Yes Douglas Fir is very durable too and similar in appearance to cedar. Plastic has it’s place (on suburban terraces for instance), but not on 400 year-old farmhouses!

We now have to consider whether to further extend into the unconverted part of our barn as we have permissions in place for an Annex (you may have seen my posts on Property Tribes) and this is giving us a bit of a dilemna – but a good one really. I quite like the idea of doing it, just need to justify it financially!

I agree about the timber conservatory. I insisted on my parents having one made by our Joiner who made the barn windows (Douglas fir) and it does look fabulous (although the slight movement of some of the wood has caused the odd minor leak – nothing insummountable)

Jo

The farmhouse was in the village of Diptford, between Totnes and South Brent. Part of it was cob, part stone and lime mortar, with some more recent extensions too. Massive place! It was owned by a doctor who was brilliant, just let us get on with it and was dead pleased with the results. We got another contract afterwards to build a timber conservatory (cedar is very durable and sooo much nicer than PVC), and a sort of quadruple garage and office space for his collection of vintage motorbikes. Happy days!

Rich

I’d be nterested to know more about the 400 year old Grade II Listed farmhouse, where in Devon? We converted a 2500ft2 400 year old Grade II listed cob barn in Mid Devon near Crediton and still own it – rented out at the moment. We did over 75% of the conversion ourselves and learnt so much, wish we’d known you then, it would have been great to exchange ideas.

Jo

I’m sorry to say there is no such thing as maintenance-free silicone, even the good stuff needs replacement from time to time. If they are guaranteeing it for 25 years, that is a blatant lie and if you can be bothered, I’d take it up with them and ask for your money back. If enough people did that, they’d stop lying!

You can however maximise its longevity by following the steps in my last blog, cleaning and drying of the surfaces really thoroughly, using Dow Corning or similar one-part silicone. Porous tiles, like some types of natural stone, can also cause a problem behind the silicone.

Rich

I am very interested how you can have maintenace free silicon for bathrooms as I do multi lets and use the 25 year guarantee silicon but it is black within a year ! may just be down to cleaning and continual wet environment but I would expect it to last longer have you got any suggestions ?