Lime Mortar and a Cement Mixer

Tuesday this week saw the commencement of plastering.  To facilitate this protracted process, I decided to invest in my own cement mixer.  This was a financial decision based on the probable number of days that one would have to be hired at about £27/week, not to mention the effort of taking to and from the hire shop when not in use.  Boots, wheelbarrow, mixer... where will it end?                                         
As a listed property, there is no doubt about it: we have to use lime mortar to plaster, just as I had to replace rotten ceilings with oak laths, NOT plasterboard.  Another important principle is that you must not strip all plaster from complete walls regardless - only really bad plaster has been taken down, and as much as possible of the original plaster has been retained.  Due to the leaking roof, we had a fair amount of poor plaster, not only in two whole ceilings but also on solid walls which had been subject to continual dampness for years.  We have left several small patches of popped plaster where they were surrounded by good plaster; this benefits you for several reasons:

1. Applying lime plaster is not cheap as the application is a three part process which is quite labour intensive.
2. Removing the old plaster is a VERY messy job!
3. The lime mortar itself is not particularly cheap unless you slake your own lime and mix it all on site.
4. Replacement laths are not cheap either - I have already used almost 1000 feet of lath (at 27 pence per foot plus VAT).
5. Getting rid of the old plaster is also not cheap - and we have so far removed between three and four tons of it!

(You might ask why one does such a renovation?  Well, in my view, either you do it properly or else you buy a new house - it is not fair to our heritage to buy a traditionally built house and then fail to respect its method of construction.)

Anyway, progress this week has been good.  In three days, both entire bedroom (lath) ceilings, both sides of the lath wall between the two bedrooms and a stone/brick wall have been scratch coated, as have two large repairs on the landing ceiling, and some other parts of a wall (right).  This means that you can no longer see the rafters from the bedrooms, and so the roof space is now physically separated from the first floor, for the first time in several years, I suspect. 
If you think this doesn't sound much, then you try making this soft mixture attach to the roughly 1" x 0.2" oak laths without dropping too much on your own head.  Actually, the process is made easier by adding hair to the lime mortar to strengthen it - our mix uses straight horse-hair.  I admit that some of ours had been bought (ready-mixed) before Christmas and the original hair was probably weakening as it dissolved in the alkali, so to be sure we added extra hair.  This decomposition was certainly happening as it was starting to smell quite bad!

Just to be clear about the general process for plastering: a fairly thick layer of haired lime mortar (normal ratio 3 sharp sand to 1 of lime putty) is applied to a prepared wall or ceiling - this is known as the "scratch coat".  Then when that has "gone off", another thick-ish coat (without hair) is applied, called the "float coat" because a float is used to get it smooth, ready for one or two thin coats of lime plaster (which is 2:1 very fine sand mixed and lime putty) to give a smooth finish.  There are variations, of course, but that's the general gist of it.  It is a very labour-intensive process, spread over a considerable time, so you can see why modern plaster (gypsum-based) is so attractive to builders.  However, lime mortar is more carbon-friendly, as it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of its setting process (as it reverts to calcium carbonate), and it is also easier for a DIY-er to use as it does not set so quickly but stays workable for hours (or even days in low temperatures, as  I have found out!).

The house emerges from the Enchanted Forest

Following last week's removal of the scaffolding, and with the completion of the 1st fix electrics, I have been recovering my breath before the start of the plastering, and doing some tidying up.  Hopefully, inside we have almost seen the last of plaster removal; the outside especially was getting very bad as contractors do tend to throw things anywhere out of their way, and it was pretty bad to start with as all the ivy from the roof is still lying beside the house.  I have tidied up the scrap metal, moved a large quantity of old plaster into a huge pile, and have even cleared the path!

Today Chris and I attached the top two sections of cast-iron downpipe on both the side and back of the house.  (The bottom pieces have to wait until the drains are sorted out.)  While we were doing that, Adam the joiner came round, bringing his chainsaw, so at last the pear tree (the one that grew up to two inches from the house) could be felled.  Adam also does wood turning and you can see why he likes pear for this activity as the wood is very close-grained.  To complete the change I decided to take the garden saw to the large buddleia before it reached conservation size.  So, the side of the house lost its pear tree and the buddleia in one day, and now feels decidedly spacious.  The Enchanted Forest (see "It's all in the Name" last August) really is no more, therefore, and is now just a patch of undergrowth with a couple of trees.


