Join us for a Free Zoom information event with Dr. Christopher Cooper. Please fill out the form below to reserve your place. You will be sent confirmation and receive Zoom credentials the week of the event.
Join the Heritage Maintenance Guild and upgrade your skills with our celebrated professional development courses.
Are you handy?
Do you have general renovation skills?
Do you have knowledge and experience using power tools?
Do you have the motivation to run your own successful small business?
Are you currently a small contractor, and want to learn new skills and earn a much higher income?
Do you want more work, or better work?
People Need to Know They Can Make Money in Trade Careers! Join the Heritage Maintenance Guild and upgrade your skills with our celebrated professional development courses.
High-paying small business are available for students who choose trade school or vocational or technical education instead of bachelor’s degree programs.
We are searching for individuals to help change their lives with a new and exciting career in heritage maintenance. We will be starting in the Winter of 2021 to teach the arts of heritage restoration and preservation on a small scale. There is a total lack of heritage professionals who perform small job maintenance on the vast stock of older homes across Canada.
The student intern needs to be very flexible with weekday, evening and weekends courses through distance learning opportunities.
Register now for one of our upcoming sessions before this opportunity closes.
Some of the things you will learn:
- Understanding heritage architecture;
- Understanding the intricacies of the design era of the subject building;
- Principles of heritage design, as related to the subject building;
- Principles of heritage woodworking;
- Understanding mouldings and trims;
- Safety and machine tool use;
- Principles of heritage interiors and exteriors;
- Heritage cladding repair and fitting;
- Window repair and restoration;
- Storm window installation;
- Door repair and restoration;
- Heritage masonry repair and restoration, brick and stone;
- Flat wall plaster repair and restoration;
- Heritage painting, interior and exterior;
- Using epoxies and when to replace, what to replace with;
- Wooden floors, repair, restoration and replication;
- Contracts and quoting, customer care.
Further Professional Development at the Edifice Atelier
The Edifice Atelier offer many other in classroom and on-line courses to further train and educate an individual to further their consultancy thus providing more opportunity of higher income. These course are:
- Timber framing repair and restoration;
- Building replacement wooden windows and storms;
- Building wooden replacement doors;
- Building porches, portico and verandahs;
- Ornamental mill work (AKA Gingerbread)
- Ornamental plaster repair and restoration;
- Roof repair and restoration;
- Water management;
- Proper insulation techniques for a heritage building;
Your Instructor:
Dr Christopher Cooper PhD.
Dr. Christopher Cooper has nearly four decades of experience in the hands-on restoration and rehabilitation and design of heritage buildings both domestic and commercial on five continents. Christopher has written and researched and published many books on the workings and repair of historic homes and buildings.
Since 2002 Dr. Cooper has been the Editor-in-Chief, photographer and writer of the most influential magazine in Canada dedicated to owners of historic buildings Old Home Living (Formerly Edifice Magazine).
Dr. Cooper is the senior fellow, founder and Director of Education at the Edifice Atelier an educational institute fundamentally created with the intent on educating a vast range of people from 18 years to beyond retirement on the lost arts as it relates to heritage buildings and architecture.
Recently Christopher has embarked on creating several multi-award winning television series and documentaries in which he writes, produces and hosts.
Christopher has lectured all over the world and has become well known for his laid-back humorous and lively approach to his live Workshops and live eWorksops.
Flexible online classes
You pick the schedule that suits you.
Pause course
Take a break any time.
Accredited Courses
Become Edifice Guild Approved.
Educator support
Always get your questions answered.
Admissions:
Each class is very limited to approximately 25 students, this course will be run with live Zoom training and distance learning at the students own pace. This course will run approximately two times per year.
Each potential applicant must provide an informal electronic letter of intent (email see below) outlining the applicants expectations for this intensive, as well as any past experience within the heritage field. Please describe why you wish to be accepted into this Intensive. You may also include an electronic portfolio in a PDF format (at the applicants discretion).
Please provide your contact information, including telephone number, address and email. Please address your email (by using the email form below).
Once we receive your letter of intent we will provide payment options and a full formal application form.
What we are looking for:
You must have an enthusiasm for heritage buildings, with a good understanding of the character and quality they exude.
Further Course Information
Responsibilities of a Heritage Maintenance Consultant
Tasks vary depending on the client and type of role (i.e. building type), but typically involve:
- visiting sites, inspecting and surveying existing conditions on historic homes, agrarian structures and commercial buildings;
- assessing and recommending remedial repairs and restoration to various systems in the house or building such as original doors and windows etc;
- executing contractual agreements with client and final works.
Possible Income
The range of income is much higher than the average home maintenance professional as this intensive prepares the student to become a heritage maintenance consultant. Typically a Heritage Maintenance Consultant earns approximately $65,000 – $150,000 per year as a sole proprietor. However, the remuneration is only dependent on how much work your consultancy is willing to take on and execute professionally, on time and on budget. Those with experience and/or qualifications who further themselves through professional development in other areas of related studies (see above) typically earn considerably higher income, with no limit on earnings.
Working hours
Working hours vary according to the amount of workload and income required. The upper scale (as noted above) would require a sole proprietor to dedicate approximately 40 – 60 hours a week, or more.
Qualifications
This career is open to all adult applicants (18 +). However, a good sense of business and the restoration/renovation industry would be ideal. We would like to encourage more women to enter this field as well as people who have recently retired, it is never too late to forge a new and creative future in Heritage Maintenance.
What to expect
- Most of the work is done outdoors and on-site. Site visits and proposals are conducted outside in all weathers.
- There may be considerable travel within a working day, and absence from home overnight may occasionally be necessary.
- Clients exist throughout North America, although work is likely to be regional with a large concentration of historic buildings.
- A reasonable level of fitness and mobility is required as the work can be physically demanding. Some work involves working at heights, climbing ladders or working on sites where access is difficult.
- Appropriate safety equipment, such as protective boots and headgear, must be worn on-site.
- The dress code tends to be diverse, but conservative for meetings.
Skills
You will need to show evidence of the following:
- A strong interest in, and knowledge of, historic architecture, building methods and techniques;
- confidence working with measurements and quantities;
- excellent communication skills, both written and oral and the ability to communicate effectively with a range of other professionals;
- good analytical skills, accuracy and attention to detail;
- organizational skills and a methodical approach to work;
- negotiation skills;
- project management skills;
- the ability to produce clear and concise agreements;
- good computer skills;
- a driving license is required, and your own means of transportation for equipment and products.
Start your journey today on a brand new career in Heritage Maintenance
Join us for a Free Zoom information event with Dr. Christopher Cooper. Please fill out the form below to reserve your place. You will be sent confirmation and receive Zoom credentials the week of the event.
After you are toughly assessed and complete your course you will be accepted as an associate member to the Edifice Guild of Mater Craftsman. Find out more by following the link above.
Edifice Atelier 