north newton
Fortunately for this Somerset long house, the majority of its cob structure was still remarkably intact, despite the fact it had been coated in pebble-dash cement. Once the old render had been stripped off, localised rebuilds were carried out using Heli-fix and a new three-coat ‘Scrape & Bag’ lime render applied. Some of the pictures show the team using a pneumatic hurl gun to consolidate the cob work prior to rendering works.
Without a suitable lime render decorated in breathable paints, cob work is at high risk of structural damage due to trapped moisture and rot