Confession Time

 

This week I have finally finished the laths in the ceilings of the two back bedrooms and the patch on the landing, ready for the plasterer.  These are hand-riven oak laths from a well known supplier in Devon.  I bought 300 and, to my surprise, have only about 20 left.  After all my hard work, I think that they actually look quite good, and I am very pleased with my efforts; right now I am almost feeing disappointed that they are about to be covered up!

Unfortunately, I had a little accident this week whilst splitting a wide lath to fit a narrow gap.  I was standing beside a window for added light, and managed to tap the window with one end, with disastrous results.  The really annoying thing is that I now realise that the glass was clearly old - it's only when you break it that you notice the distinctive features of old glass.  I have checked most other windows and now know that a lot of the window glass is older than I realised so I'll just have to be more careful in future.

The scaffolding comes down!

At last, having had a nearly finished roof for several weeks, it is now complete (and is a thing of beauty) so the scaffolding was taken down yesterday - photo right (ours is the left hand half).  We have actually owned the house for only eleven weeks and a lot has been done, but I have really become fed up with ducking my head to avoid the diagonal scaffolding tie-bars between the French door and the front. I'll probably still be ducking for weeks, even though the path is now clear. 

Today it was quite a surprise to find how the left side of the house was now quite light, without scaffolding, undergrowth and leaves; working inside (with no electric light) is now much easier.  Also, we had not really remembered how light the house itself was, as we had only been inside it a few times before the scaffolding went up.  It was a real delight to find the sun shining into the front room this afternoon.

Apart from repairing ceiling laths in the two back bedrooms, we have been removing lime plaster in preparation for replastering.  Much has been damaged by water ingress from the roof, especially though a split in the lead in the box gutter. The two back bedrooms are separated by a lath and plaster wall, which also required to be stripped as the plaster was all crazed and had come away from the laths - huge areas moved alarmingly, and some had been patched with modern alternatives.  Don't ever assume, just because something is covered with lath and plaster, that it is not load-bearing.  Kirsty What's-her-name on one of those property programmes on TV loves to suggest that a wall will come down in minutes, just based on tapping it and saying that "it's only a stud wall".  It's not always true for plasterboard, and it is certainly not always true for lath and plaster!  This is the wall structure we uncovered:

Those two X frames which you can see are both made from oak beams, 4 inches by 3 inches.  Each X is about 6 feet wide and 8 feet high.  At the top of the central stud, pointing downwards, is a metal bolt which has a square head about 1.5 inches across.  The laths are in really good condition and even the nails are still shiny, not rusted.

This is a major piece of structure and not just a simple stud wall, although at first its purpose puzzled me.  There is no corresponding wall in the kitchen beneath; on the right of the picture is a major internal structural wall, about 18 inches thick, largely of squared limestone, and on the left is the external wall which is about a foot thick, in limestone rubble.  After mulling this over whilst going to sleep, finally it dawned on me: this structure is holding the external wall in place!  [Edit: a more learned friend says that it "to provide lateral bracing and stop any movement in your load-bearing walls".  That's what I meant to say...]

We now move to the next phase of work; the first fix electrics is almost done and re-plastering starts this week.  My groundworker will be in soon to look at lowering the path and drain, the gas supply is being arranged and the plumber will be giving me his quote tomorrow.  We are applying for various permissions (still) which I am afraid might well turn out to be the critical path.  Perhaps we might be in by June?

Happy New Year

A Happy New Year to all my readers. I am really surprised by the number of readers recorded, and the amazing variety of countries represented from all round the world. Please feel free to recommend this blog to any friends who might be interested in this sort of thing, and also to make comments against any entry (especially if I've said something silly or missed a horrendous typo!)


Christmas Presents

Not only do I have a "contractor's wheelbarrow" (see earlier), I have now bought myself (as a personal Christmas present, because Santa didn't) a proper pair of working boots with steel toecaps.  They are very comfortable, although I note sadly that they were made in China, like most things these days.

