School project proves to be a real education

The challenge of transforming a 100-year-old school building into upmarket residential homes is no mean feat – but a school transformation is exactly the task that one building firm has undertaken and the outstanding results put them top of the class.

The old Shirland Primary School, near Higham in Derbyshire, became available to buy after the school was relocated to a new building in 2011 and Linden Design & Build Ltd purchased it, with planning permission, in June 2014.

The existing site consisted of a two-storey brick-built schoolmaster’s house, formerly used as school offices, and a substantial brick-built school building, along with a tarmac surfaced playground.

Linden Design & Build’s plan was to develop the schoolmaster’s house into a single dwelling and split the other building into four houses, while also erecting five new properties on the land, one 4-bedroomed detached and two pairs of 2-bedroomed semis, all with garages.

Despite some initial difficulties concerning planning permission details, the work progressed well, as Don Berry of Linden Design & Build, explained:

“As the first part of the school transformation, we had to replace all of the roofing and render the two existing buildings before installing new windows and doors. Because of the nature of the properties, the windows were going to be a fundamental feature of the finished design.”

When it came to selecting a company to provide the windows and doors for a project like this, the decision was simple.

“I chose Vintage Windows as our supplier,” said Don. “We’ve used them in the past and they’ve always provided top quality products. It was vital that we used nothing but the best on this development to maintain the high-class finish.”

Vintage, based in Riddings, Derbyshire, also provided a lantern roof for one of the properties.

“The other reason we chose them is because they are a Liniar fabricator,” said Don. “Liniar products are superb – they’re easy to install, have outstanding thermal values and look simply stunning. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results!”

For more information on Liniar’s full range of windows, door and roofs visit https://www.liniar.co.uk/