A glimpse behind the scaffold – conservation works at Rouse Hill Estate
Digital Content Coordinator Gabriella Florek took an enlightening tour of ongoing conservation works at Rouse Hill Estate to understand some of the finer details of caring for a complex heritage site.
On a crisp, sunny day in winter 2025, I met the enthusiastic and knowledgeable Maria Elena Ruggeri, Heritage Project Manager, for a tour of the major conservation works on Rouse Hill House and the stables. Maria Elena talked me through some of the conservation practices that underpin these significant works. It was a great chance to peek behind the scaffolding and hear about some of the (to me) more mysterious aspects of the works, which would be easy to miss by the untrained eye.
Keeping dry
Our first stop was the stables, where conservation works had already been completed. These started at the top of the building, where carpenters had made significant repairs to the charming lantern and added caps to the chimneys. Traditional stonemasons had repointed the chimneys’ brickwork and replaced deteriorated lead flashings around them. Shutters and louvres on several of the windows and doors had been repaired, and the exterior timber painted.
Maria Elena explained that one of the most important aims when working on heritage buildings such as the stables is to prevent water from coming in. Repointing, re-flashing, having solid layers of paint and good gutters and downpipes that are properly connected and flowing are all essential elements that protect the building from water damage. Having heard the term ‘repointing’ a few times in our walk around the site, I asked Maria Elena to give me a more detailed explanation of what this involved.
Brick walls, she explained, rely on two types of mortar. Bedding mortar keeps bricks on top of one another and keeps a structure upright. After the bricks have been bedded together, the outer 2–2.5 centimetres is filled with pointing mortar.
When moisture comes up into a building’s wall (due to environmental factors or structural issues with the building), it often carries salts and it must come out again. Moisture will generally come out of the ‘weakest member’ of a wall; ideally, that will be the pointing mortar. Modern brick walls often use pointing mortar made of cement, but because cement-based mortar is harder than brick, the moisture and salts will come out through the bricks instead of the mortar, and damage the bricks – the fundamental thing to avoid!
The process of repointing walls involves removing old, damaged pointing mortar and replacing it with fresh mortar. For the stables at Rouse Hill Estate, traditional lime mortar was used. Lime-mortar pointing demands a slow curing process to ensure that it doesn’t crack. As it slowly dries, it creates a kind of outer skin, making it a better candidate for a ‘sacrificial’ part of the wall, so water and salts can find a way out from it should they enter the wall.
A tired old doorframe
Our next stop on the walkthrough was Rouse Hill House, where extensive scaffolding indicated that major works were still underway. These include the application of linseed oil on the window sashes and shutters, as well as some ongoing delicate joinery repairs and the replacement of lead flashing on the roof.
Maria Elena particularly wanted to show me some more unusual pieces of work happening to the service wing, which is attached to and sits behind the main house. When we entered the service wing, she pointed out a section of deteriorated timber on the ground. She explained that this was the top, or header, of the frame for the larder door. Before it was taken down, the header was bearing the load of the arch and structure above it. It had bowed and deflected due to this load and white ant damage to the timber, and the whole frame would need to be replaced. To better support the brickwork above, a steel plate would be added on top of it before the masonry above was reinstated. But to help me understand the history of the frame and why it had deteriorated in this way, Maria Elena showed me a mysterious feature on the exterior wall.
A case for a staircase
Behind the service wing, on the exterior wall of the house, there is a light line which is believed to have been made by an old staircase, long since removed. That staircase is thought to have once led to a landing, another feature that no longer exists.
Maria Elena explained that the landing was eventually transformed into a balcony, complete with its own awning and balustrade. The stairs on the outer wall were likely removed at that time, and the balcony was accessed from a set of stairs inside the scullery. The new structure was built to protrude through the arch. Typically, the primary function of an arch is to hold the load of the masonry above, but with a balcony built into it, the arch was compromised.
The first stage of the conservation work involved carefully dismantling and documenting the arch to better understand its structure. Once the new frame and steel plate were installed, the arch would be reinstated.
A new perspective
Guided by Maria Elena’s insightful explanations, the site walkthrough was an enlightening exercise. As she talked me through some of the detailed, painstaking work involved in this extensive conservation project, it was a great indication of the fact that all buildings, and especially heritage ones, pose unique challenges for those needing to care for and preserve them. And of course, a good reminder that you can’t tell all the intricacies of work from a scaffold on the front of a building.
Published on
More stories from Rouse Hill Estate
Browse all
Rouse Hill conservation works 2024–25
After detailed condition inspections of the state heritage–listed Rouse Hill Estate, MHNSW’s Capital Works and Heritage teams have begun a large-scale conservation project that will sensitively address a range of identified issues at the site
Conservation
A strong and simple structure: conserving the woolshed
The second phase of a major conservation project on the woolshed at Rouse Hill Estate has seen the rustic 160-year-old structure strengthened and stabilised
Conservation
What lies beneath: conservation works
Two conservation projects demonstrate the complex factors to consider when working with heritage buildings
Conservation
A herculean task: clearing the woolshed
The first stage of a major conservation project at Rouse Hill Estate involved removing thousands of objects accumulated over 150 years of the property’s occupation