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Estrela Pombalino

A pombalino building whose gaiola timber frame is its earthquake structure, and whose previous owner had painted over it six times.

€168,500Contracted and paid

24 weeksOn site

On timeAgainst the contracted date

2025Lisboa

  • Pombalino apartment after structural renovation, Estrela Estrela pombalino kitchen before works, original panelled units Before ScopeStructural timber, lime plaster, 96 m² WhereLisboa Survey foundTimber structure hidden under six coats of paint Contracted€168,500 On site24 weeks Against the dateOn time

Survey to close-out, in the owners' own sequence.

The brief

A 96 m² pombalino apartment whose gaiola timber frame — the structure that has held the building up since the eighteenth century — had been painted over six times.

What the survey found

Paint removed in three test patches to read the frame. Two members had been notched for pipework at some point after 1950, which is exactly the kind of alteration that quietly removes a building's earthquake resistance.

What we did about it

Notched members spliced rather than replaced, so the original timber keeps working. Lime plaster in three coats, each allowed to carbonate, which is the part of the programme that cannot be shortened.

“They talked to the câmara before they drew. Nothing was refused, and nothing had to be done twice.”

Inês F., Estrela

Twenty-four weeks, most of it waiting on lime.

Three coats, each allowed to carbonate. The log is unusually boring in the middle and that is exactly what a pombalino restoration should look like.

  1. Day 1

    Survey

    Engineer on site with us. Paint removed in three test patches to read the frame; two members had been notched for pipework at some point after 1950.

  2. Week 4

    Approval

    Câmara consulted before design, not after. The scope was written to what they would accept, which is why nothing was rejected later.

  3. Week 9

    Structure

    Notched members spliced rather than replaced. Splicing keeps the original timber working and is the reason this is restoration and not reconstruction.

  4. Week 16

    Plaster

    Lime plaster in three coats, each allowed to carbonate. This is the part that cannot be rushed and the reason the programme is 24 weeks.

  5. Week 24

    Close-out

    Delivered on the contracted date with the statutory five-year structural guarantee.

The frame is the building.

If you are buying pombalino, have someone read the gaiola before you exchange. We do that as part of the survey, with an engineer on site.

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