Loads of work done but no post sorry

Hi Folks,

really sorry I haven't posted in a while just been so busy we had acroprops holding up the ceilings in both the living room and kitchen and with Karen not happy with this state of affairs. I thought it wise to crack on and get it fixed.When we rebuilt the wall I found that both concrete lintels had cracked. They had been laid flat to span the 500mm thick walls but were only 100mm thick so cracked. I found the original lintel in the garden it was at least 250mm thick but they had smashed the end of it so I couldn't use it.

Any way I wanted to use granite but there was no way I could lift two 250mm by 250mm by 1.2 meter stone lintels into position on my own. So I bought two green oak beams instead Its good for 400 years and will see me out. One problem its very heavy not as heavy as the stone but almost too much for me to lift.

The oak came rough sawn so I smoothed off with a smoothing plane and put a 45 degree chanfer on all the edges they came up quite nicely see I am still putting those boat building skills to work and yes I will finish the boat. Well once I've stopped the house from falling down around my ears.

Well they're in and they were heavy, I got the first one in by lifting one end at a time and sticking various objects under it as it got higher. HiFi cabinets; storage boxes; bricks that sort of thing. A bit dodgy and I ran out of things and still had 2 feet to lift the beam to get it in place. I did it almost broke me and I didn't have the strength to lift the second one. So I finished for the day and had a think.

Problem solved I had 6 2" by 4" by 8 feet timbers I bought to put the boat up in the garage roof so I could get the car in there as well. I used these to make a four post arrangement either side of the doorway and clamped two timber across the ends to form cross pieces to support the lintels. Then I just slackened the clamp and lifted each cross piece with a lever then tightened the clamp. I did each cross piece in turn a few inches at a time to lift the lintel. The Romans and Egphians would have been proud. One it was at the right height I just slid the lintel in place.

As you can see in the photo I cracked the stonework on the right hand side so had to rebuild if but its all done now and the beams are pointed in with lime mortar.

I originally wanted to cut mortise joints into one of the lintels to house the floor joists in the living room but the ends of the joists were rotten and had been propped up on the old lintels with bits of batten and covered up. Oh yes another bodge job but I can't leave something like that it would bother me.

I wanted to use timber joist hanger but all the ones I looked at looked too modern and would have looked just wrong on these old beams so I made some. I was aiming for an antique blacksmith look and I engraved a Celtic knot design into the one that's most on show. I would have done both but I don't have an engraver or a dremel so I made an engraving tool out of a centre punch and did the job by hand using a hammer. Looks good but took two days. The hangers are made from 50mm by 50mm by 6mm thick angle iron they aren't going anywhere and are heaver gauge steel than any of the Stimson strong ties I seen.One of the joists was a bit more rotten that the other so I extended the hanger out another 50mm using a box formed from 18 gauge sheet steel welded in place to form a joist shoe. I rolled the edge to make it more decorative. They were painted with zinc primer and Matt black paint. I fixed them with M10 150mm coach screw and bolts. I'll put some photos up when I can.

Got the lintels fixed but the floor boards in the landing are rotten so I had to do a temporary fix to make this safe. I put some boards over the joists while I was working so Karen and my daughter could get up and down stairs. Needless to say Karen was not pleased. Its sorted now sorry no photos the landing is restored and safe to walk on. The joist by the wall in the photo is rotten also and needs to be replaced so I will do a permanent job on the floor boards when I do this.

But that's a job for after Christmas I've run out of cash and energy to do it now.

KBO Steve

Hi Guys,

Not posted in a while been very busy as you can see from the photos. I removed all the brick and concrete from the end of the wall and started to rebuild it in stone with lime mortar.

I dropped two plumb lines to keep the wall plumb. I tried to stay within these two lines. The stone we got for friends who had go it for a project then hadn't been able to use it so it was free.

The stone was mainly hammered granite which means its all different sizes. Where I could use a stone as I picked it up I did but as I finally used all the easy stones I had to trim some stones to size.

On exposing the surface of the lintels I found both of them are cracked so will need to be replace so I'm sourcing replacement stone ones not the sub standard concrete ones that where used. I did find the original lintel in the garden but it had been cut down in length to make a step so can't be used.

As you can see from this photo I have had to expose the rest of the lintel so I can replace it. These lintel support the floor joists up stairs.

