Renovating Your Building

Why not make use of the Society's highly skilled renovation team to tackle renovation work on your own house?

The Arkwright Society has built up a team of highly skilled craftsmen to tackle the challenging renovation work of its various properties. The team are used to working on buildings that are Grade I listed and this means their stonework and joinery has to be first rate to satisfy English Heritage and the planning authorities.

From time to time - usually because of a lull in the funding available for the Society's own renovation work - the renovation team is available to tackle private conservation building work. Over the last couple of years, some owners of older properties have particularly appreciated this opportunity to make use of such meticulous craftsmanship for renovation work on their own properties. Competitive rates are charged for this work and this has the added advantage of bringing in some useful revenue to the Society while maintaining the skills and expertise of its specialist tradesmen.

Even if your building is not Grade 1, you can still benefit from Grade 1 work and Grade 1 skills!

The team specialise in stonework repairs including pointing using traditional lime mortars, stone paving and wall repairs, and dressing of reclaimed and new Derbyshire Gritstone to match existing patterns. They are also excellent dry stone wallers and can carry out repairs or complete new builds.

Visitors to the Cromford Canal will have seen the repairs and improvements which have taken place a couple of years ago to the feeder arm. These included the reinstatement of the collapsed wall and the introduction of oak hand rails and new cast iron posts, cast from the originals.

The team aso has a conservation workshop. Sash windows and doors are a speciality, mostly using reclaimed timber - paticularly pitch pine.

You can access these valuable skills whether or not you are a member of the Society - although preference will be given to members. Peter Bowler, Building Team Manager, has gathered an extensive photographic collection highlighting examples of the team's work. He will be happy to show these to you and to discuss how best to help you with your own renovation work. You can contact Peter on 01629 823256 or by e-mail at info@arkwrightsociety.org.uk