Creative Support for Listed Building

With the vast majority of our projects located in East and South Suffolk we are well accustomed to finding creative ways to address the many quirks of aged rural buildings which were often built, not by professional builders, but by farm labourers in the off-season.

A listed farm cottage near Woodbridge presented a particular problem. Over the years the building had leaned slightly with some walls at worryingly jaunty angles. It was clear that we would need more than the usual ‘acrow’ props to support the ceiling while work was completed. In order to make the area safe for underpinning and making the wall more upright, (we retained some of the lean for character!), we had to design a bespoke propping solution.

Working with Structural Engineer J P Chick, we devised a structure using six mild steel ‘I’ beams that could temporarily support the ceiling overhead so that our team had space to work safely to replace the footings of the stud wall.

The work was completed with a new brick plinth for the wall and the foot of the wall shifted a few inches to make it more upright.