With a backdrop like this, you could be easily lured away from the attractiveness of a cedar wood shingle roof.
This stunning example of our craftmanship and the diversity of cedar wood shingles delighted not only the home owners, but the residents local to this historical landmark. Both sides of the roof were completed over three summer weeks. The roof on an earlier extension still holds many more years of enjoyment, thus not requiring replacement.
A full set of replacement windows and French doors beautifully installed near Ardingly in West Sussex.
Seventeen windows and one French door sub-frame were fabricated in our workshop in Kent and completed with white sculptured beaded uPVC frames, all with argon gas sealed glass units ready for a direct replacement.
The installation took six days to complete and with little fuss due to the diligence and care of our trained fitting staff.
Our clients were delighted with the way the job was handled from start to finish, now rendering their bungalow with improved security, warmer days and nights during the coming winter months and free from condensation.
The end of June saw the team travel to Scotland for the second time this year to undertake the re-shingling of the south elevation and Texnap 22 oil application to a 1960’s bungalow.
Look closely at the vertical shingles and you will see an alternative pattern to our traditional method of fixing.
With only two weeks to complete the work, this was achieved effortlessly by working some very long days, often until 10pm, with the daylight just beginning to fade.
I would like to say a huge thank you to our client for providing us with a beautiful place to reside, in addition to a stunning location to work.
Western Red cedar shingles or shiplap boarding benefit hugely from being washed down with a pressure washer to get rid of any grime, then applying Texnap 22 oil to nourish and prolong the cedar. Once dried, the cedar is a darker colour, but will fade in time, resulting in this beautiful finish. This treatment was recently carried out on a bungalow in Canterbury.
Set in a stunning garden, this bungalow has been transformed with a new cedar shingle roof; under the glorious spring sunshine, it looks as good as new!
This Kentish Colt bungalow shows how cedar can be transformed from washing the grime away with a pressure washer and applying Texnap 22 oil once dry, resulting in this beautiful finish!
This bungalow still had the original single glazed metal Crittle windows and patio door; these were replaced with nine ‘A’ rated uPVC double glazed windows and one French door set, resulting in a more thermally efficient home and one happy customer!
This Colt house has been bought back to life after following our cedar maintenance programme. This consisted of washing the cedar with a pressure washer to get rid of any dirt, then applying Texnap 22 oil with a brush, resulting in this golden brown finish.
In 1986, Mr and Mrs Luckett built their own family bungalow in Woodchurch, Kent, erecting the building in its entirety and fitting the many thousands of individual shingles to the walls.
With the passing of time, Mrs Luckett’s family realised there would soon come a point when their mother would require some assistance around the bungalow and maybe round the clock care!
The family pondered over the best options for their mother and decided they would contact Colts to look at the feasibility of converting the double garage into a suitable annexe for Mrs Luckett to enjoy.
The garage with all its clutter had a decent floor area to work with, in fact 29 square metres. The criteria, and most important concern to the family was a sympathetic transition. Although the family had the basic idea for the layout, our task was to make it work.
We drew up the plans and applied for the Planning Permission, in addition to a Building Notice application so the work could start immediately.
From start to finish, we removed the wide garage door, completely grubbed out the garage, insulated the outside walls and roof space.
We built stud partition walls, thus achieving a decent living space with room for a small dining table and a utility area off the existing kitchen. Access to the rear garden was achieved by way of French doors complete with low rise thresholds.
The bedroom, although compact, included a bright and airy front window and led seamlessly through a sliding door into a beautifully tiled en-suite, complete with a very low to the floor shower tray, corner vanity unit and toilet with pull down rails for future use.
Every detail was with Mrs Luckett’s best interest at heart; my own staff even had the attitude, “well this could be for my mother!”
We completed the conversion just before Christmas 2017 as agreed. Mrs Luckett and her family now have a delightful one-bedroom annexe to enjoy.
When you think about Colt Houses, you instinctively think about cedar clad buildings, whether it has cedar wood shingles or a mix of vertical or horizontal cedar boarding. Well, this is not always the case. Many Colt buildings in the past were clad with varieties of materials, such as brick, cement render, panelling, uPVC and colour-loc, to name just a few.
In 1970 a bungalow with white colour-loc boarding was supplied to a location in Kent. This type of boarding at the time was a new low maintenance board and lasted for almost fifty years. Although the colour-loc had retained much of its integrity on the bungalow, some more exposed areas were in need of replacing.
There was a planning restriction allowing only white boarding to be used as a replacement, so the search began for a good alternative.
After several discussions with the clients and internet research the only option to replacing the redundant colour-loc boards was with a James Hardie fibre-cement product with an authentic wood grain finish.
We increased the insulation value to the building using an additional layer of 25mm Celotex over the existing fibre board, new battens were fixed over breather house wrap and the fibre-cement board secured to the battens. Our LABC carried out the inspections and the whole job was completed in four weeks. Please take a close look at the detail and craftsmanship on how this alternative to cedar has transformed this bungalow into a bright modern looking home.
Gable End Bedroom Extension03/10/2026 - 8:39 amHaving worked with this young family on this modest sized bungalow near Ashford in Kent over the past ten years, including installing all the windows and carrying out re-shingling work to several elevations, in the late Autumn of 2025, planning approval was granted, building regs followed and the foundation was completed during Summer 2026. An […]
Partial New Shingle Roof30/09/2026 - 7:51 amDecayed shingles and battens were stripped from two elevations of this bungalow roof; new battens were fixed over a Tyvek breather membrane, including continuous verge ventilation and finished with Western Red cedar shingles, including along the ridge. This was completed in only 8 days!
|
New book! - COLT HOUSES THE HISTORY OF W H COLT SON & CO LTD by Clive Kennett
|
