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A workshop of four Kvoesco hello@kvoesco.com
Kvoesco · Siena Write to the Bottega Replies within 4 working days

Write to the BottegaOne address, read by Livia at the end of each day

There is one way to reach us, and it is by writing. A first letter that names the town, says roughly how much wall there is and carries a few honest photographs lets Livia tell you in her first reply whether the job is ours to take, what it is likely to cost against the rate card, and when we could come out to tap the plaster and look at it in a low light.

hello@kvoesco.com Write in Italian or English. Three or four photographs are enough to begin; the survey, at €180 within 40 km of Siena, does the rest.
In a first message

What to Tell Us

Six things, in any order. With them we can usually answer properly the first time, and book a survey within three weeks of your writing.

  1. The town the building is in

    The town or nearest village, and whether it sits inside the walls of Siena. Within 40 km the survey is €180; beyond that, travel runs at €0.55 per km, as far as 120 km.

  2. Roughly how much wall, in m²

    A paced guess will do. Length times height, less the doors and windows, is close enough for a first figure against the rate of €72 to €98 per m².

  3. Photographs in daylight

    Three or four, taken square to the wall in shade or on an overcast day, and one stepped back to show the whole room or the whole front of the house.

  4. One photograph in raking light

    A torch held almost flat to the wall, or late sun coming along it. Hollows, salts and old cement patches show up in it as they do in nothing else.

  5. Inside or outside

    Interior walls can be booked for any month we are open. Exterior lime goes on only from April to October, and never below 5°C or in a forecast frost.

  6. Whether it is listed

    If it is, say so early. You arrange the permissions; we supply the condition report, drawings and photographs the office usually asks to see.

Fig. 9
Raking light, in section An old wall cut through to show stone behind a coat of plaster. A torch stands at the foot of the wall, its light running almost parallel to the plaster, so that a patch of plaster lifted off the stone throws a long shadow above it. A camera on a tripod faces the wall square on. Raking light · in section 1 2 3 4
Fig. 9Raking light, in section. 1, a torch at the foot of the wall, almost touching it. 2, its light running along the plaster rather than at it. 3, a patch of plaster lifted off the stone, hollow behind, throwing a long shadow. 4, the camera square to the wall, with no flash.
Before you write

The Photograph That Tells Us Most

Light coming along a wall, not at it, shows every hollow and blister our knuckles would find at the survey.

Wait until dusk, or close the shutters, and hold a torch almost flat against the wall at one end so that its light runs along the plaster rather than onto it. Then stand back, square to the wall, and take the picture without flash.

What looked smooth at noon will come up in relief: the soft swell where plaster has let go of the stone, the crust of salts above a damp line, the hard straight edge of a cement patch from some earlier repair. It is the same light we use at the survey, with a lamp on the floor instead of a torch in the hand, and one good raking photograph often tells us more than ten in daylight.

If the wall is painted, an old fresco or only a band of colour showing under whitewash, add one close photograph of any part where the paint is lifting or powdering, with a coin or a ruler in the frame for scale. Please do not brush it or wipe it first; what comes away on a cloth does not go back.

The survey, step two of the method
Siena, Tuscany

Hours and Place

The bottega is a former carpenter's shop on the south side of Siena, with our lime pits in the yard. Visitors are welcome in the hours below; write first and we will send the way in.

The bottega and the crews

The Bottega

Tuesday to Friday
8:30-12:30 · 15:00-18:30
Saturday
9:00-12:00, by appointment
Sunday and Monday
Closed
Come to see the pits, the putty ageing in them and the sample boards of earth-pigment washes.

On Site

Monday to Saturday
From 7:30
June to August
Off the wall by 16:30
Sunday
No crews out
We start early to lay in the cool. In high summer the afternoon heat dries lime faster than it should.

Closures and Reach

Christmas
23 December to 7 January
Palio weeks
No scaffolding moved inside the walls in the four days before 2 July and 16 August
Travel radius
120 km from Siena
Further than 120 km only for a chapel nobody else will take on.
After you write

How Long a Reply Takes

Within four working days, often fewer

Livia reads every letter herself and answers in the evening, once the crews are back and the tools are washed. Expect a reply within four working days, with a first view of the job, a range taken from the rate card and two or three dates for the survey.

From June to August, Livia, Tommaso, Grazia and Nico are all on scaffolds from 7:30, and a reply can take a little longer. Letters are not lost, only waiting for a cooler hour. Between 23 December and 7 January the bottega is shut, and nothing is answered until it opens again.

After the reply comes a survey within about three weeks, €180 within 40 km and credited in full against the job; a written quote fixed after it; a 30% deposit on booking; and a first day on site, at present, 14 to 20 weeks after the quote is signed.

Write to hello@kvoesco.com

Every rate and term, before you write