Paving Part 4 - Finished At Last!

I realise that I never uploaded photos of the progress with the paving - I think that was because my camera batteries expired.  At the time of my last post on paving - here - I had started laying the slabs at the back of the house but had yet to tackle the back door step.  Since then I have made considerable progress:

Firstly, I did the back door step. This uses some old engineering bricks

(in a sort of larger than usual Imperial size) on a concrete foundation set in a rectangle, with one in the middle as well; in the photo (right) there are extra ones inside which were used to support the temporary step while the cement set.  After they were removed, the structure was in-filled with gravel and topped with a 90cm x 60 cm x 4cm limestone slab which matches the ones I've been laying.  The step is above halfway as you have to step over the bottom of the door frame and, in any case, it is quite difficult getting that sort of thing spot on.

The result is pretty pleasing and certainly my grandson finds it easy to use, which is what matters.  The rest of the paving was pretty easy, aided by judicious use of an angle grinder, hired for possibly the last time.

Here you can see the finished back door step surrounded by the paving, with the addition of the stone seat which I bought on the spur of the moment at my favourite reclamation yard. My grandson has already found out with his head how solid the stone seat is!

I'm also quite pleased with the infill up to the wall: this is "self-compacting gravel" as recommended by my groundworker for the driveway, and it seemed a good thing to fill the gap.  Having a thing about dampness, even in a brand new construction with a DPC like this, I didn't want the stone going up to the wall as that would then cause rain to splash on the wall.

Then, last week, we had the pleasure of sitting with the entire family on our patio for the very first time; I now have to do the barbecue - if there is any summer left for entertaining.

Window Arch Repair

The windows of the house have bricks to provide good edges around the window, as the walls are made of random rubble.  Above the window is an arched soldier course, i.e. of bricks on their end, and these are called rubbers.  This is, I believe, because the bricks are actually slightly tapered in order to give the arch its shape, and this taper was achieved by rubbing the bricks against each other. 

Above the hall window is the soil pipe we fitted in 2011, and when we did that I observed that the surrounding stonework was not in great nick (see first photo).  I did a bit of pointing in this area last year (or was it 2011?), doing some deep fill and letting it go off before doing the surface bit in an appropriate colour.  So, when I mixed some more coloured mortar the other day (see the previous entry), I was keen to get this area tidied up.  However, it took all of 30 seconds up the ladder to realise that things were worse than I thought: where I had done the deep pointing above the rubbers, there was (already) a 2mm gap between the pointing and the rubbers.  This could only be caused by the rubbers dropping down.

Movement like this is NOT good news, so I called Pete who did the brickwork on the extension in late 2011.  He came round for a look, assured me that he could sort this in less than a day, and duly turned up this week.  He came armed with his Acrow prop and the "Strong Boy", a flat plate which attaches to the top of the Acrow (see second photo)- and yes, it is strong.  He fitted it in under the large stone just below the soil pipe, and also fitted some shaped wood to support the brick arch.  He then proceeded to remove nearly all the mortar below the Strong Boy, and ended up with some stones and all the rubbers loose (aaargh!!).

The next step was to push the arched wood up to restore the shape of the arch and then insert bits of slate between the rubbers (I think in four gaps only) to make the arch secure.  Slate is brilliant for this as, after all, it was produced under thousands of tons of pressure, so in compression it is fantastically strong.  Then it was replace the brickwork and mortar, tidy up the pointing and the job was done (see third photo).

I am very pleased with the result, as it has removed one of my major headaches.  Since I was paying him for the day, he filled in time by doing the drilling job for the kitchen vent (see previous entry), so I got TWO tricky jobs out of the way for the price of one.  Well worth £150, I reckon.

Loose Ends

It's been a mixed bag recently, with three jobs making significant progress after years of procrastination.

In a spirit of tidying up I decided to mix some more of my local sand & lime putty mix for pointing; then I thought I would do some pointing myself, and my daughter visited and did some more!  So the stone wall which I built last year is almost fully pointed at last (right).

Thus encouraged, I then went back to pointing the side wall of the house which I did a couple of years ago (plus a bit last year) under the new window which I fitted.  Beside that window is the downpipe which had a large hole about 9 feet up; the water gushing through this caused severe damage to the wall as it had been happening over a long period of time.  I only realised how bad it was when clearing the gaps out before filling - in one place I could get my flat hand into the hole, and then curl my fingers up in the void.  There were also some bits where some idiot had smeared a thin coat of cement over the wall, which can only hold moisture in, rather than stop it getting in!  I've now re-pointed a good deal of the worst bits on this wall, mindful of the general rule to not re-point unless absolutely necessary; this is good advice, not just for the integrity of the house but also because it really is a tedious job.  I'm quite pleased with the result!

