Mackintosh Hill House conservation project at ‘exciting’ stage

Conservation experts will now take samples from the interior of the building to build up understanding of the water damage and how much this has been reversed by the protection of the box.

Project director Elizabeth Davidson said they were at “a really exciting stage” in their work.

“The box has been doing its dual job of preventing further water from impacting on the building, and also allowing the structure, which in some places was very wet indeed, to dry out gradually,” she said.

“We’ve been closely monitoring this process and this sampling helps us gain more insight into how the building is responding to the drying process.

“Relative humidity in the house is now down to acceptable conservation standards – a remarkable achievement given the very visible areas of rain penetration previously through microcracking in the structure,” she added.