Heritage & Period Property Restoration

Old buildings do not fail the way modern ones do, and they do not get repaired the same way either. A cottage with cement render trapping damp in its walls, a farmhouse whose lime plaster has blown, a Georgian elevation repointed in the wrong mortar — none of that is fixed by a general builder working faster. It is fixed by someone who understands why the building behaved that way in the first place.

B&S Restoration are heritage builders based in Blandford Forum, working on period and listed property across Dorset. Brick, stone, cob, lime plaster and render, timber, chimneys and roofs. The survey and the written quotation are free.

What a heritage builder actually does differently

The phrase gets used loosely, so it is worth being concrete. Three things separate conservation builders from general contractors, and all three are invisible in the finished photograph.

Diagnosis before repair. A general builder prices the defect you point at. A heritage builder works out what caused it, because on an old building the damage and the cause are frequently on different elevations.
Compatible materials as a default, not an upgrade. Lime mortar matched to the masonry, lime plaster on solid walls, breathable paint, matching timber species and section. Not because it is traditional, but because the wall was built to move moisture and anything harder stops it.
Repair in preference to replacement. Splicing a rotten cill rather than fitting a new window. Re-keying a lath and plaster ceiling from above rather than pulling it down. It keeps the fabric, and it is usually cheaper.

None of that requires a listed building. It applies to any solid-walled property built before roughly 1919, which is most of what makes Dorset look like Dorset.

Five reasons the right restoration work pays for itself

What careful work protects: value, compliance, and the long-term condition of the building

It stops the damage rather than covering it. Most of what we are called to undo is a previous repair — cement over soft brick, gypsum on a damp solid wall, a sealant that stopped the wall drying without stopping the water getting in. Doing it correctly once costs less than doing it cheaply twice.
It protects the resale value and the survey. Inappropriate repairs show up in a buyer’s survey, and on a listed building unauthorised work shows up in the searches. Both cost money at exactly the moment you have least leverage.
It keeps you the right side of consent. On a listed building, unauthorised work is a criminal offence rather than a paperwork problem, and there is no time limit on enforcement. Establishing what needs consent before starting is the cheapest part of the whole job.
It keeps the building dry, which keeps everything else simple. Breathable materials and working rainwater goods between them prevent the majority of defects on a period property. Damp is rarely a problem in its own right — it is the symptom that causes the timber decay, the blown plaster and the spalled brick.
It keeps the character that made you buy it. Original glass, hand-made brick, worn stone thresholds, irregular lime plaster. All easy to lose in a week and impossible to put back.

The buildings we work on

Dorset’s period housing stock is varied, and each type fails in its own way.

Cottages. Often cob or rubble stone under render, with low eaves and thick walls. The commonest problems are raised ground levels and cement render, both of which keep the walls wet. See cob work and rendering.
Farmhouses and outbuildings. Usually a core that has been extended several times in different materials, so one elevation can need three different approaches. Roofs and rainwater goods are typically where the money goes.
Barn conversions. Big volumes, exposed structural timber and rubble walls never built to be heated. Insulation and breathability have to be resolved together rather than one at a time.
Georgian townhouses. Fine jointed brick or ashlar where the pointing is part of the architecture, sash windows, and lath and plaster with run cornices. Repointing one of these badly is immediately obvious from the street. See repointing and plastering.
Victorian and Edwardian houses. Solid brick, often with decorative banding or render detail, and frequently the worst affected by 1970s and 1980s modernisation. See brickwork.
Thatched properties. The thatch itself is a specialist trade of its own, but the gables, stacks and walls underneath it are ours — and a chimney in a thatched roof has requirements a normal one does not. See chimney repairs.

Listed, or just old?

Worth separating, because the constraints are completely different and a lot of owners assume the stricter one applies when it does not.

If the building is listed, consent governs almost everything that changes its character, inside and out, and the curtilage is included. That is a whole subject in itself — our pages on listed building repairs and listed building renovation cover consent, enforcement, grants and VAT, and what listing actually means explains the grades.

If it is old but not listed, you have far more freedom legally and exactly the same constraints physically. The wall still has no cavity and no damp course. Cement will still spall the brick face. Gypsum will still blow on a damp solid wall. Nobody will stop you — the building will simply deteriorate faster, and the bill arrives later instead of sooner.