Having done that pointing, I could now attach the shoe on the bottom of the downpipe.  When we took the ground level down in 2011, I had been left with an annoying gap of about 4 inches at the bottom.  I really didn't want to spend £65 on a new 6 ft length, just for that, and I found a shoe which was longer than usual, but it was still a bit high above the drain.  To bring it down I have used a spare elbow with a collar, and cut the bent bit off, so now there are two collars at the bottom (photo left), and it is a perfect fit (although the groundworkers always seem to attach the gully too close to the wall...).

Then I was urged by 'Er Indoors to do the last bit of skirting board in the lounge; it's one of those bits with a right angle that fits beside the chimney breast, and the old one was rotten; when I had a go a while back, it all went wrong because I didn't cut good 45 degree mitres and so the result was awful.  That was pretty discouraging, spending a couple of hours and achieving absolutely nothing, so I left it.

Anyway, today I had another go and not only cut the two pieces successfully but also fitted the result in place AND painted it (photo right).  Once again, I'm pleased that I can choose a job for the day and do it completely without having to go and buy anything at all.

The third job was the drilling of the hole for the vent in the kitchen (left).  This was not done when the kitchen was fitted (errr... two years ago!) as they intended to chain drill a rectangular hole through 18 inches of stone! I was not impressed as I am sure that this would have caused immense damage to the remaining wall.  Today Pete (who did the brickwork on the extension in late 2011) came and drilled it with his 110mm cutter on an SDS drill, which took him about an hour and a half. It's one of those jobs that perhaps I could do myself but really I am quite happy to pay someone who knows what he's doing.

Now that the hole is done I can purchase the necessary bits to duct the extractor over the hob outside instead of re-circulating it - perhaps I will have done that by Christmas?

Paving Part 3

The paving has been continued around the back of the house, and I have taken delivery of the remaining slabs.  This afternoon I have had to stop laying them as there is the last obstacle to overcome - the back door step.  For this I have a 90cm x 60cm slab (and it's 40mm thick!) which I intend to lay on a bed of old engineering bricks.  At least, I think that's what they are.  They are larger than Imperial bricks in all dimensions, and have the texture of engineering bricks, so I reckon they must be an early version; I found them when digging the foundations for the extension. So, this afternoon, I have made some shuttering - almost of the right size.  This is actually surprisingly difficult, so when your groundworker makes it look easy when doing the oversite for your extension, it is because he is skilled!

Having made the shuttering, I mixed and laid some concrete for the foundation.  [Top Tip - always make sure you have enough cement and ballast for this before you start!  I found that I was about a trowel-full short, which was close enough but too close for comfort.]  Then, looking at the finished article, I realised that I had measured wrongly and had allowed for a slab width for the step of 70cm not 60cm. So I have shaved some off the concrete which is setting perhaps too rapidly in this heat; excuse me while I go and cover it up to protect from the sun... [2 minutes] ...  I've now done that but if 'Er Indoors goes outdoors she might get a shock as I've used an old one tonne ballast bag to cover it.

Tomorrow, the step itself, and then I can finish the paving, although I'll need to hire the 9" grinder again - noisy and dusty!

Paving and Setts - Part 2

At last! My paving stone has arrived, after getting stuck in a container at a dock somewhere in India I think it was.  I've taken delivery of the first 17 sq m, and have been having fun laying them down between the setts which were set in cement weeks ago. Happily,

all my careful measuring has paid off and they all seem to be looking good, with no large gaps anywhere. Here's the first lot (right) of 19 slabs, laid in about two and a half hours.  I'm glad that I chose to bed them on sand; having helped lay the 18 sq m of pretty similar stone in the kitchen in 2011, and then done another 12 sq m in the rebuilt extension all by myself, I knew that getting the level was surprisingly difficult, and so I wanted to retain the option of lifting and re-laying a slab later on.  There are a couple of those set in mortar that I would love to be able to do again!  In fact, when laying large slabs (60cm square, or larger) on mortar, due to the suction it is quite difficult to lift the slab even when you have only just laid it, never mind when it's all set.