However, I did get a few books for Christmas and some tools, like a new spirit level and a plumb bob.  The books included not one but two copies of a really useful book called "The Old House Handbook" (Roger Hunt and Marianne Suhr, published by SPAB).  My two children obviously know the sort of thing that I like now - it's just a shame they don't talk more often!

Fun with the local District Council

I put in claim for exemption from Council Tax on the grounds that the house is uninhabitable.  They quickly sent me a bill showing that I owed them nothing for this financial year; however, they soon followed that up with a request for documentary proof of the uninhabitable status, such as a contractor's estimate or surveyor's report.  Having neither of these, I sent them a set of 22 assorted photos by e-mail and have heard nothing back yet...

In October I submitted the required (being in a Conservation Area) "Notice of Intent" to cut down the 24 cm diameter pear tree which grows very close to the side of the house (there is just a 10 cm gap).  They replied, saying that they had six weeks to object and, if I heard nothing by Dec 1st, I could go ahead.  On Dec 3rd, I received a letter dated Dec 2nd which formally granted me consent to fell this tree.  Of course, by Dec 2nd the tree was a 5 metre high stump, with all four branches on the ground!

"Hey Big Spender"


Before Christmas I promised the answer to why I found myself humming Shirley Bassey's "Hey Big Spender" whilst doing laths in the bedroom ceilings. Think of the words which go something like (from memory):

"Would you like to have fun, fun, fun?
How about a few laffs, laffs, laffs?
We'll be having a good time!"

Personally I don't regard doing lath repairs as a good time, and can't see how anyone else would either.

Snow, snow, snow

I wrote last week's entry on Friday night; had I waited until Saturday, it would have read slightly differently.  Whilst doing yet more laths on Saturday (to be ready for the plasterer on Tuesday), it was steadily snowing outside.  By lunchtime it was about four inches, and by the time my arms were dropping off (if you've ever done laths you must know what I mean!) it was nearer eight inches (see photo right).  I had serious doubts about being able to drive even just the one mile back home.  I accomplished that safely, but found that on a new-ish housing estate (where we are currently renting), the local council does NOTHING about snow/ice gritting etc on roads, far less pavements.  As I drove into the estate, the roads became steadily worse until I gratefully reached the 20cm virgin snow in our cul-de-sac.

Of course, this had obvious implications for my project management plans for the week: basically, nothing has happened.  The carefully laid plans for the collection of our rooflight, the fitment of the rooflight and the finishing of the roof around it, the finishing of replacing laths on two bedroom ceilings, plastering of those two ceilings, and the removal of the scaffolding - NOTHING.  Apart from the snow, it really has been very cold, with minus 11 deg C one morning this week, when the hot water system in our 10-year old rented house froze!

The good news was that our first grandchild was safely born (early) on Sunday evening, and the snow did not prevent us from driving to visit on both Monday and Tuesday.  So, work is suspended whilst we attend to more important issues in life, like supporting our son and daughter-in-law with their new responsibilities, and celebrating Christmas with our daughter plus partner, who arrived here today.

See Amid the Christmas Dust

The electricians have not been seen for twelve days (see "Kurt the Destroyer"), so it was almost a surprise when they appeared on Wednesday this week, and worked Thursday as well.  Mind you, it was not a pleasant surprise really, as I am now well aware that young Kurt is not the best person to have working on a period house. 

Firstly, it did not take them long to make the entire house a complete tip (again); when I arrived at 9.30 on Wednesday, it was hard to believe that they had been there for less than 90 minutes.  Most floorboards, which I had re-fitted but not fastened, had now been lifted again, plus an annoying few more had been lifted even though I thought that job had been finished.  Then, with no floor board beneath, they used their wretched Kanga to chase cable runs, leaving yet more dust everywhere.  In the course of those two days they also broke a hinge on a bedroom door, trod on the thermometer (carefully hidden in a corner), put a foot through the lath in the ceiling above the landing and repeatedly used my tools without asking!  (NB I am aircraft-trained, where it is a cardinal sin to lose track of one's tools, so you do NOT borrow tools.)