A conservation area sits between the two: the outside is controlled, the inside generally is not, and trees and demolition have their own rules.

Our restoration process

Clear steps, careful planning, and restoration work that respects your building

Step 1: Initial conversation and site visit

A short call about the building, what is worrying you and what you want to end up with. Then a visit to look at it properly — access, constraints, and what is realistic within whatever rules apply to that property.

Step 2: Research and assessment

Older buildings leave a paper trail. We look at what is available — previous applications, earlier repairs, the listing entry where there is one — to work out what is original, what has been changed, and what the building was originally built from. Dorset Council’s records and the listed property register both help here.

Step 3: Advice on consent, before you commit to a design

If the work affects the character of a listed building, it needs consent. We will tell you plainly what does and what does not, and where a proposal is likely to meet resistance. Where it helps we prepare method statements and heritage information and deal with the conservation officer directly. A pre-application conversation is free and far cheaper than a refusal.

Step 4: A written quotation against a specification

Naming the materials, the mixes and the methods, not just the areas. “Repoint the gable” and “repoint the gable in a matched lime mortar, raked by hand to twice the joint width” are different jobs at different prices, and only one of them can be compared fairly against another quote.

Step 5: The work, in the right order and the right season

Water first, drying time allowed for, lime work protected while it cures, and the trades sequenced so nothing finished gets damaged by what follows. Old buildings produce surprises; we tell you about them as they appear and agree what to do rather than discovering it on the invoice. Where a room is being brought back into everyday use, that can include reopening a blocked fireplace and installing a log burner.

Step 6: Final checks, records and aftercare

A walk round the finished work together, photographs of what was found and what was done, and plain guidance on what to watch and what never to let anyone put on the building. Keep the record with the deeds — your insurer may want it, and a buyer’s solicitor almost certainly will.

Survey first, then plan the sequence

A condition survey is the foundation of the whole job, and the useful kind diagnoses rather than describes. A conservation-accredited surveyor records what survives, works out the decay mechanism behind each defect, and prioritises. Out of that comes a plan setting out the order of works, the specification for each material, and a method statement for anything delicate — and that document is what contractors price against and what the conservation officer reads.

The sequence itself follows a few rules:

Stop the water first. Roof, gutters, flashings and ground levels before anything cosmetic. Almost every other defect on an old building is downstream of one of those.
Repair before replacing. Retaining historic fabric is both the conservation principle and usually the cheaper option.
Use compatible materials. Lime mortar, lime plaster, natural slate where natural slate is what is there. There is more in our note on lime plaster and lime render.
Order the trades so finished work is not damaged by what follows it. Obvious, routinely got wrong, and expensive when it is.

Damp is the defect that most often brings people to us, and it is almost always a symptom rather than a cause — our note on damp in listed and period properties goes through the usual mechanisms.

Budget, contingency and the usual pitfalls

Restoration uncovers things. Concealed timber decay, a damp path nobody knew about, a previous repair quietly causing the problem you were called about. Allow a contingency of 10 to 20 per cent depending on the building’s condition, and expect slower progress than a modern build — careful working methods and approval stages both take time that a standard programme does not allow for.

What moves the price most is rarely the part you are looking at. It is the access, the extent of what has to come off before anything can go back on, and whether materials have to be matched rather than bought.

The mistakes that cost the most:

Repointing or rendering historic masonry in Portland cement.
Mistaking a modern replacement for original fabric and removing it without recording it first.
Putting a specialist task in the hands of a contractor with no heritage experience because the quote was lower.
Starting work before establishing whether it needed consent.
Insulating a solid wall with an impermeable material, which traps moisture in the fabric and is far harder to undo than to do.

Choosing a restoration company

Ask about method before price. What mortar mix, raked to what depth, cut by hand or with a grinder, and how long between lifts. Anyone who repairs historic fabric for a living answers all four without pausing, and it costs you one phone call to find out.

Then ask for comparable buildings — not a general portfolio, but work on something built the same way as yours — and references you can actually follow up. Ask whether they will carry out a trial repair before committing to an elevation, and whether they have worked with a conservation officer before. On complex projects, appointing a conservation-accredited architect or surveyor to specify and oversee the work is money well spent, and we are used to working inside that arrangement. There is more on this in our note on choosing a listed building restoration company.

