Renovating an old farmhouse and living on the Pennines
Discussion
I forgot to say, I bought these for the Blue tits:
A bit pricey, but will last forever. They're made from something called 'Woodcrete' and as the name suggests sawdust mixed with cement. I don't think we'll get anything in them this year as they're not old enough, there is also still plenty of alternative accommodation in the walls of the old barn, but they're there if and when needed.
I've noticed little spots of bird poo in various locations where the birds (Wrens I think) get cover overnight and i've seen one in the polytunnel more than once. I think eventually when I get a shed sorted out i'll leave an opening in the gable end so they can get in to roost, maybe even nest in there out of the elements.
A bit pricey, but will last forever. They're made from something called 'Woodcrete' and as the name suggests sawdust mixed with cement. I don't think we'll get anything in them this year as they're not old enough, there is also still plenty of alternative accommodation in the walls of the old barn, but they're there if and when needed.
I've noticed little spots of bird poo in various locations where the birds (Wrens I think) get cover overnight and i've seen one in the polytunnel more than once. I think eventually when I get a shed sorted out i'll leave an opening in the gable end so they can get in to roost, maybe even nest in there out of the elements.
hidetheelephants said:
Evoluzione said:
Why not uncover the paving, or would it knacker all the drainage falls?I was hoping at least they'd be of decent stone when I took that pic, but they weren't even that. They'd been pulled out of the ground here at one time and laid there for some bygone reason. At least they can be put to some use now.
The call of the Curlews as they return says that the end of Winter can't be far off, but it's still hanging around and now getting colder. This Winter has seen (probably for most of us in England?) a fair amount of still and cold weather, I much prefer that to last Winters wind and rain. All the local reservoirs had been filled two months ago.
To give that some scale those are bits of dust around it. I was a bit bemused to find 3 of them jumping around the windowboard in the room I'm working on. It didn't take long to figure out that some eggs must have been laid in either some compost or my heated propagators last year and had hitched a ride inside the house now i'm starting some seeds off.
I lifted a board up from where it lay in the paddock to find two field mice living under it in a maze of holes in the dry dead grass, as long as they stay out there it's fine by me so I fed them with some bits and pieces.
Grasshoppers aside aside we've had no other wildlife living with us in the house this Winter, i'm assuming i've blocked their entry holes up when I was pointing last year.
The back bedroom/office has been coming along. After insulating and plastering the ceiling I put my hand against the window reveal on a cold day and it was cold, really cold! It's a common problem with houses, even up until (relatively) recent years where the outer wall can be connected to the inner wall around the window and door openings, either by mortar or the plasterwork. They've been putting a DPC down there for decades to stop the damp transmitting across, but the cold can still transfer through that if it's packed with mortar either side of it or the plaster connects it - known as a cold bridge.
I did some testing over a few days at different times and different temps:
The colder the outside temps got the bigger the difference between points one and two was, on some days it was double (10c to 20c). I noticed some old mould stains in one corner too it had got so cold and damp. It's a known problem and we were indeed paying to heat the outer walls of the house.
So I hacked off all the plaster, removed the mortar joining inner to outer and replaced it with filler foam, cut some 25mm PIR board and bonded that on, then some plasterboard, plaster angle and two coats of plaster. It's as monotonous and repetitive as it sounds and there were two windows to do:
I painted the ceilings white and the woodwork with some Claudia Winkelman Oak Sikkens I already had, then it was handed over to The Internal Décor Department. K took some time off work to do the walls and then move back in:
She's bought some matching heavy material and is making some curtains to match the paper.
Temp difference across the reveals is now just 1 to 2'c rather than from 10 to 20. It was labour intensive, but only a few quid in materials. Whoever built it did put some PIR in the cavity too, the cavity is huge though and I may fill it with polystyrene balls at a later date. I can do this by lifting the roof tiles and simply pouring it in from above.
The other rooms in the main house will be a bit different as they are solid walled.
Next i'm tarting up the porch whilst Winter passes.
