You never know what you may find whilst en-route to Scotland! Heather recently went on a holiday to Scotland with her Husband and friends when they stopped off to stretch their legs and unexpectantly came across a derelict ruin/stone building. Heather being Heather couldn’t resist taking a closer look noticing the various different elements of the building including the lintel details and other supports of the building. Heather took great pride in explaining her findings and explained what type of internal finishes that a building of this age would likely to have, such as a lime render etc.
The ruins consisted of stone walls that were thicker at the base than at the top of the wall and Heather explained why this would be. Heather also explained that the pockets within the stone wall structure were to support the floor joists or maybe a larger timber beam which would be used to reduce the span of the first floor joists, as when these structures were built they did not use uniform and treated timbers as in modern construction methods. They would have used tree trunks and sections of the trunk which would support the floor and roof structure.
Heather’s passion of interesting and older building was certainly evident whilst there. She was like a child in a sweet shop! Her enthusiasm for the building quickly spread to the other members of the party who took an interest in the structure which sparked conversations as to what it may have been used for. Heather can often be found wandering around redundant buildings looking at the architecture and the way the buildings have been constructed.
I think it is true to say that although we can take Heather away from work for a few days, we are unable to take the surveyor out of her!
