After all the clearing away its now time to start some repairs. Most areas of sole plate (the piece of timber the building sits on) are either severely decayed or have already been poorly replaced in the past. The first thing I need to do is get the cottage structurally sound and that means repairing the sole plates and any areas of lower studwork that is also affected. Since it encounters the most moisture, its the bottom of the building that usually suffers and this cottage

Ive just recently spent a week clearing away some of the debris from the lower floor of the cottage. I am going to start by repairing the sole plates and the footings so Ive been busy inside removing the old floors etc to give me space to work and to see what's in store. One of the great things about the Cottage is that, unlike a lot of other properties, it hasn't had a lot of its original fabric replaced with modern materials. The floors are breathable, the brickwork is buil