Projects - Old Stone House Restoration & Strengthening

The Old Stone House was built by Sir John Cracroft Wilson on his Cracroft estate in 1870-71 as quarters for his 40 Indian servants and workers.

The building was only at 15 percent of the New Building Standard (NBS), meaning it was considered earthquake-prone and in need of extensive repairs and strengthening. After a lot of careful work, the facility has been repaired and strengthened to 67 percent of the New Building Standard.

The ABL Construction team has been able to complete the repairs while keeping much of the original heritage value that makes the Old Stone House so special. The focus was on doing the strengthening from the interior, which had already seen renovation, while keeping the historic exterior as untouched as possible.

A series of concrete beams is now hidden inside the walls of the historic building and a complicated steel structure sits beneath the slate roof. The chimney has been rebuilt around a steel core and the stone lintels have been replaced.

The strengthening work is barely noticeable and the building looks exactly as it did before the earthquakes.