The Garden

Since I was watching the history of British gardening on TV last night, I thought it might be time to talk a little about the space outside the house. When we moved in, there was a patio, large bay tree, one ornamental shrub and a small shed all in the back garden. Previous to that we had been in a one-bedroom flat so this was our first garden.

The first task was to find out what was there, then to tool up for planting, pruning and mowing. Within a few weeks of moving in the shrub fell over and killed off half the lawn (which was patchy anyway - this was the middle of winter). The rear fence was also covered in ivy which ran all the way along the boundary to the house. Having had the previous episode with root growth through the house walls, I decided to embark on some radical pruning. This took about 3 days and filled around 6 bags with Ivy! At this point I found that the ivy was largely responsible for holding up the garden fence.

Once spring arrived it was time to get the lawn sorted. I decided that this would be done with seed and proceeded to double dig the existing lawn area (2 days). This exposed all sorts of roots and builder's rubble just below the surface. We removed the worst of this and added topsoil to the thinnest areas then prepared a compost and sand mix about 2 inches thick over the whole lawn. After seeding and tamping the area down it had to be watered every day for around 3 weeks, at which point grass shoots started to appear. It also became apparent that the local pigeons had had at least a 3rd of the seed, so I did all this twice and remembered to net the lawn the 2nd time!

The bay tree was about 6m tall when we moved in and then proceeded to add about another 4m over the next 4 years. In the end I resorted to getting a tree surgeon out to give it a thorough pruning. There is a reason that most people grow these in pots or planters and that is that these things are like triffids bent on world domination! Every year it sprouts shoots and saplings all over the garden, however it does provide evergreen shade and lots of bayleaves (although I think the amount of stews and soups needed to use these up could feed half of London). It also stops rain getting at the plants and lawn below it so there is a need to actively water that part of the garden regularly.

Once this was sorted out it was time to consider the planting beds. I had actually done quite a bit of landscape work as an architect, so I had a much better idea of what I wanted to add and where. The main thing is to try and picture what the plants will look like in 2 or 3 years time, and also allow for how they change seasonally. So the main structure was done with evergeen shrubs (preferably flowering) and in between this I went for maples and birch which don't completely block out the sun in summer (allowing bedding plants to grow underneath) and provide good colour all year (see picture above). More recently I've added some fruit trees and shifted some of the original planting around (the maples didn't like direct sun - leafburn).

So what's left to do? Well, the existing garden is actually on a hill and the patio is more or less at finished internal floor level with the inevitable pea-gravel to ensure that the damp drains away from the house walls. The native base soil is clay and over time the slurry fills up the gravel giving it the drainage properties of concrete. So the main thing is to fix the levels so that the gravel isn't necessary. This means a level change of around 225mm somewhere mid-slope, and some channel drainage to deal with the patio run-off. At the same time the planting beds near the house could do with being bigger, and there is a definite need for more storage (new sheds and outdoor cupboards for pots, BBQs etc).

Oh, and did I mention herbs? Lots of these all over the place (mostly in pots but some in the beds). So far the collection includes marjoram, origano, tarragon, mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, lovage, garlic and chives with a seasonal planting of basil, parsley and coriander. I'll talk more about sheds later on when I've figured out what they'll be!

Section and Elevations

Here is a long section through the proposals with the front and rear elevations added. You can see how the existing ridgeline is preserved and the extension forms a flat roof behind this. The second floor is timber frame with structural steel beams providing the main support back to the party walls. The exact form of the windows has changed since these drawings were done for planning. Incidentally, I'm not sure that you could do this now under permitted development-the new rules insist (since last October) on setting back any dormers from the boundary and eaves. The Planning Portal has some useful guides and tools for assessing terraced houses and what needs permission when you are considering extending. These would have been handy when the regulations were changed!

The Plans

I had a few requests from (mainly) architect friends to put the plans up so here they are. These are the ones that went in for planning.

Starting on the ground floor, the mess that is the bathroom and store disappear, and allow the living room to expand and provide a utility and cloakroom space. On the first floor the box room becomes the main bathroom, and on the 2nd floor there are 2 new bedrooms, some storage and an en-suite appears.

It all sounds quite simple when put this way, but I've managed to spend about 3 years getting to this stage. Some of this was just spending time on other options that since fell by the wayside, and of course getting the finance together took a while. The drawings reflect this, and have a lot more detail than a normal set of planning drawings, simply because I've had time to think through the construction and refine the details.

In future posts I'll walk through each of the spaces and provide some rationale for why things are the way that they are. Some of the spaces have changed internally since then, and I also had a rethink on the garden. Currently I'm waiting on the structural engineer to finish work and then no doubt some other things will change as well.

