A historic coastal home with contemporary renovations

Located in the Scottish coastal town of Carnoustie, overlooking the North Sea, sits The Cottage, a family home with a long history dating back to the 1850. Over the decades, it has seen a series of extensions in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1970s. The latest updates, designed by Architectural Designer, Robbie Gibson and his father David, thoughtfully blends the old with the new. The renovation retains the original, white-washed walls, Carmyllie slate roof, and now incorporates SiOO:X Mid Grey coated larch cladding – creating a cohesive and balanced colour palette across the project.

• Location: Carnoustie
• Year: 2022
• Design: Robbie Gibson, Architectural Designer
• Type of Wood: Siberian Larch
• Type of SiOO:X: SiOO:X Mid Grey
• Photography: Niall Hastie Photography

The family aimed to disrupt the continuous, white-walled exterior and improve the legibility of entrances through the addition of a timber clad façade. This was achieved by creating an impressive main entrance at the front of the property, featuring mixed width boards to give a depth to the façade. Meanwhile, the rear of the property features a reinterpreted sea-view window, clad with both vertical and horizontal SiOO:X coated larch, creating a striking aesthetic, and redefining the elements which were added to the building.

The Cottage is situated in a coastal environment and features a complex design with a variety of elevations around the project, meaning some areas are exposed, and some are sheltered. This meant that achieving a consistently weathered, uniform appearance across the entire project would be almost impossible if left to weather naturally – but that’s where SiOO:X comes in. SiOO:X coatings eliminate differential weathering and provide a consistently weathered appearance to your cladding at an accelerated rate – eliminating patchy or uneven results and ensuring a uniform, beautiful finish across your project.

Choosing an appropriate combination of cladding and coating was of paramount importance when considering the design of The Cottage. As the home sits in a coastal environment, where there is increased exposure to salt, moisture, and wind, Robbie and David chose Russwood’s larch cladding with a SiOO:X Mid Grey coating.

Both the open rainscreen cladding profile, and the SiOO:X Mid Grey coating were specifically chosen with sustainability in mind. The SiOO:X coating was the perfect choice to pair with the sustainably sourced Russwood larch cladding, as the coatings are made from a unique combination of silicon and potassium, which are two natural substances found all around us. SiOO:X coatings have no harsh chemicals, and are completely non-toxic too, so they won’t cause any harm to the environment.

The SiOO:X Wood Protection System consists of two parts: Part 1 (Wood Protector) coating, and Part 2 (Surface Protector). Part 1 opens the wood and penetrates deep into the surface, unlike old, unpatented silicate-based coatings. Part 2 protects the first coating and allows the optimum amount of moisture into the wood to continue hardening and mineralization. The silicon grows and expands in the cells and wood fibres, creating a network deep in the wood and giving the cladding a unique silicon shield that protects and gives the façade a natural grey tint. The Mid Grey pigment gives an immediate colour to the timber and on application a rapid curing process begins, with any initial patchiness fading out over a period of 10-16 weeks. After 2-3 years, the timber is fully cured and a final colour is reached. The result is a consistent weathered tone, achieved years faster than with natural weathering.

SiOO:X is designed to perform well, even in harsh environments. Given the location of The Cottage, the homeowners had to ensure that the cladding could last, and maintain its durability in the salty, windy, wet, exposed seaside environment. Now, three years after application, the SiOO:X coating has fully cured and has aged beautifully, to a silver/grey tone. Beneath the SiOO:X coating, the timber will continue to weather over the course of 10-15 years.

“We believed that coating would be suitable for the marine environment.  After 3 years the cladding system appears to be weathering very well with no issues thus far.” – David Gibson,  Homeowner