House work

"When this project went out to tender I just had to win the contract because I remember playing around here as a kid," enthuses Steve Miners, managing director of ECA member firm Mid Essex Electrical Engineers.

His passion for the renovation of the Hylands Estate has remained undaunted over the past 12 years during the phased restoration of the 18th Century mansion and its outbuildings. With the work now nearing completion, it's easy to understand why.

The spectacular Grade II listed Hylands House stands among 574 acres of landscaped parkland in Chelmsford, Essex. Originally built around 1730, the addition of a grand colonnaded portico and two wings in the 1800s has created an entrance that gives a taster of the treasures to come. Behind the gleaming white facades, intricate decorations of gold leaf, cherubs and elegant plasterwork details give the finishing touches to a trove of period-styled rooms.

But this is a very different scene to the one that met the electrical contractor when it first arrived on site. When Chelmsford Borough Council bought the house and grounds in 1966 it had stood empty for several years, the last private owner having died in 1962; during this time it had fallen victim to fire and water damage and vandalism. "It's really hard to say how bad the [condition of the] building was," stresses Miners. "The water damage was unbelievable, because once the roof had gone, the whole building just crumbled," adds project supervisor Steve Hampshire.

A limited programme of restoration began in 1986, mainly on the exterior. The two wings were cut down to their original one-storey level and new roofs added before the interior was tackled.

Maintaining the mould

Mid Essex Electrical is one of the few contractors to complete work on all six phases of the redevelopment. "We've been through three architects and two consultants among others," says Miners. It won its original contract for phase one of the works back in 1994 by competitive tender. "We've negotiated virtually every phase since then with the main contractors," stresses Miners.

The house reopened to the public in Autumn 2005 and the final stages of the redevelopment are due to complete this summer. By the time music fans arrive for the annual V Festival in August, the landscaping of the grounds back into their original form and the conversion of a stable block into a visitors' centre and staff facilities will be complete.

One of the first stages in the restoration was the installation of a new power supply by the regional electricity board. This terminates close to the house and feeds the various buildings around the Estate. But before this could be put into use in the house, a plantroom had to be created. "That was the biggest part of the job," stresses Hampshire. "The basement didn't even exist on one side of the building. "[To visualise the working conditions in the basement at the start] you've got to imagine you're three foot taller, it's dark, it's damp and it's very, very basic," says Hampshire.

A new basement was created the full length of the building by lowering the existing floors, which meant the original brick ceiling arches could be maintained in line with the building's listed status. A state-of-the-art waterproofing system was added to protect the brickwork and a series of rooms created for public use.

"The basement was done twice," explains Miners. "Phase one was the enabling works to make the building safe and watertight and to provide temporary services. It was just the start of proceedings until they decided what to do with the house." The services were revised later as the renovation progressed.

Distribution of the services from the basement plantroom has involved a creative solution. Due to the building's condition, plus the amount of modern services being installed, old distribution routes were not used. "Chelmsford Borough Council has invested wisely in terms of the restoration and has built, at quite an expense, a service trench all the way around the building," explains Miners. "It'll keep this building going for another 300 years."

This metre-wide tunnel is the main service route, feeding into discreet route risers at intervals. Around two metres in height, it is fully enclosed from the outside, access being through hatches in the basement walls.

Within the house, the distribution and installation of services had to be done with consideration for the original features and architecture that remained. Remnants are dotted throughout: from parts of wallpaper now retained behind protective seals, partial ceiling roses and painted walls to a brick bread oven in the basement; all had to be protected and preserved.

"The heritage people documented everything," assures Miners. "They weren't on site full time, but they were here virtually every day. We had to get the cables in without damaging what was left of the original building." Hampshire adds: "We had to choose the installation route carefully and work out how to develop the systems for a modern building while being careful of the original features - we couldn't come in here and crash, bash, wallop."

Within the rooms, most services are routed at skirting level and via ceiling voids. The period-styled rooms are served by underfloor heating and perimeter fan heaters. A Vesda system provides virtually indistinguishable fire protection within the ceiling patterns.

Lighting is provided by a mix of period and modern fittings according to the area in which they are used. In the ground floor cafe and offices, modern fittings have been used, but in the period rooms specialist manufacturer Dernier and Hamlyn was employed to provide chandeliers and fittings that matched the styles in old photographs and paintings.

At attic level in the three-storey central block of the house a series of conference rooms and kitchen have been created as rentable space. These modern office spaces are in direct contrast to the rooms below. Standard products were used in the installation here and everything needed for such commercial spaces, such as data cabling has been installed throughout.

Since the completion of Hylands House, Mid Essex Electrical has been working on several other buildings within the Estate as part of the restoration.

The smallest, Flint Cottage, sits around 450 m from the main house and provides another unusual feature to the Estate. Looking like a witch's cottage straight from the pages of Hansel and Gretel, this small building has been converted into a storage facility for the V Festival, which will take place in the adjacent grounds. Close to this are a series of groundsmans offices and workshops that were added to an existing barn.

The services in these are fairly simple: in the cottage a basic lighting system was installed; in the workshops the services are more complex and include lighting, power, fibre optics, emergency lighting and electric heating. The issue on these buildings was getting the power to where it was needed from the mains supply.

"There were no electrics in here at all, we had to bring power, fibre optics and telecoms cables 450 m across the grounds from the mains supply beside the house," explains Miners. The main contractor dug a trench at a depth of 0·5 m, but as the grounds remained open to the public throughout the works, restrictions meant that co-ordinating the timings of the work was vital. "We couldn't leave the trenches backfilled overnight," explains Miners. "There were certain sections that they dug out in one go and we just had to get the cables in on that day and the trench refilled and covered."

A more unusual feature affecting the services in the barn was the need to cater for a colony of long-eared and pipistrelle bats. "We've never seen them, but we know they are in there," laughs Miners. "We put all the security system in and all of a sudden we had to change it because the bats were setting the alarms off." To counter the problem, detectors have been lowered below the height at which the high-flying bats move around and contact alarms added to doors in replacement for some motion detectors.

The final phase of Mid Essex's work involves the renovation of the Estate's former stable block. Two horses are planned to be joining the Estate next year, using two renovated stalls. The remainder of the building is getting a new lease of life with a visitors' centre, admin offices, plus artists' studios. The Estate security guard is also gaining a new flat within this block, a welcome change from the current caravan she calls home!

Here again, care has been taken to maintain the existing features and match the services to suit. Hampshire explains: "There are certain areas where if we'd put in the cable trunking straight it would have looked wrong [due to the angles of the walls and panelling], so we've had to unstraighten it so it fits in."

People power

With the complexities involved in the project, Miners cites patience, close working and the operatives on the job as key to its success.

"It was a team effort, with a typical builder's site agent who co-ordinated everything," says Miners. "It wasn't like one of the London projects where you'd have a whole lot of suits, this was done at site level," he adds. One of the key on-site staff for Mid Essex Electrical was Bob Herbert, who has worked on the project from the start. Less well known than his F1 driving son Johnny, he was as important to the electrical circuitry here as his son was on the racing circuits.

The quality of work here and get-the-job-done attitude of people like Bob have won Mid Essex several other high profile projects, including the relighting of St Pauls Cathedral. And Miners has fulfilled his dream of seeing the Estate restored: "I get a lot of satisfaction out of what we do," he concludes, smiling.