Georgian House Renovation Up North - 5 Years and Counting
Discussion
Are you sure those nicks in the top aren't an original attempt to make the slabs non slip?
They don't look like they were done for the benefit of the concrete, if anything they look like they were done before the slabs went down if the direction and size of the marks on each slab is anything to go by.
Re-lay them but don't get too hung up about the state of the surface as it's probably meant to be that way.
They don't look like they were done for the benefit of the concrete, if anything they look like they were done before the slabs went down if the direction and size of the marks on each slab is anything to go by.
Re-lay them but don't get too hung up about the state of the surface as it's probably meant to be that way.
Tell me about it! The weather never bothers me but I’ve so much to get down in the gardens and nothing is moving forward. I’m in the middle of having some dry stone walking done and that’s ground to a halt for the second time and in the thaw the other week a section of different wall blew out so now that has to be rebuilt. The fencing work keeps having to be delayed until the ground thaws and it’s warm enough for cement to set and on Saturday the work to clean the roof commenced but we’re a three story house on the top of a hill surrounded by fields and it must have been -10 or worse up on the roof in the wind. Their trousers froze solid and by 4pm they eventually gave up as they were concerned they wouldn’t be able to get back down the ladders!!!! I couldn’t believe how long they persisted in doing the work.
As I created some kind of inpetus to get stuff done by having 2000 bricks delivered to the house, work started on removing the collapsing garden wall.
Made a lot more tricky due to the precarious nature of the beast, the close proximity of a few water standpipes and the wife’s prized Hydrangea that, like some militant picket from the miners strike, shall not be moved or else.
The whole corner is crumbling, the ivy has worked in between the wall and was half blowing it up, half holding it together.
The corner came down safely in a ‘controlled’ manner and definitely wasn’t just eyed up as to whether pushing it would miss the house and then the best hoped for...there is footage for this but no photos, I’ll admit to a slight squeaky bum as it started to timber
The bad news was that we were hoping to go back to the clean break in the wall but there is a shed load of movement in the rest of the wall too. Builder and I are now mulling over whether to pull down and rebuild or try to shore up with windposts and some bolts/bracing.
The height will have to come down a few courses, but it also then means the arch at the front will have to drop and it may not have enough weight over the arch to maintain compression/pressure
The wall is now down to the ground and the silver lining is that the base of the wall is made from the same bricks as the house (handmade and non-standard size) so these have been stored in the garage as we need them to repair around the front door (more on that another time).
The lad helping on site also discovered the tap to the old outside toilet was still connected (I thought they’d capped it when we had a leak) he discovered this by Turing it on and getting a face full of water, much to our amusement
Made a lot more tricky due to the precarious nature of the beast, the close proximity of a few water standpipes and the wife’s prized Hydrangea that, like some militant picket from the miners strike, shall not be moved or else.
The whole corner is crumbling, the ivy has worked in between the wall and was half blowing it up, half holding it together.
The corner came down safely in a ‘controlled’ manner and definitely wasn’t just eyed up as to whether pushing it would miss the house and then the best hoped for...there is footage for this but no photos, I’ll admit to a slight squeaky bum as it started to timber
The bad news was that we were hoping to go back to the clean break in the wall but there is a shed load of movement in the rest of the wall too. Builder and I are now mulling over whether to pull down and rebuild or try to shore up with windposts and some bolts/bracing.
The height will have to come down a few courses, but it also then means the arch at the front will have to drop and it may not have enough weight over the arch to maintain compression/pressure
The wall is now down to the ground and the silver lining is that the base of the wall is made from the same bricks as the house (handmade and non-standard size) so these have been stored in the garage as we need them to repair around the front door (more on that another time).
The lad helping on site also discovered the tap to the old outside toilet was still connected (I thought they’d capped it when we had a leak) he discovered this by Turing it on and getting a face full of water, much to our amusement
Edited by stewjohnst on Saturday 31st March 18:30
Can't help but think your life would be made a lot easier if you could use the neighbours garage as your perimeter wall. Nice bit of paint on the blocks job done? The little bit of land is worth nothing to the neighbour. Might be worth asking whether he'd be happy to provide you an easement and in return you grant him access for maintenance.
In a most un-ph turn of events, I actually took the posted advice and went for a chin wag with said neighbour.
The building isn’t actually a garage (this, I knew) it’s an old office he has no use for and as a result he’s shortly about to disassemble it and move it to be a spare garage elsewhere on his land.
This, the easement approach is out and a wall is required. All is not lost however, since the good neighbour has a jcb and has kindly offered to dig out the foundation provided I buy him two new trees to replace the two leylandii of his is have to saw through to give him access for such digger based jiggery-pokery.
