An imaginative stable conversion has added 16 residential places to MENCAP's Rural Training Unit at Lufton Manor, Yeovil The unit currently provides practical training for 72 mentally handicapped school leavers. The stables date back to 1860, built from local Ham stone, and the aim of the conversion was to retain the original character of the building.

Gun-Point, the mechanised repointing service, was called in to undertake the extensive raking and repainting of the rubble stone, where voids of 5mm had begun to appear. The work called for the careful and complete filling of wide and deep joints and Gun-Point were suited to such a specialised task because of their pump's ability to inject accurately the large volumes of mortar required. In the case of the MENCAP commission, it was vital that the right materials were used to suit the character of the local Ham stone. The team therefore used a combination of two local sands to form the basc of a weak gauged mortar that matched the strength and colour of the original bedding mix

The MENCAP conversion also involved making new stone mullions and casting new aluminium window frames from moulds taken from the original
iron frames. The architects were M.W.T from Plymouth, the contractors Brian C Cooper of Sherborne, and the whole project was funded by the New Era Housing Association

For more information contact: Castlepoint Ltd, T/A Gun-Point, 189 Fratton Road, Portsmouth, Hants PO1 5EU
Tel: 023 9286 5267