I will admit that one issue was not Kurt's fault.  When he removed a length of skirting board in a bedroom, it came away from the wall with a 30" x 4" x 4" bit of oak attached to it (leaving a large hole in the inner wall face)!  (See photo right.)  The rest of the skirting board is attached with nails driven into wooden plugs in the wall, as one would expect.

I have grave reservations about the use of wood in walls in this house, and would love an explanation for what this was meant to achieve.  There have been other examples which seem totally pointless, as mentioned earlier (see "Is it really only three weeks?" in November).


Progress Update

Anyway, the good news is that the roof is effectively finished, as see by these three photos.

My (very expensive) 5 inch cast iron guttering has been installed (see right), and I think it looks lovely. Chris the roofer said that it went together very well indeed, and I had ordered exactly the right items, apart from one extra length of guttering. Ah well, better safe than sorry - I'll use it on the extension. After the imminent removal of the scaffolding the downpipes will be fitted next week.

I took delivery this week of 25 rolls of insulation for the loft; this is 60% sheep's wool and 40% recycled polyester (to give it body), and cost as much as the guttering.  At least I can look a conservation officer in the eye with a clear conscience!

I am now tackling the laths in the back bedrooms.  Both these ceilings had been damaged by dampness from water ingress, and so it was no surprise to find that many laths were rotten.  I had bought new hand-riven oak ones but of course they were a different size to the ones fitted.  In fact, in retrospect, the current ones may not actually be hand-riven as they are mostly far more regular in all dimensions than the ones I have bought. This makes replacing individual laths quite difficult and I found it easier to remove some extra ones so that a larger area was replaced.  Worryingly, the extra ones I removed were also found to be rotten, so I ended up replacing probably 40% or so.  By the way, this really is a rotten job, as every time you nail, dust falls on you, despite having brushed the joists and laths above twice.  Top tip - do NOT drive the nails completely in until you are sure that you are happy with the spacing, which includes checking from further away, off the ladder.

Intriguingly, I found myself humming "Hey Big Spender" whilst doing this job.  When I realized this, it then took me some time to find the subconscious link (answer next week).

Getting to know the neighbours

After just six weeks ownership, it was fair to say that the house was starting to look like a work in progress, rather than just being damp, cold and unloved.  There had been much interest shown by everyone who passed by, and the house clearly had an air of mystery in the locality; consequently, Jane had a wonderful idea that we should invite the people we knew, and the whole of the street (of who I had met several whilst working on the front wall), into the house so that they could see for themselves what it was like.  I suppose at the back of our minds was the hope that eventually we would have a house of which we would be proud, and would feel even prouder of it if people had seen for themselves just how bad it was when we started!  Thus it was that we had about forty invitations printed and distributed, offering mulled wine and discerning conversation about old houses over a period of three hours last Sunday morning.

We had over thirty visitors altogether - we both lost count as there was always someone to talk to; at least people now know why we have not moved in.  I have to admit that it was very cold indoors; due to the scaffolding we had to use the front door but it has a rotten frame (to be done in January) and sticks on the floor, so it had to be left ajar all the time.  Fires were lit in both the groundfloor rooms - I had cut a lot of the rotten wood into decent blocks and it was all consumed.

I suspect that once I was a bit sharp on someone from up the road when we were talking about the dampness issues; he asked if we were going to fit a chemical DPC (!) and I said "absolutely not!" which came out just a bit strongly.  Mind you, he does live in a house which is older than ours so I wonder if that is what he's done?

Overall, we were confirmed in our view that people here are very friendly and we think that we are going to enjoy living in such a community.

Progress Update

We have been held up by the weather recently, as one might have expected; I think the roofers have lost seven days in the last two weeks.  This has been especially frustrating as we were so close to completing the roof.  However, it warmed up sufficiently by Thursday to enable the last coat of the chimney rendering to be done and the box gutter has slates and ridge tiles (see photo right); now all that is left to do are just a few slates, some "muck work" for the back ridge and hip tiles and then the installation of the guttering.  Then we can have the scaffolding down!

Today (Saturday) was an unusual day as there was no-one at the house but us.