To give that some scale those are bits of dust around it. I was a bit bemused to find 3 of them jumping around the windowboard in the room I'm working on. It didn't take long to figure out that some eggs must have been laid in either some compost or my heated propagators last year and had hitched a ride inside the house now i'm starting some seeds off.
I lifted a board up from where it lay in the paddock to find two field mice living under it in a maze of holes in the dry dead grass, as long as they stay out there it's fine by me so I fed them with some bits and pieces.
Grasshoppers aside aside we've had no other wildlife living with us in the house this Winter, i'm assuming i've blocked their entry holes up when I was pointing last year.
The back bedroom/office has been coming along. After insulating and plastering the ceiling I put my hand against the window reveal on a cold day and it was cold, really cold! It's a common problem with houses, even up until (relatively) recent years where the outer wall can be connected to the inner wall around the window and door openings, either by mortar or the plasterwork. They've been putting a DPC down there for decades to stop the damp transmitting across, but the cold can still transfer through that if it's packed with mortar either side of it or the plaster connects it - known as a cold bridge.
I did some testing over a few days at different times and different temps:
The colder the outside temps got the bigger the difference between points one and two was, on some days it was double (10c to 20c). I noticed some old mould stains in one corner too it had got so cold and damp. It's a known problem and we were indeed paying to heat the outer walls of the house.
So I hacked off all the plaster, removed the mortar joining inner to outer and replaced it with filler foam, cut some 25mm PIR board and bonded that on, then some plasterboard, plaster angle and two coats of plaster. It's as monotonous and repetitive as it sounds and there were two windows to do:
I painted the ceilings white and the woodwork with some Claudia Winkelman Oak Sikkens I already had, then it was handed over to The Internal Décor Department. K took some time off work to do the walls and then move back in:
She's bought some matching heavy material and is making some curtains to match the paper.
Temp difference across the reveals is now just 1 to 2'c rather than from 10 to 20. It was labour intensive, but only a few quid in materials. Whoever built it did put some PIR in the cavity too, the cavity is huge though and I may fill it with polystyrene balls at a later date. I can do this by lifting the roof tiles and simply pouring it in from above.
The other rooms in the main house will be a bit different as they are solid walled.
Next i'm tarting up the porch whilst Winter passes.
Snow stops play so time for a ramble. If the forecast is correct we're only on day 1 of 4 of this.
This old weather vane has long since annoyed me, when we first moved here it was seized with rust and split so I freed it and greased so it worked then welded the split up, but as you can see it wasn't a great design and had worn right through:
She thinks i'm sat watching telly, but i'm not. I'm pondering how to stop a weather vane from rocking backwards and forwards and rattling in the wind cheaply and effectively. I don't mind stuff being a bit scruffy, It does annoy when things are not mechanically as good as they could be though.
More thought went into it than it should, but because of this the actual job was done and dusted in less than an hour.
Unsurprisingly I had everything needed in my parts cave to effect a repair and even make it better than before. Apart from a bearing, I bought that for about a fiver I think.
The necessary bits and the worn out one laid out ready for assembly:
The piece of tube gets welded onto the boss left by the old bit which handily fits inside it, the large ball bearing goes up inside that so it sits on it vertically. Then the new long bearing thingy slides into the tube and over the existing pin to take the horizontal forces.
Plenty of grease in, a bit of black Smoothright and we're back up smoother than ever before:
K came back from her travels and got stuck in a drift:
Went up with Terry, but in the event she drove him home and I got her car out. I think she was just scared she'd go over the edge as that's generally what happens when you start wheelspinning and sliding there.
It's rare there isn't something interesting to look at when I have a wander around, even in a blizzard like this. I heard a sheep coming from somewhere and it took a while to spot it:
Quickly realised it was where it shouldn't have been so spent half an hour making like a sheepdog to get it back in the field, it made more sense than to call the Shepardess up here in this.
She had one go missing 'appen a month or two ago and it hasn't been seen since, we're hoping this is it trying to get back to it's mates.