This is the solar PV distribution system that has been installed by green housing solutions. The inverter (big yellow box) has a fault and needs to be replaced so we will see how much cash it saves us when its up and running properly.

Any way guys that's all for now.

KBO.

Fixed one thing but found something else wrong. Oh joy!

Hi Folks,

I've been busy this weekend but not on the garage like I had hoped I wanted to finish pointing up the wall under the stairs which I finished today. Unfortunately while I was raking out the old mortar joints yesterday I noticed the end of the floor joist that also supports the staircase was rotten. So I finished pointing up the wall it looked really good much better than it was and the wall is breathing now and looks a lot dryer that it was.

I removed the shirting board and the finishing trim from the top of the joist both turned out to be rotten. The end of the joist had been cemented into the wall also the wall here also had 2" of cement render over the stone which was up against this joist, the first 2 feet of the joist is completely rotten and the inner edge of the whole joist is partially rotten . The joist was originally spaced 1" out from the stone wall but this has been bridged by the cement render. 



The whole joist is going to have to be replaced I think I will have to use galvanised joist hangers so the ends won't rot in the wall. I will see if I can find a reclaimed oak beam to replace this hopefully it will be a bit more rot resistant.. It should look better as well.

Not sure if I can do the garage now as I need to sort this but I haven't given up yet.

That's all guys

KBO

A really big hole

Hi Folks,

Sorry guys I haven't posted for a while I have been so busy with the house I haven't had time.  These are the most up to date photos I have but I have done alot more work since they were taken. Normaly I get home at the weekend and its a race to see how much work I can get done before I run out of time then I'm not in the mood to do the blog. 

There was a small crack in the tanking in the corner of the wall where the damp woulf come in and so would worms and things. What I though was a large stone in this coener that the line pointing have been wash away from, turned out to be two mouldy bricks that crumbled away when I started to rake out what was let of the mortar. All the mortar had been washed away and the joints were full of mud. I removed all the loose stone and mud until I got back to solid mortar.

 This left a very large hole that went back over two feet I could put my arm in it upto the shoulder. I wash down all the stone work and the stones I had removed from the wall. I then started to rebuild the wall with line mortart and stone from the inside out replacing the bricks I had removed with stone from the garden. There is lumps of it everywhere.

I have repaired this part of the wall and raked out and repointed to above the level of the tanking about four feet. I will post some photos of this next week.

I have also soursed some stone from a guy near by who got it for a building project but don't need it now.

Thats about if folks.

KBO



I stripped all the concrete of the wall under the stairs and in the kitchen electrical cupboard. Green housing sulutions is going to be installing solar PV panels on the roof and they want to install the invert and monitoring kit in this cupboard. So I need to repoint this wall while i still have room.

I have researched using lime mortar to repoint this wall its a 2' thick wall that needs to breath and line will allow it to do this. I have researched suppliers on the internet and I have bought two 25kg bags of ready mixed mortar from the Cornish line company.

I have to rake out the joints to a depth of 2" and remove all the loose mortar. I need to replace all the pin stones that that are missing from the wall.

I did a bit of recycling for this we are surrounded by clay pits that most of the stone that was used to build the house came  from just went out an collected a bucket of stones.














I forgot to take a before photo of this part of the wall but the process is to chisel out the cement pointing down to the old lime mortar below about 2". Brush out all the loose matter and then soak the joints with water from a garden sprayer. You then repoint with line mortar using pin stones to fill any gaps between the stones that are larger than 2".

You have to look after this for a few hours to ensure you get a good joint as the mortar shrinks as it dries out. You don't want to let it dried out to quickly in warm weather or freeze in cold weather or it will fail.

The method is to over fill the joints slightly and wait until they dry until they are firm enough to leave a thumb print. You then have to  bash it with a stiff brisled brush. This compacts and drives the mortar into the joints priventing shrinkage. Then use the garden sprayer to moisten the joints.

The mortar is composed of lime hydrate and hardens by combining with the cardon dioxide in the air to form calciun carbonate (Limestone). It takes about two weeks to set. We kept it damp with the garden sprayered for the first week then let it dry naturaly after wards.

The limes quite nice to work with and drys to a nice creamy colour. I want to repoint the main bit of the wall abit at a time before I remove the brick and replace them with stone.

The house gets quite cold in winter but I have found a lime plaster which contains hemp and works like an insulator. It called Hempsulate and I'll use it in the main part of the house.

Well thats about it.

KBO.