Case study: Colt House

Nestled in the Suffolk countryside this 1960s Colt House has undergone a complete – and in parts, unexpected – renovation to restore its simple charm and make it fit for modern family life.

Now a warm and light-filled five-bedroom family home, it’s a far cry from dark, cold and poorly extended house it once was.

The homeowners found the house when looking to relocate from London to Suffolk to be near relatives. They immediately saw its potential as somewhere they could put down roots with their young family. But they knew it need a lot of work.

The benefit of taking your time before tackling a major renovation

Before tackling the renovation, the homeowners lived in the house for a year while they got a feel for how they wanted the house to work for them. It meant they could also understand how the sun moved around the house during the different seasons, which is invaluable knowledge when thinking about window placement and opening up internal spaces.

Ipswich-based TAS Architects were appointed to solve the design dilemmas and to lead the renovation project. The plan was to strip the house right back to its original structure, removing the later additions and the white uPVC windows, none of which were in keeping with the house’s architectural style. But when work finally began, even the architects were surprised by what they found – or didn’t find.

Expect the unexpected

The house is a kit house, built in the early 1960s. The original timber structure was found to be completely sound. However, when main contractor James Norman stripped the house back, they discovered that the house had zero insulation. It meant more or less starting from scratch, which also meant finding a way to balance the client’s goals and their budget.

“Our aim was always to retain as much of the original building as possible,” explains Lizzie Hicks of TAS Architects, “but with no existing insulation, we had to do a full upgrade of the envelope of the house and replace the heating system. It was a case of doing basic upgrades that wouldn’t use up all of the budget. Fortunately, when it came to the windows, we knew VELFAC offered the right combination of thermal efficiency, aesthetics, and, importantly, value for money.”

Reconfiguring spaces to provide better connections, internally and externally

The original downstairs layout of the house was dark and disconnected, with two staircases eating up space and blocking light.

TAS Architects redesigned the central circulation space, removing one of the two original staircases and replacing the other with a design of their own.

A new single-storey extension was also added where an older extension and conservatory had previously been. “Reconfiguring the central area of the ground floor meant we could get nice, clean openings in spaces where previously there had been lots of divisions,” explains Lizzie, “Now, as you move through the house, there is nice flow and there is always a view through to the outside.”

Rooted in nature

The house is set in mature gardens and bordered by woodland, rooting it in nature and filtering a sense of calm into to the house. The seamless connection between outside and in is achieved through use of materials and the carefully framed window openings.

Internally, the light timber finish of the VELFAC windows blends harmoniously with the natural wood finishes throughout much of the house, including the original 1960s woodblock flooring in the entrance hall.

Externally, the original wooden cladding was replaced with new larch cladding, tying in the old and new parts of the house. Over time, the larch will weather to a silver-grey.

The slim sightlines of the VELFAC windows complement the style of the house perfectly. And with a life-expectancy of at least 40 years, the choice of RAL7021 black-grey powder coating on the external aluminium VELFAC frames ensures that the windows will look good throughout the life of cladding.

Framing views

“There are so many different ways to see through the house,” says Lizzie, “we didn’t change any of the original window openings – there was no need once we’d opened up the internal space on the ground floor.

“One of the great things about VELFAC windows is their flexible configuration, which means they can be made to fit all sorts of odd window sizes. VELFAC window distributor okoHaus was able to offer some great advice to ensure we used the right type of window opening for each of the 39 VELFAC windows fitted.”

The slim sightlines of VELFAC windows also meant they were able to maximise the view – and light – from every window. “Sometimes, a really nice, well-placed framed window can work better than big expanses of glass, and that was certainly the case with this house,” says Lizzie.