The Aisled Barn, Halifax
The Aisled Barn which sits in the upper part of the Shibden Valley in Halifax
comprises of a sixteenth century oak timber frame and thick stone outer walls
some of which were rebuilt in the late eighteenth century. It has been sensitively
converted to a home, retaining all the original timber frame, conserving the fabric
of the building and retaining as much of the character and history within the
building as was possible.
The owners were keen to avoid problems seen elsewhere where buildings have
removed earth floors and replaced them with compacted ungraded hardcore and
concrete sub bases preventing any water that gets under the building from draining away.
At the Aisled barn a later concrete floor covering was taken up, together with
earth, stone and brick to excavate a depth of 425mm from the proposed finished
floor level. The clay ground below stone stylobates which support the principal
timber frame posts was held in place by casting a square collar around them
to allow an excavation to this depth.
It is important that any ground below foundations are not undermined in digging out for a light weight sub base.
The floor was then built up from the bottom with 250mm of free draining
‘Foamit 30’ foamed glass subbase. This had some perforated drainage pipes
laid within it. Whilst the clay ground around the building appears to help
keep the water out of the building it would also act as a well and drainage
needed to be provided.
Above this a compacted sub base was placed a damp proof membrane, 75mm
of polyurethane insulation, underfloor heating pipes and 100 mm of polished concrete.