When I lived a normal life I could peer out of the curtains at night out onto the streetlamp lit road, be able to tell if it was snowing or not and how bad it was. We can't do that anymore as it's just blackness out there.
As per my last post things were getting a bit slippery, but we were still able to get in:
This was the same part the next morning:
Note the fence posts on the right just poking through.
We didn't need to get out, but I thought it might be a good idea to try and get out, so I knew how to and if I could if we ever needed to in an emergency or whatever..
That was my story anyhow and it was nothing to do with dicking around with rusty machines in the snow.
Cleared the gate first:
Yeehaa!
It coped well, I used a mixture of driving over it, dozering some and digging it out of the way so I could get Terry up there.
Next door neighbour has nothing but two Fwd hatches, the schools were cancelled anyhow so they took to sledging down the fields instead:
Once up to the road it didn't look so bad at first
But it was further up:
The van had come off the road in the blizzard and gone into the wall, driver had left it. As I write 2 days later it's still there. That wall gets knocked down at least once per year, it must be the most re-built wall in the area.
I pulled the tattie truck out with Terry then a load more came and got stuck, we pulled a couple more out too and was told the road was completely blocked so carried on for some pics:
The actual road is under there somewhere and goes through the gap in the trees.
It all looks very quiet, but the roads were actually quite busy with people getting stuck, I just didn't get chance to photograph them all.
Next day someone cleared it, probably a farmer so he could get through to his fields:
Even though the roads were clear some still couldn't stay on them!
We pulled them out and went home, it was starting to snow again, but I have no idea how much as we sit here and it swirls around out there.
I should start charging...
Edited by Evoluzione on Saturday 11th March 21:11
Great stuff. 20 years ago I used to commute that road every day - lived in Laneshawbridge and worked in Bradford.
Out over the tops in the morning, and back on the A650 and A6068 in the evening after rush hour. Both epic drives in an Impreza back in the day. Regularly saw speeds on the A650 that'd give me palpitations these days, while the scariest thing on the moor road was idiots cutting blind corners. Only ever lost one door mirror though lol
FL51KHF_3 by giveitfish, on Flickr
Out over the tops in the morning, and back on the A650 and A6068 in the evening after rush hour. Both epic drives in an Impreza back in the day. Regularly saw speeds on the A650 that'd give me palpitations these days, while the scariest thing on the moor road was idiots cutting blind corners. Only ever lost one door mirror though lol
FL51KHF_3 by giveitfish, on Flickr
king.
good updates as always Evoluzione, that snow fall is quite something!
We had a genuine 20 cm here in Yorkshire which was knee deep in places, but looks like you have that soundly beaten.
I am still constantly looking and dreaming of a small holding in the north, and this is the current object of my desire: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/12949580/
We had a genuine 20 cm here in Yorkshire which was knee deep in places, but looks like you have that soundly beaten.
I am still constantly looking and dreaming of a small holding in the north, and this is the current object of my desire: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/12949580/
Dear Evo (and anyone other thread regulars who know their onions), I seek advice about repointing some of the mortar in my house.
I'm going to have a go at repairing some of the pointing on my house and for the aggregate in the new mortar I intend to grind up the lumps of old failed mortar that I have hacked out of the joint to re use (I have been told that this is an acceptable source of aggregate, plus I like the idea of reusing as much of the fabric of the house as I can), but this won't be enough of course, so instead of trying to guess at a colour match of new sand I thought I could gather a couple of kg of naturally (ish) formed gritty sand that is underfoot along the length of the ancient trackway that is opposite my house.
In my head this is an ideal solution as it literally could not be more locally sourced and I assume the original aggregate would have come from nearby so it should be a good colour match to the masonry and existing mortar, however it seems too simple... I have been reading about lime stuff generally and apparently more than 4% clay or silt in the sand is no good, but as the lane in question has a stream running down it semi regularly (it is called Syke Lane, after all) then as long as I take from somewhere that obviously sees flowing water rather than pools, then I should be left with a naturally washed sand? I am also in the Pennines so all the local stone is millstone grit, which I assume is naturally clay free
It's a small amount of pointing that needs doing so buying 25 kg of sand that I will only use 10% of seems silly.