Together we removed all the plaster from the two back bedroom ceilings as there were many holes due to the leaks (see photo left).  I have to repair the laths this week so Phil can do the plastering in a week's time.  Lath is quite expensive (~£20/sq metre) so I saw no reason to pull it all down and then pay to replace it.  We tried removal from beneath, trying to keep it tidy, but then I decided that it was better to go up above the ceiling and to scrape the plaster off the top of the laths and push through to fell the plaster below.  This is very messy, but also very satisfying when you push and a whole square foot falls down below. 

The end result is in the photo on the right.  No plaster, lots of laths and lots of holes!  On Monday my first job will be to tidy up the mess...

One benefit from this approach was that it is more obvious when you find a rotten lath - we have a good number that appear to be fine but are rotten inside and have no strength at all (not forgetting the many which suffer from wet rot).  We were very glad that we did not see anyone we knew, as we walked back up the road to our car doing our impressions of the dinner party in "Carry On Up The Khyber" (but with rather scruffier clothes under the dust).  Perhaps we should have waited until it was dark!

Kurt the Destroyer

We've owned the house for six weeks now, and I'm still amazed at the speed of things.  The roof is almost done, but we lost the whole week except Monday to the weather - annoying when it would only take three days perhaps to finish.  The electricians started last Friday, and the ground floor installation is almost done.  Neil the contractor employs a younger chap called Kurt; he is really very good and likeable, but this week I have discovered that he is really "Kurt the Destroyer".  Chasing the runs for the cables into lime plaster walls produces prodigious quantities of dust and debris, which covers everything including the kettle, cups, tea bags, first aid kit, my glasses etc.  He just doesn't notice or care, it seems (what is his own house like?).  Feeding cables down the walls from the joists above means that he has to lift the upstairs floorboards and so makes a mess works both upstairs and downstairs at the same time.  He also broke a window in the French door (which is going to go eventually, but not yet) by trying to get a massive tool store in through it, which was NEVER going to fit.  So, the entire place is a real mess, and we have invited the neighbourhood round on Sunday for mulled wine and to have a gander at our work.  (The real reason is so that when we finish they will appreciate what we have done all the more!)

I had some success this week; the front room floor joists are virtually finished, and I have ordered some reclaimed floorboards which are to be planed to size. In the meantime, in preparation for Sunday's visitors I have re-laid the old floor boards (without fastenings), and the whole room feels better.

I have also constructed a loft access hatch.  This might sound simple, but when you have suspect and not necessarily parallel joists of various sizes, with a rotted sill plate (due to the roof leaks) which I had not noticed before, it becomes decidedly complicated.  I had to design and construct a new pair of joists to support the sides of my hatch as I did not trust the existing joists to bear the additional weight.  This is a view from the hatch along the new joists:

This is the new bit of sill plate (the bit of wood on which joists rest), made from the bit of joist which I had just cut out for the hatch space.  There is a real joy in immediately finding a use for a nice bit of oak which you have just made redundant!  I was quite surprised to be able to lift the new joist (on the left) with my shoulder whilst slipping the new sill plate underneath.



In case you like roof timbers, here are a couple of views of the A-frames inside the roof:

So, before the roofers cover the membrane and it is lost to natural light for 40 years, I have been able to make the loft hatch.  At least there was a benefit of the bad weather!

Project Management

You know those house shows on TV where someone says that he/she is going to do the Project Management for their project, whilst also doing a full-time job, and not having enough money so they decide to do a lot of work themselves?  And usually the couple decide that this is also a good time to have their first baby?  Well, now I know for sure that they are absolutely stark staring mad!

Often the people on TV end up making poor decisions, paying more for work because of their tight schedule, and getting very stressed about everything.  I know I'm not in the first flush of youth but once you start the pressure is relentless and it is all so tiring and time-consuming.  All I have been doing is some work on the joists in the lounge but I keep getting interrupted, and so have not been able to do the loft access or plaster removal which I thought I would have done by the end of November.  I wanted to do this project at my own speed so I didn't get stressed and could enjoy the whole process.  The reality is that as soon as you get a contractor in, you are working to HIS schedule, not your own, and normally contractors want to get things finished pretty quickly (assuming that you haven't paid them in full up front and they just clear off with your money!).