Period property restoration across Dorset

We work across the county from Blandford Forum — Dorchester, Wimborne, Poole, Bournemouth, Ferndown, Shaftesbury, Sturminster Newton, Sherborne, Wareham, Swanage, Bridport, Lyme Regis, Gillingham and the villages between them. Local variation matters more than people expect: salt-laden air on the coast weathers leadwork and the softer stones considerably faster, and the chalk, greensand, Purbeck and Portland belts each give different walls and suit different mortars. A mix that is right in Sherborne is not automatically right in Wareham.

Heritage and period property restoration FAQs

Simple answers to help you plan restoration work on an older Dorset property

What is a heritage builder?

A contractor who works on buildings that predate modern construction — solid walls, no cavity, no damp course — and repairs them in materials compatible with the original fabric. The practical difference from a general builder is diagnosis: working out what caused a defect before pricing the repair, because on an old building the cause and the damage are often in different places.

Does my house have to be listed for this to matter?

No. Listing changes what you are legally allowed to do; it does not change how the building behaves. Any solid-walled property built before roughly 1919 needs breathable materials and working rainwater goods whether it is listed, in a conservation area, or neither.

Do I always need listed building consent to restore a listed property?

Most work affecting the character or special interest of a listed building does. Routine maintenance in like-for-like materials often does not. The line between them is not always obvious, which is why checking with the local planning authority or a conservation officer before starting is worth the phone call — unauthorised work to a listed building is a criminal offence, not a paperwork oversight.

What mortar should be used for repointing historic brickwork?

A lime mortar matched to the original fabric, not Portland cement. Lime is breathable and slightly flexible, so moisture moves through the joint and evaporates rather than being driven through the brick or stone face. Cement traps it, and the masonry spalls instead. See our repointing page for how that is done.

Can an old house be made warmer?

Usually yes, and carefully. Draught-proofing, secondary glazing, loft insulation and repairing the windows you already have will do more than most people expect. What causes damage is wrapping a breathable wall in impermeable insulation, which traps moisture in the fabric. Fix the water first, then the draughts, then consider anything else.

How long does restoration work take?

Longer than an equivalent modern job, and the difference is mostly not on site. Lime will not go on in frost and needs protecting while it cures, so lime work runs roughly April to October in Dorset. Drying time between stages is real time. Where consent is needed, that is the least predictable stage of all.

How do I find contractors experienced in listed property restoration?

Ask for a portfolio of heritage work and references you can actually follow up. Then ask about method: will they carry out a trial repair, will they provide a method statement, have they worked with conservation officers before. The answers separate people who repair historic fabric for a living from people who are willing to try.

How much should I budget?

It varies far too widely with condition and scope for a single figure to be useful, which is why the survey comes first. What is worth fixing in advance is the contingency: 10 to 20 per cent, depending on how much of the building you can currently see. Get detailed quotes priced against a conservation survey and a phased programme rather than against a walk round.

Is a barn conversion a restoration job?

Partly. The conversion itself is new work, but the shell is usually rubble stone or brick that has never been heated, and how you insulate and finish it decides whether the walls stay sound. Getting the breathability right at design stage is far easier than correcting it afterwards.

My render is cracked and damp is coming through. Do I re-render or repair?

It depends what the render is. Cement render on a solid wall usually needs to come off — it cracks, lets water in behind, and then stops it leaving. Sound lime render can often be patched. Either way the question to settle first is where the water is entering, because re-rendering over an unresolved leak buys you a couple of years at most.

Do you work with architects and conservation officers?

Yes, routinely, and on anything substantial it is the sensible route. We will price from drawings, feed back on materials and buildability early, prepare method statements where that helps, and deal with the conservation officer directly. Bringing everyone in early is consistently cheaper than bringing them in late.

What is the first thing I should do?

Get someone to look at the building and tell you what is causing the problem, not just what the problem is. Until that is settled, every quote you collect is a guess — and the cheapest guess is usually the one that has understood the least.

Talk to us about your property

If you own a period or listed property in Dorset that needs work, the most useful first step is for someone to come and look at it. The site visit and the written quotation are free, and you will get a plain account of what is causing the damage, what needs consent, and what order to do it in — whether or not you use us for the work. Get in touch to arrange a visit, or read more about us first.

Heritage and Period Property Restoration in Dorset