Having already spent a lot of time and not inconsiderable money renovating our house in Strathbungo I saw recently that Glasgow Metropolitan College is offering an evening course on how to look after older buildings.

The course starts in April and lasts for 11 weeks over at the North Hanover Street Campus off George Square and is presented by David T Martin (MBE, BArch, RIBA, FRIAS, DipHisArt).

It offers participants the opportunity to

learn about maintenance and repair of older property in the West of Scotland. If you are a home owner or otherwise interested in maintenance and repair of older properties, you can learn about the traditional materials, their likely defects and various repair techniques. This course is especially useful for owners of listed buildings and property in conservation areas”.

The course includes what homeowners and others working with traditional building materials need to know including repair and maintenance requirements of older buildings; traditional materials, likely defects and a range of repair techniques. The course covers stonework, roofing, brickwork, rot, concrete; beetle attack, timber, metalwork, windows, decorative finishes, doors and planned maintenance.