45-47 Norfolk Square

Early last year we were asked to price the front and rear facades of this listed Victorian property in Paddington. After months of toing and froing between Planners, various Architects and Conservation Officers and after carrying out numerous onsite samples of natural lime pointing and moulded stucco restoration, the scope of works was finally agreed and we began work that summer.

Works to the rear façade included over 400M2 of brickwork which was DOFF cleaned and fully cut out and repointed in NHL 3.5 Lime mortar with nearly 1000 bricks carefully cut out, matched and replaced. This has been one of our biggest and most satisfying projects to date and we have formed a great working relationship with the client. After we carried out a full survey of the building, we realised that we could only save around 20% of the decorative mouldings. With years of decay to the ornate stucco works and other trades and builders just compounding the problem by adding more and more filler and textured paint.

Over the years this had caused quite severe separation of the stucco from the bricks substrate from behind leaving it with a hollow sound when tapped and in parts just pulling away with our hands and no tools required. These have now all been restored back to their original Victorian splendour using traditional methods and materials combining some precast elements such as balustrading and copings. When fully finished and restored the front façade was handed over for decoration.