At a glance
Watergate Cottages
When the owners of Watergate Cottages in Wembury got in contact to discuss the renovation of their 19th century property, we instantly got a sense that they wanted to do everything in the ‘right way’.
For them, it was never about cutting corners, trimming the budget or doing bits of it later, it was always about doing theright thing for the property and in the case of Watergate Cottages, it was all about the bag rub finish.
For those of you that aren’t too familiar with the history of traditional finishing techniques (we appreciate that’s not a long list of people) here’s how it works in simple terms.
A bag rub finish is neither pointing not render, it’s almost a bit of both. The beauty of it is it not only preserves the very unique character of the stonework but just as importantly it protects as well.
For if you look carefully at the images here, you’ll see awonderfully smooth, uniform finish that follows the contours of the stone, giving real character … part pointing, part render. As the name suggests the lime finish is applied then literally bag rolled using traditional hessian to create a stunning, textured finish that is simply impossibly to walk by without running your hand across it.
What you have right here is a combination of craftsmanship of the highest order and a confidence from a client that says ‘if we’re restoring it … we’re doing it properly’.
The result is clear to see and it’s difficult to argue against doing it this slightly more time consuming way but above anything else it proves once and for all that at Leyden, we’re serious about craftsmanship.
