Heritage Carpentry Process

The minimum intervention that maintains the maximum amount of original building fabric shall be the goal of all carpenters. Repairs shall be designed to be reversible wherever practical, and made using traditional carpentry techniques where possible.

The carpentry process employed by M&L typically consists of four sequential and equally important parts:

1 Investigation
  1. Review historical information (physical / documentary evidence)
  2. Survey timber elements of building (photography, sketching, mensuration, etc)
  3. Quantify loading conditions, movement and deflection
  4. Use non-invasive investigative techniques (measure moisture content, borescope, ultrasound, micro-second timer, etc)
  5. Use invasive investigative techniques (removal cladding cladding / flooring for inspection purposes, resistograph microdrilling, bore sampling, increment core sampling, etc)
  6. Remove material samples for testing
  7. Perform scientific testing & analysis (IE: ID wood species, dendrochronology, ID plant pathogens, ID wood finishes, etc)
  8. Determine relevant policies & regulations
2 Appraisal
  1. Assess structural integrity
  2. Determine short-term and long-term threats to timber elements (Risk Assessment)
  3. Determine chronology of building's damage, alterations & repairs
  4. Understand client goals, conservation strategy & intended use
  5. Produce record of condition
  6. Identify character-defining elements
3 Specification
  1. State specific objectives
  2. Schedule & quantify individual repairs
  3. Determine appropriate materials & fasteners
  4. Create detailed timber specification (species, grade, moisture content, section-sizes & general characteristics)
  5. Determine connection details (prepare detailed specification for metalwork & fasteners)
  6. Select repair types (chemical, metal, timber or hybrid)
  7. Establish carpentry tolerances & other performance criterion
  8. Third-party review / peer review of proposed interventions
4 Action*
  1. No action required (non-intervention)
  2. Perform maintenance
  3. Stabilize & consolidate (preservation)
  4. Make repairs and/or replacements
  5. Restore and/or reconstruct elements to represent a particular period in history (restoration)
  6. Adapt building for new use (rehabilitation)
  7. Document & record interventions, create as-built drawings
  8. Manage waste materials

*Note that there is often a delay of several months/years between the specification and the action.

Duty of Care

Carpenters performing repairs are frequently called upon to begin work in the final stages of this process, when a specification has already been determined as the result of an initial investigation and appraisal by others.

However, all conservation carpenters have a "duty of care" to determine that their interventions are based upon a rigorous understanding of the building and a considered assessment of what (if any) work is appropriate within the scope of internationally recognized principals of preservation.

Successfully coordinating the various agendas of building conservation, artifact conservation, archaeology, science, media events, fund-raising and tourism can be one of the greatest challenges of working with historic properties; it can also be one of the most rewarding.

Media

Gordon speaks with pressMany of our previous and ongoing projects are the subject of intense public/media interest. Our projects have been featured in a variety radio, television and film.

M&L staff understand that building conservation work is just one part of the puzzle, and our carpenters are accustomed to sharing their expertise and understanding with a variety of visitors; this requires patience, professionalism, flexibility and a good sense of humor!