The annoying thing about the delay was that I didn't trust my ability to measure accurately enough.  Hence I wanted to get the first half or so of the paving laid beside the house before I turned the corner (literally) to do the back.  Now that the first lot is done almost to the back, I will be able to prove the positioning of the end of the setts; then I can work from that edge and lay the remaining setts accurately beside the half-finished wall. 

That will then allow me to work across the back of the house on what will be our patio; in fact that part is almost a sunken garden due to the high walls, but it still catches the summer sun almost all day even though it's on the north side of the house.  Here's another view (left) from the other direction; the "patio" is at the end and then on the right out of sight behind the brick extension.


I'd just done those first pavers and was thinking of a cup of tea when a light shower started which decided the issue! So I took these pictures and decided to update the blog instead.

Doing Things Again

There are lots of things on this house that I did myself, and I had to learn a lot on the job.  Now, two years since we moved in, I have found that in some cases there were clearly things that I did not appreciate or understand at the time, and so some things are having to be re-done.

The first of these is my back gate; it is actually an old ledged and braced back door.  This was made redundant when we re-built the extension as there was no point in having two back doors.  I had a vision of re-using it as half of my back gates, and was delighted to acquire a partner as a swap for some old glass.  Both were the same hand, so all I had to do was to change the braces on my old one and sort out the surface finish.  They came up a treat with some gloss black which matches the front door, and now provide some security by solidly blocking the way to any passing ne'er-do-well (see photos here).

However, late last year I saw that some of the paint was flaking off my old door, on what used to be the inside. Now, it is looking very sad indeed, and clearly needs attention.  Noticeably, the paint is not flaking where I replaced the braces (the slanting bits) - they were old bits of bare floor board and are still looking good with their coats of primer, undercoat and topcoat.  The problem is with the old ledges (the horizontal bits).  I suspect that, despite my best intentions, the door was not fully dried out when I re-painted it, so at some stage soon I shall have to strip that side and start again.  I really didn't want to have to do things like this again.

Another similar example was sort of my fault where I was misled by the term "transit primer" which was the only finish available on the new bits of soil pipe which I bought (see here).  I happily applied black Hammerite on the top before we installed them, and 18 months later I saw it was all flaking.  So this time, up a ladder, I have removed all the old paint and this grotty primer using a wire brush and Stanley knife; then I coated them with red oxide before adding more black Hammerite.  Hopefully this lot will last longer!

Then there's my kitchen worktop. We bought a new kitchen from W----s, and chose an interesting bamboo worktop (see photos at this entry) which requires occasional recoating.  There's nothing in the literature to warn about any possible problems but 'Er Indoors has recently demonstrated the corrosive properties of caustic soda.  She did not realize that some had been splashed onto the worktop near the sink; we only noticed these spots when wiping the worktop and seeing spots appear before our eyes, as the water from the cloth sank into the wood and darkened it!  I have tried sanding and re-applying the coating but the problem is still there.  Now all I can do is to find a way of neutralizing the alkali (with some acid, I guess) and then re-apply the coating after sanding the whole lot.  Another waste of time.

Now there are some more doors: the specially-made (i.e. expensive) 2 inch thick pine front door replaced an older, rotting one, also in pine.  I paid extra for kiln-dried wood but even so it has warped and at some times of the year becomes difficult to open; I have not been able to use the mortise lock since March.  In the same way, the cheaper internal door to the loo in the rebuilt extension has warped - at least that only cost £50; bl---dy W----s!  Finally, the external door in the rebuilt extension is rejecting its paint and starting to look mottles and streaky.  I can only presume that the undercoat did not like the stuff that T----- P's supplier had covered it with, but what do I use now to fix it?

On their own, none of these are going to cause me huge grief, but taken together, when I still have plenty of work to do, I really could do without this additional workload.  What really gets me is that one of my deliberate philosophies in doing this rebuild was that I expect to be here for 10, 20 or more years, so I wanted to spend that bit more and get things right first time; I did NOT want to be in exactly this position in that time, and certainly did not expect it in such a short timescale.

Problems with Tree Identification

I have a wrong tree in my front garden.  It is definitely not the one I wanted and I'm really cheesed off with it.  It might be what it says on my planning permission, but it's NOT what I wanted.

My original vision for the front garden was to plant some semi-mature trees at the front which matched the ones in the churchyard opposite.  In 2011, I noticed that these across the road were blooming with lovely white or pale pink blossom; it seemed that there were at least three different sorts of tree and they bloomed in sequence, so that there was blossom on at least one tree there for about eight or nine weeks.

