There is a lot a floor restoration service can do, from removing blemishes from a beautiful stone floor to saving historic natural materials from the ravages of time. However, one restoration project went above and beyond to save a listed building.
Located in Somerset, Bath Abbey is one of the oldest and most beautiful churches in the country. It dates to the seventh century AD and has been actively used since then.
This has allowed it to endure more than most buildings of the same age, but that can sometimes mask the foundational issues that need to be fixed at times.
In the case of Bath Abbey’s floor, this was very literal, as it had begun to sink for decades until a 2011 geological survey found that graves and burials had started to cause the floor to collapse in a way that was not only unsightly but also potentially dangerous.
This led to some significant restoration work that took a grand total of three years and 20,000 hours of work.
The process involved lifting the floor of the Abbey stone by stone, filling the voids that had formed underneath, restoring the stones systematically and re-laying them where they were.
This included 891 burial ledger stones, which needed particular care due to their historical importance in commemorating people who had died and been buried under and around the Abbey.
This process was painstaking and cost millions of pounds but it was absolutely necessary and helps not only to preserve the history of a building that has housed more history than most but also secure its physical future, with the restoration work being undertaken alongside an underfloor heating installation.
It highlights that restoring flooring is not just a matter of aesthetics or even comfort, but can stop a historic building from suffering significant and permanent damage.