Any advice gratefully received
I'm going to have a go at repairing some of the pointing on my house and for the aggregate in the new mortar I intend to grind up the lumps of old failed mortar that I have hacked out of the joint to re use (I have been told that this is an acceptable source of aggregate, plus I like the idea of reusing as much of the fabric of the house as I can), but this won't be enough of course, so instead of trying to guess at a colour match of new sand I thought I could gather a couple of kg of naturally (ish) formed gritty sand that is underfoot along the length of the ancient trackway that is opposite my house.
In my head this is an ideal solution as it literally could not be more locally sourced and I assume the original aggregate would have come from nearby so it should be a good colour match to the masonry and existing mortar, however it seems too simple... I have been reading about lime stuff generally and apparently more than 4% clay or silt in the sand is no good, but as the lane in question has a stream running down it semi regularly (it is called Syke Lane, after all) then as long as I take from somewhere that obviously sees flowing water rather than pools, then I should be left with a naturally washed sand? I am also in the Pennines so all the local stone is millstone grit, which I assume is naturally clay free
It's a small amount of pointing that needs doing so buying 25 kg of sand that I will only use 10% of seems silly.
Any advice gratefully received
deadtom said:
Dear Evo (and anyone other thread regulars who know their onions), I seek advice about repointing some of the mortar in my house.
I'm going to have a go at repairing some of the pointing on my house and for the aggregate in the new mortar I intend to grind up the lumps of old failed mortar that I have hacked out of the joint to re use (I have been told that this is an acceptable source of aggregate, plus I like the idea of reusing as much of the fabric of the house as I can), but this won't be enough of course, so instead of trying to guess at a colour match of new sand I thought I could gather a couple of kg of naturally (ish) formed gritty sand that is underfoot along the length of the ancient trackway that is opposite my house.
In my head this is an ideal solution as it literally could not be more locally sourced and I assume the original aggregate would have come from nearby so it should be a good colour match to the masonry and existing mortar, however it seems too simple... I have been reading about lime stuff generally and apparently more than 4% clay or silt in the sand is no good, but as the lane in question has a stream running down it semi regularly (it is called Syke Lane, after all) then as long as I take from somewhere that obviously sees flowing water rather than pools, then I should be left with a naturally washed sand? I am also in the Pennines so all the local stone is millstone grit, which I assume is naturally clay free
It's a small amount of pointing that needs doing so buying 25 kg of sand that I will only use 10% of seems silly.
Any advice gratefully received
Various thoughts:I'm going to have a go at repairing some of the pointing on my house and for the aggregate in the new mortar I intend to grind up the lumps of old failed mortar that I have hacked out of the joint to re use (I have been told that this is an acceptable source of aggregate, plus I like the idea of reusing as much of the fabric of the house as I can), but this won't be enough of course, so instead of trying to guess at a colour match of new sand I thought I could gather a couple of kg of naturally (ish) formed gritty sand that is underfoot along the length of the ancient trackway that is opposite my house.
In my head this is an ideal solution as it literally could not be more locally sourced and I assume the original aggregate would have come from nearby so it should be a good colour match to the masonry and existing mortar, however it seems too simple... I have been reading about lime stuff generally and apparently more than 4% clay or silt in the sand is no good, but as the lane in question has a stream running down it semi regularly (it is called Syke Lane, after all) then as long as I take from somewhere that obviously sees flowing water rather than pools, then I should be left with a naturally washed sand? I am also in the Pennines so all the local stone is millstone grit, which I assume is naturally clay free
It's a small amount of pointing that needs doing so buying 25 kg of sand that I will only use 10% of seems silly.
Any advice gratefully received
A bag of sand is about a fiver and anything left over can be kept for further use ad infinitum. If you use sand you've picked up it will need washing as you don't know what's in it, clay, silt, dirt, salt, minerals etc. If you want advice on choosing some which matches then post a pic of the colour. You'll also need to break down some of your old mix and examine the particles very closely for colour.
