How much did it cost to bring a cargo of oak to the Dublin docks from Riga or Shillelagh (or fir from Trondheim) and what kind of roof trusses or floor framing was it used for? What was distinctively Irish about these structural features? What did plumbers do?

How did roofers choose between slates and shingles and pantiles, and how did this choice affect the profile of a roof? Based on extensive documentary research and on a lifetime of experience of building and conservation, Gibney takes the interested layperson, the student, the architect, and the conservationist behind the facades to give us an understanding of paint colors-such as Venetian red and Spanish brown-the manufacture of stucco, the variations of Irish, English, and French glass, the composition of masonry walls, and much more in our great legacy of Georgian buildings. [Subject: Irish Architecture, Architectural History, Irish Studies, Georgian Dublin]