When I found a landscape designer there were only two things I wanted: one was a good looking plan to get past the council tree officer and the planning department, and the other was the identification of some suitable tree species.  The first was achieved but, on the second, one of the three is wrong.  Now, you might say that two out of three is not bad, but when I pay someone a decent sum of money to give you expert advice, I expect that advice to be RIGHT.  That is what being an expert means, isn't it?

One of the trees was a cherry, and I opted to go for a Japanese Cherry as I knew these have abundant blossom - you know, the sort of thing that is covered in lovely pink-white blossom and always appears in films and photos of Japan.  Another was something odd and it turned out to be an Amelanchier (right) which is a North American berry tree; it had blossom and a few berries last year which would be edible if the birds didn't get them first.


The third tree was to match a tree which, to my eyes, was a sort of apple: it had apple blossom, apple tree leaves and little fruit which looked like the basis of an apple but never grew bigger than pea-size.  My landscaper took one look when I pointed it out 25 yards away and said "that's a sorbus" and so that was what we went for.  She said that in "olden times" a sorbus was believed to keep witches away and that is why they were often planted in churchyards.  I realise now that her knowledge of a superstition was used in her mind to justify her identification, which seems the wrong way round when you think about it.

Last year I was a bit puzzled as my new tree (left, ignore the hornbeam hedge in front) was the same shape as the one in the churchyard  but had some odd leaves (more like elm?) with no sign of blossom at all.  I put this down to the fact that it was only planted in November 2011 and I was just pleased that all the trees had survived the winter. 

However, this year it is quite clear - it is definitely NOT the same species.  I sent a photo (right) to the nursery who sold and planted the the trees and they think the one in the churchyard is a Morus (Mulberry) but I can't find a photo of one of these on-line which looks like the one over the road, so that might be incorrect as well.

Since I know that I described the blossom on the one in the churchyard in some detail to my so-called "expert", I am really severely dischuffed about the entire affair.


However,  I also planted a malus (crab apple) at the rear of the front garden in front of my new wall, and it is flowering very nicely. This photo is from last year, and it is even better this year - I will put up a photo when I finish the pointing on my wall.

Paving and Setts - Part 1

It's been a long time since my last post.  At last the weather has improved, and I've been outside preparing to lay paving. The photo right shows what it used to be like soon after we bought it, and the photo below left shows the view from the other end when the extension was being rebuilt after removal of tons of earth (note higher garden on right).

This excavation gave a recessed pathway along beside the house, and I decided ages ago to put in a retaining wall about six feet from the house (photo below right, taken in opposite direction). 

This retaining wall is essential to prevent the higher ground of the "garden" (I like to call it that - it will be true one day!) moving gently back towards the house; this would again cause dampness and, having spent time and money in sorting this issue, I have no intention of ever letting it return.  However, as you can see, the wall is still not finished!

One of the issues in clearing up the exterior has been the question of what to lay?  For the same dampness reason I have not felt inclined to lay much concrete, or do anything which feels too permanent.  I will admit that I have laid concrete in the front, and just inside the back gates, but I felt this was a neccessary evil.  In the front it is three inches lower than it used to be and there's a recess beside the lounge wall, so I am not repeating the "let's concrete right up to the wall at interior floor height" error which caused floorboards and joists to rot.  Last year, for the back, I purchased some cast gratings which are really heavy duty items (in fact well over the top!); I intend to fit these between the house wall and whatever I do with the paving. 

It seems almost all paving is really quite expensive, but I have made it sound cheaper by comparing it to the cost of carpet.  You certainly get what you pay for; if it's cheap then it looks cheap and you'll regret it.  I did a fair search - cast cement, brick, reconstituted stone, real stone, etc, in a variety of colours and various finishes (but who wants polished stone outside?).  Eventually I found I could get imported tumbled limestone, 30mm thick in regular sizes, for £32 per square metre.  We chose the pale grey (with a faint hint of purple?) which hopefully will set off the greying yellow of the Cotswold limestone.