It took me a while to match the yellow/beige colour here. I started off with a bag of premixed from thingies in Spenborough, but despite me looking at the samples first it had red sand in it which dried a touch pink which was no good.
Then I visited the builders merchants and local stone yard (the latter had their own crushed stone sand) for samples. As a shovel full of sand is worth 0.001p when I explained what I was trying to do they just let me have some for free.
It helped a lot that the French lime I used was light beige to begin with rather than the stark white British stuff.
Patching is very difficult due to the colour matching, it's very much like matching for patching (metallic) car paint in many ways if you have any experience of that. If you're hell bent on patching and getting a good colour match you'll probably end up spending a lot of time and a little money getting it right, but it'll be worth the effort in the end. You may get lucky first time...
Evoluzione said:
Various thoughts:
A bag of sand is about a fiver and anything left over can be kept for further use ad infinitum. If you use sand you've picked up it will need washing as you don't know what's in it, clay, silt, dirt, salt, minerals etc. If you want advice on choosing some which matches then post a pic of the colour. You'll also need to break down some of your old mix and examine the particles very closely for colour.
It took me a while to match the yellow/beige colour here. I started off with a bag of premixed from thingies in Spenborough, but despite me looking at the samples first it had red sand in it which dried a touch pink which was no good.
Then I visited the builders merchants and local stone yard (the latter had their own crushed stone sand) for samples. As a shovel full of sand is worth 0.001p when I explained what I was trying to do they just let me have some for free.
It helped a lot that the French lime I used was light beige to begin with rather than the stark white British stuff.
Patching is very difficult due to the colour matching, it's very much like matching for patching (metallic) car paint in many ways if you have any experience of that. If you're hell bent on patching and getting a good colour match you'll probably end up spending a lot of time and a little money getting it right, but it'll be worth the effort in the end. You may get lucky first time...
Thank you for your reply, although I should have said in my first post that while it would be nice, I am not too fussed about a perfect colour match as this is for an internal wall that will be getting lime washed anyway, so my query was mostly about whether it's possible / advisable to use very locally sourced material.A bag of sand is about a fiver and anything left over can be kept for further use ad infinitum. If you use sand you've picked up it will need washing as you don't know what's in it, clay, silt, dirt, salt, minerals etc. If you want advice on choosing some which matches then post a pic of the colour. You'll also need to break down some of your old mix and examine the particles very closely for colour.
It took me a while to match the yellow/beige colour here. I started off with a bag of premixed from thingies in Spenborough, but despite me looking at the samples first it had red sand in it which dried a touch pink which was no good.
Then I visited the builders merchants and local stone yard (the latter had their own crushed stone sand) for samples. As a shovel full of sand is worth 0.001p when I explained what I was trying to do they just let me have some for free.
It helped a lot that the French lime I used was light beige to begin with rather than the stark white British stuff.
Patching is very difficult due to the colour matching, it's very much like matching for patching (metallic) car paint in many ways if you have any experience of that. If you're hell bent on patching and getting a good colour match you'll probably end up spending a lot of time and a little money getting it right, but it'll be worth the effort in the end. You may get lucky first time...
It's not so much the cost of the sand, rather the delivery charge which is approx 3 times the cost of the sand itself! also it sounds silly, but I have no storage space for the 25 kg bag of lime that I have already bought, let alone another 25 kg of aggregate. I could lose it into the gravel driveway though I suppose.
I have had a good look at the lumps of old mix and the colour is certainly pretty close to the yellow/beige of the sand that forms in the old paths around here.
That being said, I have just been for a walk up the lane and my recollection of relatively clean areas of sand/grit must be from the summer when it's dry and windswept, because currently it's all grey silty mush due to farm vehicles and lots of walkers tracking mud along the whole length of the lane, so that's not going to work anyway as I need to do this repointing fairly soon.
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff