This Victorian house in Rathmines, Dublin, is representative of the substantial suburban townhouses built by speculative development in this period. The house, a protected structure, required extensive conservation and restoration to address various problems including dampness caused by the use of inappropriate modern materials. Other improvements were made to enhance functional requirements and thermal comfort conditions all carried out in a sensitive and appropriate manner in accordance with conservation principles. In addition to extensive internal repairs the works also included comprehensive repair of traditional slating and copper work, conservation of the brick and masonry façades using traditional ‘Wigging’ pointing and repairs to an original Portland cement-based render finish to the facades. Poor quality modern joinery and fittings were replaced with more appropriate and correctly detailed period joinery and fittings.