It seems the modern way is to lay a huge bed of cement, lay the paving of your choice and then add a dry mix for the grouting.  Something in me still rebels at the thought of laying paving on cement - it seems so permanent.  After all, in 2011 we got rid of nine 18-ton lorry loads of hardcore, soil and stuff from this house (and there were yards of concrete path and slabs all at the wrong height) so why should I want to lay more new cement?  So, after a lot of deliberation, I have gone for a dry bed of sand on MoT Type 1 hardcore (which was already laid in 2011). This has the benefit of being easily reversible (a key principle for old buildings) but requires to be held in place with solid edging.  [Top Tip - work out the entire cost before you decide anything - edging can add a lot to your costs, especially for some of those reconstituted stones.]  I decided to use granite setts which I could buy for about £2 each (and they are almost 25cm long); I am also saving a bit of cash and work by laying the sand up to the wall of the new extension (the level being two bricks below the DPC).  Since the extension was laid out with the use of a laser, this also gives me a good level to work from.

So, in the last three weeks I have laid the last little bit of concrete (near the drains) and a lot of setts in a slightly complicated pattern. This is because I didn't
want a straight pathway and, in any case, I have to avoid various obstacles such as the gas meter box and a few drains.  Clearly, you have to get the setts right: the right plan measurements to avoid cutting the slabs, and the right height as well.  The first thing I had to do, therefore, was to cut granite setts.  This is achieved by use of a bolster and a decent mallet; a few good blows with the bolster carefully held yield a pleasing result.  However, it is made more difficult if your setts are not smooth and then the bolster is not making good contact along its length.  Result - it splits in not quite the right direction!

The current situation is that I have finished the preparation along the side of the house.

The setts on the right will separate the paving from a strip of earth so that I can plant a few things to make the wall look pretty.  On the left, iron grating will fill the gap and allow the house wall to breathe.  Notice that the gas meter box is a bit high; this is a good indication of how much lower the ground level is now - when it was fitted it seemed ever so far down!  All I need to do is to work out how much Type 1 and sharp sand I need to order, then I can start laying.  Then I have to do the rear of the house and extension...

Now you see it, now you don't

They've gone and changed their minds; the operation is deferred for ages (even 12 months possibly), so I will after all be able to get on with the tasks that I want to do this summer.  When I said it was bad timing, I honestly didn't really want this to happen.

All I need now is some half decent weather to let me make a start outside.  The walls, pointing, edge setts and flagstones will all take ages, and I'd like to tidy up and sow some grass seed as well.  Then there's refurbishing sash windows - perhaps I'll get a couple done if I'm lucky this year - and repairing some stucco work at the front (although it's actually cement so shouldn't be too difficult).

In the meantime there is some decorating inside to be done, but that's a job I hate - removing the black gunge that the doors are coated with.  Sanding it just gums up the sandpaper in 15 or 20 seconds, and a heat gun requires three hands as you get these sticky dead slugs on your scraper which have to removed with a sharp knife or else all you do is to spread it around.  The other hassle with the heat gun is having to remove the smoke detectors as they tend to get set off by it.  I've never had much luck with paint remover but perhaps I'll give it another go. 

Bad Timing

I know my brother needs my kidney (see link on previous entry), but in many ways this really is bad timing.  I now have less than six weeks to do a whole load of work in the garden in order to get it ready for my convalescence.

I rather like the idea of sitting out in the summer sun for six or eight weeks, drinking a little lemonade and watching the birds feeding.  The plants will be growing nicely with a gentle fragrance filling the air, while swifts will be wheeling in the sky above.  The alert among you will have noticed the possibly erroneous assumption in all this: what summer?  We're into spring and even that refuses to work this year.  I certainly cannot do any lime brickwork while it's so cold, and I don't even really want to do any concreting or cement work while we're likely to get a frost at night.

I took delivery today of some granite setts which will act as one edge for my paving.  The other long edge is alongside the house; part will be a concrete strip which will support my cast iron grilles where I don't want to pave up to the wall of the old house. Where the paving goes up to the wall of the new extension I will have a strip of self-compacting gravel against the wall of the house as I don't mind that going a bit higher (and I don't have enough grilles!).  There is no point is replicating the earlier errors (of high ground against a porous wall) which I have permanently eliminated by spending a considerable amount.

Once I have done the edges, I can lay the flagstones.  These are on order at my favourite reclamation yard, and I think I've got him down to the lowest possible price of £32/sq m, which isn't bad if you say it quickly - mind you it is for proper 30mm thick real stone, not some thin reconstituted stuff.  I must admit that does sound expensive until you think how much good carpet costs; this stone will be around long after the carpet has given up.

If I can get these done before the operation, I'll be pretty happy, but if I can also clear and lay some lawn I'll be even happier! So, I have work to do as soon as I can persuade myself that the weather is (a) warm enough for me to work, and (b) warm enough for concrete to set properly.