Stratford-upon-Avon Living Jan - Feb 2021

MAXIMISING
f you’ve never ventured into the belly of a Georgian
building, the term ‘vault’ might be an unfamiliar one to
Iyou. During what was a hugely prolific building period,
Regency architects created many of their characteristic
town houses with an interconnected series of rooms below
ground level, with vaulted ceilings. All houses except the
poorest had basements containing a kitchen, scullery and
other stores such as a pantry and larder. More generally,
these allowed for the services of the household to operate
without needing to use the front door.
In the intervening years, many of these properties have
been converted into flats and remedial works have
been started on these vault spaces - so was the case
with this room. Before work commenced (with relevant
permissions), the vault was dark and the previous
tanking system had failed entirely, leaving blown
patches of plaster on the walls. The flooring was a thick
carpet laid over a concrete substrate, only adding to the
issues with damp.
Unlike some spaces, this room had the benefit of a
window, so for owners Dan and Kate, it made sense
to be able to make it more habitable as a ‘snug’ with
an option to accommodate guests. “The project was a
daunting one, but the damp issue was getting worse and
I knew we needed to take some action” explained Katie,
“we wanted to make the space both dry for storage and
somewhere we could actually use - but as you can see,
the shapes of the walls made sure it wasn’t a standard
project. The number one priority was getting it dry.”
The first steps were removing the failed tanking and
applying a new membrane. Where possible, Kate was
very conscious not to harm the fabric of the building “I
was adamant that I didn’t want wires channelled into the
walls or any harm done to the building itself, so together
with our builder we devised the panelling - the batons
are secured to the walls and hide the myriad of cables to
supply socket points and the LED up-lighting. The power
for these comes from the original power source already in
place in the room.”
Once tanked and rendered, the next big challenge for the
couple was the flooring. Even with all precautions taken,
this is an underground space and the flooring needed
to be able to withstand moisture but also be able to be
laid in a space with such an unusual shape “there is not
a single right angle in this room!” says Dan, “aside from
making it challenging to plaster, the flooring had to be
really easy to cut to size. We couldn’t go with laminate
Space
“The project was a daunting one,
but the damp issue was getting
worse and I knew we needed to
take some action”
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