In January 2018, Shuttington House, a large residential property on Ashby Road, Tamworth, caught fire. Six fire crews from Polesworth, Atherstone, Coleshill, Leamington, Kenilworth and Nuneaton, fought the blaze for 14 hours until they had it under control.
The fire, believed to be the result of a wiring fault, resulted in the loss of the main roof structure and the entire second floor and caused extensive damage to the ground- and first-floor internal areas.
In April 2018, we were appointed by the house’s owners to explore a fire damage restoration scheme to reinstate and repair the property. By this point, the owners, for whom this was their family home, had been relocated into temporary accommodation. The property had a scaffold and tent erected over it to protect it from the elements. Much of the building’s contents, covered in soot from the fire or mould due to dampness, was still in situ as the process of placing it into storage and restoration was taking place.
Uninhabitable
It was truly heartbreaking to see a home that our clients had occupied, maintained and developed for almost 40 years reduced to such an uninhabitable state. Indeed, there was a strong case to be made for completely demolishing the remaining structure and starting afresh. This, understandably, was not what our clients wanted to pursue, given their emotional attachment to their home.
As well as looking at reinstatement and repairs, we also explored the potential for redesigning the layout and flow of the dwelling with an extension. Financially this was, in no small part, dependent upon agreeing on figures with the insurer’s loss adjuster.
After attending the site to gauge the extent of the damage and take careful measurements, we produced drawings of the property in its current condition. Plans were also created to show a scheme that reinstated the roof and internal layout, along with sketches for various alteration and extension concepts.
Emmerson Construction Services Limited provided a cost analysis of the work required, and the extent of the necessary work was discussed and agreed upon with the loss adjuster.
Over the course of several meetings with the parties involved, the property owners decided to pursue a scheme to alter and extend, with the insurer covering costs up to that required to rectify the damage.
We produced a full set of planning drawings and submitted them to the Local Authority Planning Department. We have now obtained Planning Permission for the works and have gone on to produce production drawings that formed part of a tender package sent out to several contractors. We are currently awaiting their tender prices.
Looking ahead, construction has a provisional start date of early January 2019, by which time specialist contractors will have stripped out or protected salvageable fittings, and demolished unstable or fire-damaged building elements. The aim is to complete by September so our clients can be back in their homes to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
We hope to update you on progress in the future.
