Janet Collings

Repairing an old house may not be do-it-yourself brain surgery. That doesn’t stop novices expecting to buy a single book that tells them in step-by-step detail what to do with the floor of a medieval house in Nottinghamshire, or the roof of a Victorian terrace house in Dorset.

Janet Collings’ new book is as close as anyone has got to this impossible, and perhaps undesirable, goal. Previous books by Hugh Lander and Matthew Saunders, aimed at the homeowner, have all been valuable sources of advice, but are now out of print. An updated and revised edition of Pamela Cunnington’s book, a great standby, has just been reissued with slightly changed title, Caring for Old Houses.

Compared with both Lander’s and Saunders’ books, this is much more up-to-date, providing brief references to current thinking and practice on a wide range of issues, from the positive role of spiders in controlling deathwatch beetles to conserving head without damaging the building.

So why is this book so badly needed? In reality, the vast majority of work to old houses is done by owners using no more than a builder plus ‘specialists’ such as kitchen, conservatory or damp-proofing companies, often drawn at random from Yellow Pages. Those architects and other professional who have real knowledge of historic buildings are brought in far too rarely. The resulting horrors can be seen wherever you look.

As you would expect from a book by a former SPAB scholar and architect, this book does have a firm though concealed philosophical strand running through it. Perhaps in places this could be fractionally more explicit to help the owner make sense of ideas that initially may strike them as a bit upside down – such as the fact that doing less may actually be preferable to doing too much.

The dilemma facing any author of such a book is what to include and what omit. In this case, the balance between general principles and specific information should help owners understand their buildings rather better, tell them a bit about the legal framework, and issues such as choosing professionals, and brief them on the sort of questions they should ask their builder.

In fact, it covers much of the ground included in an SPAB Homeowners’ Course, and will undoubtedly help complement future such courses. A further difficulty for an author is how to group material. Just occasionally, some sections or paragraphs seem to belong more naturally elsewhere in the book, but if one reads the book in its entirety everything will fall into place.

One shortish chapter covers alterations and extensions. Inevitably, this has to rely slightly more on the author’s subjective judgement, but is strongly influenced by the sort of planning policies developed by many local authorities. What it does not do – which some owners expect – is show ‘what kind of door I should put back in my 1680s cottage.’ Unlike previous books it touches on sustainability issues, gardens and wildlife.

Whether you are planning extensive repairs and alterations to your house, or simply want to know more about it and how to look after it more knowledgeably, this book is a good place to start.

Philip Venning