Bespoke door canopy installation in Highgate

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Bespoke Edwardian door canopy replacement

Let’s start this blog story with a teaser: what does a nice Edwardian house in North London have in common with one of the most iconic buildings in the country? We’ll give the answer in a moment!

The Edwardian house in question is an attractive terraced property on the borders of Crouch End and Highgate, where the owner, Sarah, had asked Summit Cladding to have a look at her front door canopy, which was badly in need of repair.

Sarah knew it was important that the restored canopy, with its authentic metal supporting straps, should continue to match the period detail of her home. This is a requirement that Summit is well used to, so we were happy to accept the challenge.

Water penetration causing rot

The problem seemed to have been caused by a previous renovation when the original lead canopy roof was replaced by a sheet of mineral felt. That was obviously a cheaper option, but it was a false economy because felt roofing will never last as long as lead – and this one had started leaking.

When we had a closer look we could see that the wooden subframe had started to rot and the original timber moulding on the underside was really only being held together by layers of paint, so the first task was to remove and replace all the rotten timber.

Where to get the best replacement

Then we were faced with replacing the Edwardian wooden mouldings – which is where we found the answer to our question at the start. To make the replacements we approached a bespoke timber manufacturer, which also make roof detail mouldings for the Houses of Parliament, so we knew we would get the very best restoration.

Summit stripped off the old mineral felt on the flat roof and replaced it with Code 5 authentic lead sheeting. Then we fitted the new moulding to the underside and finally our team prepared and painted all the new timber in beautifully contrasting black around the edge and white in the centre.

The canopy is now as good as or even better than the original Edwardian structure, and visitors who call at Sarah’s house in future can look above their heads and gaze on timberwork prepared by the same joiners who are helping to repair the Palace of Westminster. And that’s quite a talking point for her and for Summit Cladding!

Categorised in: Door Canopies

This post was written by Summit Cladding