The Design Brief

Having talked about the structure of the existing house at length, I suppose I ought to talk a little bit about what I would like to do with it during the renovation. My intention is to retain the period features where possible and to repair the existing structure as needed. As you might have guessed from the previous posts I will be replacing the UPVC windows, and possibly the front door (single glazed and badly fitted). Most of the existing roof will be getting replaced as well - although the front elevation will be similar to how it is now with the addition of some rooflights.


The layout on the ground floor (existing plans are shown above) is a result of the house being used for bedsits in the past and the old kitchen is currently the bathroom with a store/ WC sat in the middle. So the main aim here is to get the bathroom back upstairs where it belongs - giving more space to the living area. Of course this then means losing a bedroom on the 1st Floor. In order to keep the number of bedrooms and generally create more space we will be extending up into the roofspace (from the existing ridge backwards). The kitchen is also past its sell-by date so this will be replaced.


The result of the extension into the loft is that the hall stair will need to be enclosed and all the doors from habitable rooms (bedrooms and living room) onto the stair and landings will need to be of fire rated construction (FR30). This accounts for pretty much all the existing doors being replaced (none of them are original anyway). Another implication of this is that the plumbing will now have to extend up another 2 floors, so some duct space will be necessary and possibly a new boiler will be needed.


In the course of doing all this, most of the electrics will need upgrading/ replacing, and we will be taking the opportunity to add things like internet access and TV aerial points where needed. One bathroom will be stretched as the kids get older so an ensuite is planned for the new 2nd floor, and a cloakroom will be added on the ground floor. We will also try to add some sound insulation between the floors as we go.

What the Victorians Didn't Do for Us - Part2

I'll start at the bottom with the below floor stuff

Firstly, in this part of London the soil is clay and subject to a fair amount of movement and subsidence. If you look carefully at the photo of the front facade, you can see that the bay on the front is in a different brick to the rest of the walls and most likely has been rebuilt in the past.

The Victorians approached structure from the sole point of keeping things standing. Damp-proofing was rudimentary, and the brick structure was flexible enough to withstand most ground conditions. At that point in time they didn't have a knowledge of plastics so dpms (damp proof membranes or polythene to most people) did not exist. The brick external walls are solid and 9 inches thick. These are made of bricks that are quite soft by today's standards and would have been bedded in lime mortar (importantly this is roughly the same softness as the bricks- ie. it's slightly crumbly - these bricks still hurt if dropped on your head!). At the bottom the bricks step out to rest on the concrete strip foundations and this helps distribute the load since the footings were not reinforced.

They were aware that damp rose in the porous brickwork and that this could damage timber, so they built layers of slate 6 inches above the outside ground level into the brick walls. The slates were lapped and stop the water rising from the ground below. In addition to this, the void under the timber floor is ventilated to further reduce the moisture level in the bricks and timber. So all the external walls are punctured by air bricks below the level of the slate dpc (damp proof course - these days this is usually bitumen felt rather than slate). The timber floors are suspended above the ground on brick stub walls (built with holes in the coursing to allow air through). This means that the ground floor is supported independent of the potentially damp outer walls and ventilated from below. To stop moles and provide some stability to the party walls there is a ground slab laid between the concrete footings.

The important thing to realise is that if you compromise the ventilation the damp-proofing doesn't work and the chances are that your timber will start to rot. People tend to block the airbicks accidentally, or else deliberately to reduce the cold air drafts internally. The traditional airbricks are also great for letting in mice which is another excuse to block them. Repointing the brickwork with modern cement mortars can also cause the soft bricks to spall from frost damage and crack with movement.

Another issue with this type of suspended floor at ground level is: how do you insulate it? The stub walls are deliberately sited to reduce the depth of the joists needed to span under the floorboards. On this house this means that they are only 4 inches deep (even with the best insulants this will not meet the current Building Regs standard).

The next installment will talk a little more about the walls....

What the Victorians Didn't Do for Us - Part1

Well for starters, they didn't do a lot of drawings. These houses were their equivalent of building mass-production, and there are huge numbers of similar ones all over the country, with minor variations. As a result the Victorian architect could rely on his builders to interpret a very basic set of drawings (in this case 2 for the whole road). If I did this so economically today it's likely I'd be sacked or at the very least sued further down the line!

Below are the drawings that I dug out of the local council archives (Building Control had them on microfilm and printed them for a small charge):

I'll be returning to these later when I get round to talking about construction in Part 2.