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