cast iron gutters and downpipes were fitted.

Outcomes

Breathable walls again

Cement render replaced with a traditional lime harl that lets the rubble walls dry out.

Sound chimneys

Stacks rebuilt and weathered with new leadwork and copes.

Occupied throughout

Residents stayed in their homes for the full programme while the work went on around them.

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