In the meantime, I spent a brief moment making what appear to be the worlds worst and not to scale set of vernier calipers to help steady the remaining wall (they will no doubt do feck all) in the event of any wind hitting the wall until demolition resumes tomorrow.
The building isn’t actually a garage (this, I knew) it’s an old office he has no use for and as a result he’s shortly about to disassemble it and move it to be a spare garage elsewhere on his land.
This, the easement approach is out and a wall is required. All is not lost however, since the good neighbour has a jcb and has kindly offered to dig out the foundation provided I buy him two new trees to replace the two leylandii of his is have to saw through to give him access for such digger based jiggery-pokery.
In the meantime, I spent a brief moment making what appear to be the worlds worst and not to scale set of vernier calipers to help steady the remaining wall (they will no doubt do feck all) in the event of any wind hitting the wall until demolition resumes tomorrow.
...and just to add balance from spending all this money on unseen structural guff, the eldest has drawn on every wall in the living room tonight and cleaning has taken the paint off...I have now been informed we were going to redecorate this room anyway...
More pictures of paint rollers and new sofas will probably ensue.
More pictures of paint rollers and new sofas will probably ensue.
elanfan said:
If the JCB is coming in from the office side not a problem but all that weight next to you probably shallow foundations might not be a good plan.
True - the joys of being up north mean a mini digger and labour will set me back only £140 a dayish so a day of that via the trees will sort it right out.I’ll just owe the neighbour a bottle of plonk for borrowing his drive as access
his jcb is a bit sledgehammer/nut given the multitude of water pipes in the smash to bits zone.For once the kids went to bed without drama and as the clocks have changed I managed to get out to do some demolition.
Skip is already full but fortuitously the neighbour requires a load of hard core rubble for his own project so I’ve been filling bulk bags up for him to forklift out of my way. Most handy
There was no way this wall would have stood up, the mortar is shot, I wouldn’t even risk making a sandcastle with it.
Demolition therapy ensued
The boring job of cleaning the bricks and stacking can wait for tomorrow...
Skip is already full but fortuitously the neighbour requires a load of hard core rubble for his own project so I’ve been filling bulk bags up for him to forklift out of my way. Most handy
There was no way this wall would have stood up, the mortar is shot, I wouldn’t even risk making a sandcastle with it.
Demolition therapy ensued
The boring job of cleaning the bricks and stacking can wait for tomorrow...
The wall is a bit of a ball ache so I’ve recruited labour to do it, it has advantages such as returning home to find my bricks all stored cleaned and palleted up like this...
And my arch which I’ve already paid to be put up once, all neatly laid out jigsaw style like this...
It is obviously rather more expensive but they’re s
t load faster than I am what with pausing to shout at the dog and stopping to save the wife from errant three year olds, etc
Discovered a good few pipes and bits under the house, I have lead supply into the house, debating whether to pay to get it swapped out while the wall is up and footings are out.
I also have an unmetered cast iron supply that I don’t want anymore but Yorkshire Water seemed somewhat disinterested in attending even when I pointed out I could just uncap the standpipe and have free water instead of using my metered supply
You may wonder why I told them about it at all but im not short of rainwater collection and I’d rather the cast iron pipe doesn’t rust out undetected underneath the ground and flood my cellar sometime in the future.
Also I got some ‘compost accelerant’ that I really hope I don’t spill all over the Ivy under the wall on my way to the compost heap
And my arch which I’ve already paid to be put up once, all neatly laid out jigsaw style like this...
It is obviously rather more expensive but they’re s
t load faster than I am what with pausing to shout at the dog and stopping to save the wife from errant three year olds, etc Discovered a good few pipes and bits under the house, I have lead supply into the house, debating whether to pay to get it swapped out while the wall is up and footings are out.
I also have an unmetered cast iron supply that I don’t want anymore but Yorkshire Water seemed somewhat disinterested in attending even when I pointed out I could just uncap the standpipe and have free water instead of using my metered supply
You may wonder why I told them about it at all but im not short of rainwater collection and I’d rather the cast iron pipe doesn’t rust out undetected underneath the ground and flood my cellar sometime in the future.
Also I got some ‘compost accelerant’ that I really hope I don’t spill all over the Ivy under the wall on my way to the compost heap
Since I’m clearly not haemorrhaging cash fast enough, we have decided the kitchen needs to be remodelled.
The wife had originally wanted an extension but I pointed out the house is already an absurdly long/convoluted layout and since cracking 40 this year, I had no specific desire to stick another 50 grand on the mortgage.
Much grumbling and negotiation ensued until the matter was finally resolved by my observation that were said extension was completed, it would be quicker for me to go piss in the compost heap than traverse the house to either the upstairs or (yet to be fitted) downstairs amenities.
We are longer getting an extension.
