Materials
Natural materials that breathe, age, and can be repaired.
We work with a short palette of natural materials: kiln-fired brick, lime mortar, solid timber, natural stone, stone wool, zinc and copper. Materials that grow better with the years, and that can be mended rather than replaced.
Why natural materials
The choice of material is not taste alone. It decides how the house dries out, what happens after twenty years, and whether damage can be mended or has to be replaced.
The house has to breathe
We build vapour-open where the construction allows it: stone wool rather than plastic foam, lime mortar rather than hard cement mortar. Moisture that gets into a construction has to be able to get out again.
It has to be repairable
A solid plank floor can be sanded. A lime-mortared wall can be repointed. A zinc flashing can be soldered. Materials that can only be replaced become expensive the day something breaks.
It should improve with the years
Brick, timber, natural stone, copper and zinc share one quality: time suits them. That is the opposite curve to most industrial surfaces.
Fewer materials, clearer house
One main material for the facade, one for base and thresholds, one durable metal detail, one precise roof edge. The junction between two materials is where a house reads as considered or accidental.
The palette
Not an exhaustive list, and not a catalogue. These are the materials we return to, because we know them and can detail them correctly.
Wall and facade
- BrickPetersen TeglMatzen Tegl
- Coal-fired and hand-struck brick carries a depth of colour and an irregularity a machine-made brick cannot imitate. Both are still made in Denmark.
- Reclaimed brickGamle Mursten
- Brick from demolished buildings, cleaned and laid again. The only reclaimed brick in Denmark with ETA approval and CE marking, so it may carry load rather than only face a wall.
- Lime mortarNordisk NHL
- Softer than the brick, so the wall can move and dry. The bricks can be reclaimed the day the wall comes down — they cannot from hard cement mortar. The lime is chosen in a strength matched to the masonry it has to sit in.
Roof
- Clay roof tilesRanders TeglV. Meyer
- Fired clay ages. Concrete tiles do not — they go grey and gather moss. Danish-produced pantiles, or a tile developed for the specific house rather than picked from a range.
- Hand-struck roof tilesDantegl
- For listed and conservation-worthy roofs where a machine-made tile cannot go. Pantiles, monk-and-nun and beaver-tail tiles, hand-struck from Danish clay — one of the few places in Northern Europe where that tradition is still in production.
- ThatchTækpol Stråtag
- Thatch is a craft, not a product. What can be specified is the reed: most of the reed laid in Denmark is imported. Danish-grown reed of known origin is the exception.
- Zinc and copperNG Zink
- Left to patinate. The sheet is not rolled in Denmark, but roof edge, dormer, flashing and downpipe are formed here — and on an older house the profile of a gutter is as much architecture as the facade.
- Steel roof and facade profilesDS Stålprofil
- Where roof or facade should be metal rather than clay. Thin-sheet steel produced in Hobro.
Timber
- Plank floorsDinesen
- Thick enough to be sanded several times and to keep living through more than one owner.
- Cladding and deckingFrøslev Træ
- Untreated, thermally modified or soap-finished timber that greys evenly, rather than surfaces that flake.
- Acoustic ceilingsTroldtekt
- Wood wool bound in cement. The ceiling solves the acoustics and stays a material you can look at, rather than a suspended tile.
Insulation
- Stone woolROCKWOOL
- Spun from melted volcanic rock — basalt and gabbro — not from plastic. Non-combustible, and it does not close the construction to vapour the way closed plastic foams do.
- Foundation and ground floorLeca
- Below ground, organic materials do not last — the moisture is always there. The choice is between mineral and plastic. Expanded clay fired from Danish clay insulates, breaks the capillary rise and can carry load — keeping plastic foam out of the one place the rest of the palette cannot reach.
Base, stone and paving
- Natural stone and graniteZurface
- Granite is quarried in one place in Denmark — Bornholm, where the bedrock lies exposed. Plinth, steps and thresholds take the treatment that position gets over sixty years.
- Paving and retaining wallsIBF
- Concrete belongs on the ground, not on the roof: paving, steps, kerbs and retaining walls that have to take frost, salt and weight for decades.
Surface treatment
- Linseed oil paintSkovgaard & Frydensberg
- This is where most renovations of older houses go wrong. Modern plastic-based paint seals the timber, the moisture stays in, and the joinery rots behind it. Linseed oil paint lets the wood breathe and can be maintained rather than scraped off.
Lighting
- Light fittingsLouis PoulsenLE KLINT
- Glare-free light in layers rather than one point in the ceiling. Danish lighting is one of the few disciplines where the original is still in production — and still made by hand.
- Fittings for older housesLYFA
- For restoration, the original fittings still exist in the archives. That is the difference between a period-correct house and a house full of copies.
Windows and rooflights
- Coupled windowsFROVIN
- Genuine coupled construction with slim glazing bars. It is how an older house keeps its face and still meets current energy requirements.
- Wood and wood/aluminium windowsVELFAC
- Where the house needs modern performance and large formats. Narrow frames, so the glass counts for more than the profile.
- RooflightsVELUX
- Daylight from above changes a room more than another window in the facade. Position matters most — and there are rooflights developed specifically for listed buildings.
Doors, fittings and joinery
- DoorsVahle
- Danish-made joinery doors to measure. A made-to-measure door adapts to wall thickness, frame and handle instead of dictating them.
- Glass walls and internal glass doorsDYFA
- Aluminium profiles and large panes that divide a room without closing it. The profile stays slim, and the panel is made to measure, so the opening decides the door rather than the other way round.
- Fittings and hardwareVOLATONI Copenhagen
- What you touch every day should feel right and still be serviceable in twenty years.
- Mirrors and glassJ.N. Bech
- Mirrors and shower screens in toughened glass, measured to the room. A shower drawn to the recess rather than a standard cubicle dropped into it.
- Basin and worktopMarmorline
- Worktop and basin cast as one piece and measured to the room. No joint between top and basin means no seam to keep clean — and the top is made to the dimensions the room has, rather than the other way round.
- Bathroom drainageUnidrain
- A linear drain against the wall means the floor only has to fall one way. One plane instead of four meeting at a grate in the middle.
- Carpenter-built kitchenGarde HvalsøeNicolaj Bo
- Made for the house, not for a catalogue. Solid fronts, proper hinges, and a layout that follows the dimensions of the room.
This list is being extended. Several of the manufacturers we work with are not named here yet, because we only put a name in print once it is confirmed.
We specify these materials because we know them and can detail them correctly. We do not sell them, we are not a dealer for any of the manufacturers, and we take no commission.
Shall we look at yours?
Start with the free property report, so we both know what the property allows before we draw.