Anyway, we've been having a few scheduling issues with the chimneys which have impacted the roofer's schedule.  Hopefully the rendering on the back chimney will be done this weekend which will allow a bit more scaffolding to come down, leaving the way clear for completion of the leadwork, followed by the last of the slating then the "mucky work" which is where the roofers have to use cement to fix all the ridge tiles.  We might even get the rest of the scaffolding down in the next two weeks; the upper front lift has already come down, revealing the newly rendered front chimney (which will weather soon, I hope!):

In all that work there will also be the installation of our new cast-iron gutters and downpipes, which all arrived yesterday.  These are VERY expensive and are what you should fit on a listed building; people were counselling me to use a form of plastic which is said to look like cast-iron (really?).  For me this was a conscious decision made in advance of purchase of the house, and it was also an argument that I did not want to have with the Conservation Officer.  In my view, if I say that I will do a project properly, and then suggest using plastic guttering, I will immediately lose all credibility and that will impact all future proposals that I make to the Council.  So, pick your arguments and build up your credibility by being conscientious in what you are doing with your bit of heritage.  Possibly, later, they might just be more sympathetic when you ask for a major decision in your favour...

My first wheelbarrow

It feels like one of those rites of passage - the purchase of your first wheelbarrow.  Not one of those namby-pamby garden wheelbarrows but a large solid "contractor's wheelbarrow", built to endure the rigours of a building site.

The scaffolders' version!

This is my wheelbarrow

This was required to facilitate the rendering on both the chimneys, which need some considerable attention.  I had the task of removing the old render, some of which fell off and some just refused.  The issue is that you can damage the brickwork if you hit too hard, as the lime mortar is softer than the cement render.  You can also hit your own hand, graze your knuckles under the chisel, and generally just get VERY tired by hitting a chisel with a 4lb mallet about 10,000 times in one day whilst perched on the top lift of the scaffolding.

Phil the Plasterer asked me to get the materials for the rendering.  Now, this sort of thing always happens with me, even though I asked for clarification, so I shouldn't have been surprised this morning when the lorry bringing the requested seven bags of "fine washed rendering sand" actually arrived bearing seven one-ton bags!  I did not have either a need or a place to keep one such bag, so I had to make a trip myself to the aggregate yard to allow the work to proceed.  This was an experience which Jane and I shared with some trepidation; it is the sort of place that you don't want to go to unless you have been there before.  However, they were very nice about the morning's error (whoever's fault it was), and sold me 250kg of sand for £6 (NB they weigh the vehicle in and out - seems odd in a car).  Phil assured me that their rendering sand is the best there is, but then added that the 250kg of sand was an under-purchase!  Well, I could hardly have got any more sand in the bags, and how was I to know how much sand I had put into the bags myself, shovelled from a pile of 500 tons?  (Top tip: when carrying open bags of sand in your car, do make sure that they are securely stowed and do not move when you brake.)

The rear chimney has had the top six courses rebuilt with "engineering bricks", and has also been fitted with four new chimney pots (excuse scaffolding poles):

It all looks so new, but I'm sure it will weather.  I discovered a new word during this job: the mortar around the actual chimney pots is called "flaunching".  I would have liked to use reclaimed pots but frankly it is very unlikely that one will find anything suitable which is serviceable, having seen the damage on the ones we removed.  Mind you, I was a bit surprised that they were so bad that the brickies threw three of them off the roof onto the hardcore pile!  Not even good enough for garden ornaments, it seems.

So, today the front chimney had its scratch coat done by Phil, while I spent a while reclaiming about 35 of the bricks from the same pile for eventual use in our extension, which saved about £15 and made me feel good.  The top coat will be done tomorrow, the roof is now almost half slated, and hopefully we shall see some major progress this week with the rest of the lead work being completed.

A highlight this week was when I carried a roll of lead up the 10 metre ladder, discovering at the top that it weighed 37kg, and wishing I hadn't felt the need to compete with Chris the roofer.  A day later he asked for help in carrying 400 slates up, 20 at a time.  After four goes with only 15 each time, I gave up and watched him.  That was when I discovered that he is less than half my age!