However, we are knocking the utility room and kitchen into one still very big room (subject to getting listed building consent). I had LBC for a similar proposal in 2013 but that lapsed due to kids and other priorities so I’m optimistic we’ll be allowed to progress.
We do need to do something as we don’t use the dining room to eat (miles away from kitchen) and the kitchen isn’t really big enough to accommodate four around a table in its current format because the utility room walls are in the way.
I’ll find a plan from earlier in the thread but essentially, we’ve done loads on the garden and her majesty would like to sit and observe it through the day, ergo, giant glass doors and much bigger windows are needed.
If I underfloor heat the thing, it will also keep the dog immobilised as all he wants is somewhere warm to park his arse. He hates the draughty floorboards and is forever attempting to get on the sofas, which is expressly verboten.
Here is roughly what we’ll be going for, kitchen is probably from diy-kitchens but this is the closest I could get in Ikea planner before I go pester my architect brother to do his Autocad stuff for the price of a bottle of plonk...
The wife had originally wanted an extension but I pointed out the house is already an absurdly long/convoluted layout and since cracking 40 this year, I had no specific desire to stick another 50 grand on the mortgage.
Much grumbling and negotiation ensued until the matter was finally resolved by my observation that were said extension was completed, it would be quicker for me to go piss in the compost heap than traverse the house to either the upstairs or (yet to be fitted) downstairs amenities.
We are longer getting an extension.
However, we are knocking the utility room and kitchen into one still very big room (subject to getting listed building consent). I had LBC for a similar proposal in 2013 but that lapsed due to kids and other priorities so I’m optimistic we’ll be allowed to progress.
We do need to do something as we don’t use the dining room to eat (miles away from kitchen) and the kitchen isn’t really big enough to accommodate four around a table in its current format because the utility room walls are in the way.
I’ll find a plan from earlier in the thread but essentially, we’ve done loads on the garden and her majesty would like to sit and observe it through the day, ergo, giant glass doors and much bigger windows are needed.
If I underfloor heat the thing, it will also keep the dog immobilised as all he wants is somewhere warm to park his arse. He hates the draughty floorboards and is forever attempting to get on the sofas, which is expressly verboten.
Here is roughly what we’ll be going for, kitchen is probably from diy-kitchens but this is the closest I could get in Ikea planner before I go pester my architect brother to do his Autocad stuff for the price of a bottle of plonk...
elanfan said:
Just had another thought about the neighbours office. Would he sell it to you? He’s planned to knock it down anyway. Make a great garage/workshop (and you wouldn’t have to rebuild that wall!)
I tried that but sadly he doesn’t want to break up his plot so I’ll make do as is. We’re not desperate for the land and he’s actually gaining about a foot off me at the bottom due to our amicably agreeing to run the wall straight instead of having a slight bow in it.
You can see the brick line versus the old curve here.
Also made some progress with yorkshire water as an genuinely helpful engineer came to site today to have a look at things.
The pipes all run off the same stop tap in the street so it’s a case of continuing digging out the footings and seeing what we have.
By pure chance, I have a 25m run of 32mm plastic supply pipe in the garage I was going to use for making polytunnel frame so I’ll be taking out the lead pipe on Monday and figuring out whether I can chop through and cap the old iron pipe too.
Also, not one to leave anything lying untouched, i noticed the ground under the concrete slab the builder thought a mini digger could be needed for was more soft core than hard core so I pulled a bit of stuff out from under it and did a bit of deadlifting to persuade something to happen.
Cracking stuff...
I’ve hoiked out the chunks I could and have left the rest for the builders tomorrow, there is an outside chance the wife sees what I’ve done and rips my bks off for making more work but such is life
Hopefully I can explain it is another border for her garden before she’s totally juiced my plums.
Cracking stuff...
I’ve hoiked out the chunks I could and have left the rest for the builders tomorrow, there is an outside chance the wife sees what I’ve done and rips my b
ks off for making more work but such is life Hopefully I can explain it is another border for her garden before she’s totally juiced my plums.
Edited by stewjohnst on Friday 13th April 23:16
dhutch said:
Didn't fancy a curved wall then? Feature curve, for strength!
Presumably you can reuse the majority of the bricks? Reclaimed bricks without the cost. Better than anything modern.
Daniel
Trouble with the reclaimed bricks is they are of questionable integrity - will they hold a tonne of weight or fall to pieces?Presumably you can reuse the majority of the bricks? Reclaimed bricks without the cost. Better than anything modern.
Daniel
I’ve bought sand faced brick that look old and will weather as an older brick and will rebuild the wall with lime (so it fits with house) the old bricks are likely to be sold to reclamation tocover the cost of the new brick.
I will be sending a few hundred to the old man’s allotment for paths but otherwise I have 2000 plus spare
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