Buttle House Refurbishment - Refurbishment

Client:          Dingwall Trust

Project Brief

Dingwall Trust provides a wide range of services to children and families in need in the community. Mainzeal undertook the refurbishment of heritage listed Buttle House which was officially opened in May 2011.
Buttle House is located in Papetoetoe and was originally built in the 1920’s as an orphanage. It was later converted into office space.
Mainzeal’s scope of work was to transform the building’s current office spaces back to their original purpose, creating twelve accommodation rooms for children, two amenity rooms, two kitchens and dining areas and two staff living quarters.
Apart from the existing plastered double brick veneer internal walls, all walls were demolished and replaced with pre-cut pre-nail frame walls. Concrete pedestals supported structural steel beams which in turn held up the new LVL beams. This new structure helped to brace the clay tiled roof and the new walls.
Joinery work included returning all the old double hung windows to good working order, requiring new sash chords and realignment.
The terracotta roof was extended on both sides, keeping the same roof lines as those existing. The two chimneys were strengthened using spiral insert ties and reinforced concrete centrally placed.
Finding new bricks to match the existing ones proved challenging, however after two months of searching the team finally found a source from a brickworks that was closing down in the Waikato.
New building services included central heating, security, video, audio and electrical. The existing drainage and plumbing were also upgraded.