More Black Limestone Flags

We got the first fix plumbing done a week ago, so the time had come to get on with the floor in the new extension.  I bought the black limestone flags some time ago; these are the same as we fitted in the kitchen last May, which looks great (see this link).  Chris and Shane did wonders with the kitchen floor so of course, I wanted them both back for this one.  However, I knew Shane had broken his leg, so Chris was going to do this with me doing all the mixing and cutting.  If that sounds like hard work, yes it is, and I wasn't really looking forward to the job.  Then earlier this week Chris came round and said that but he's been rather busy with a spate of roof work after the recent high winds, so it would not possible for some while.  Time to bite the bullet: let's do it all by myself!  So, I have been really busy this week and can vouch for just how tiring this sort of work can be.

Of course, it is not so clean now

I'll give some detail of the complexity of the task: firstly, you need to decide the pattern for the floor.  Ours would have to be the interesting completely irregular floor to match the adjacent kitchen, so that decision was easy.  Then, there is the question of the mortar mix; I decided to use up the hydrated lime left over from the brickwork on the extension, and a quick internet search gave me a 1:3:10 ratio of cement: hydrated lime: sharp sand (see this link).  For a bedding mortar you must use sharp sand (NOT building sand), so I ordered a tonne bag from the local merchant, which arrived on Tuesday; this had to be barrowed round the back before dark as we had previously had a couple of hundred kilos nicked one night from the front garden!  Now, I have my own cement mixer (right) so I just had to hire a grinder and I was ready to start.  So, I started and immediately found that I wasn't ready as I couldn't find the (previously purchased) disc for the grinder! Sigh...

So next morning I eventually found the cutting disc and now the fun started: make the mix and try to get the right consistency - too wet and you weaken the final mix, too dry and it becomes really hard work.  Then you lay the load to the right thickness (how?) and completely level (really?) so that the stone (of uneven thickness) is nice and level at the right height when laid - perfectly placed in relation to the other flags and correct in three dimensions.  I was matching the level of the kitchen floor (where I started) and wanted to get to door on the other side the room at the right height with a nice level floor in between.

What I found was that I could only do three mixes (or perhaps just two!) before I really became very tired.  This was enough to do about six flags and took me about 4 hours.  Although this sounds really slow, I worked out that actually the two young fit lads would only do about 50% more flags than me in the same number of manhours, so perhaps I was doing OK (at my age).  Of course, the two of them would each do twice as many manhours as me in a day so yes, I am very slow.  I am fairly happy with the result so far (left), although the worst flag is one of the first ones laid - it is ever so easy to increase the depth without realising, and a very small amount on the spirit level is actually quite significant over these lengths.  In one sense, these are actually more forgiving than perfect square ceramic tiles, as they are meant to have character!


So here I am after four sessions without 60% of the floor done - completion next Wednesday perhaps?