Renovating an old farmhouse and living on the Pennines
Discussion
The before and after blasting looks amazing, you wouldn't think it was the same house.
Brilliant thread and great tip on the bins, where are moving to the drive is about 1/2 a mile long and I didn't fancy dragging it. I have thought that getting two bins might be a good idea and rotate them by taking the full one down and bringing the empty one back.
Brilliant thread and great tip on the bins, where are moving to the drive is about 1/2 a mile long and I didn't fancy dragging it. I have thought that getting two bins might be a good idea and rotate them by taking the full one down and bringing the empty one back.
Evoluzione said:
I haven't looked at that one, but will. There are lots of resources to go to since we realised maybe 30 yrs ago that using OPC wasn't a good idea on many old walls. It's been 20yrs since the first and last time I used lime to repoint and save a house from further destruction so it's time for some re-education, this arrived this morning, £6 delivered:
I've got so much to do I want to buy a gun to put it on, the screw & hopper type, but opinion is divided on those.
£6? Just looking on Amazon and the cheapest is £110!!!!!!I've got so much to do I want to buy a gun to put it on, the screw & hopper type, but opinion is divided on those.
skeeterm5 said:
The before and after blasting looks amazing, you wouldn't think it was the same house.
Brilliant thread and great tip on the bins, where are moving to the drive is about 1/2 a mile long and I didn't fancy dragging it. I have thought that getting two bins might be a good idea and rotate them by taking the full one down and bringing the empty one back.
How long would it be before the empty bin at the roadside - which is going to be there for a week, remember - was nicked, or filled with junk?Brilliant thread and great tip on the bins, where are moving to the drive is about 1/2 a mile long and I didn't fancy dragging it. I have thought that getting two bins might be a good idea and rotate them by taking the full one down and bringing the empty one back.
Ace-T said:
Evoluzione said:
I haven't looked at that one, but will. There are lots of resources to go to since we realised maybe 30 yrs ago that using OPC wasn't a good idea on many old walls. It's been 20yrs since the first and last time I used lime to repoint and save a house from further destruction so it's time for some re-education, this arrived this morning, £6 delivered:
I've got so much to do I want to buy a gun to put it on, the screw & hopper type, but opinion is divided on those.
£6? Just looking on Amazon and the cheapest is £110!!!!!!I've got so much to do I want to buy a gun to put it on, the screw & hopper type, but opinion is divided on those.
gareth h said:
What sort of cost was the blasting? We’re moving into this in a couple of months (all being well). And my one concern is the render / paint
If yours is render and paint then our price wouldn't be relevant as they are two different jobs. You need to have a good look at it and find out what precisely needs to be done before going much further really.
The Mad Monk said:
How long would it be before the empty bin at the roadside - which is going to be there for a week, remember - was nicked, or filled with junk?
Good point, although the house is in the middle of nowhere in the Highlands so I would like to think that the risk is low 😀Evoluzione said:
Terry was £750, but then a set of nearly new BF Goodrich All Terrain already mounted on some alloys came up for sale for £200 so I bagged those too. For now he'll get to see out his latter years roaming free on the fields. A bit like a re-homed battery chicken.
The colours on the house are mellowing beautifully as it dries in the sun and breeze, anyhow onto other things right now.
There are pros and cons to everything, here we're South facing so get the sun all day long, sadly we also have a biting midge problem.
I found various larvae in the stone sump I pictured earlier, will sort them out, but i'm struggling to find any other standing water close by. We need to do something serious about them.
It's so quiet up here which adds to the beauty, the main road runs high above us and a field away so only on the quietest of days can you vaguely hear the noisiest of motors. To be able to stop what you're doing and just listen to the sound of silence (courtesy of Simon & Garfunkel) is lovely.
Apart from the postman and our close neighbour you're lucky (or unlucky) to see more than one or a group of walkers per week in Summer. Sometimes i've been working outside and apart from the OH not seen a single soul for 7 days. I'm sure in Winter it'll be a lot longer than that.
I know a lot of people don't bother, but we always like to know and get on with our neighbours no matter where we are. I think out here it's even more important that you do as you could really need someone one day. What Winter will bring is anyone's guess, but stories are abound of being completely snowed in, 6ft high snow drifts etc.
You just have to make sure the LPG tank has plenty in, lots of firewood dried, fridge freezer well stocked, water system lagged and 4x4 at the ready (must get some of that stuff that prevents diesel from coagulating when it goes sub zero).
This is on our land, unsure what it was built for:
Possibly a shepherds hut, it's not big enough to get many animals in, the inner faces of the walls still have some render left on them so i'm guessing that points to human habitation.
Roger (whose house must be over a mile from the road!) came knocking on our door as he must have seen some changes (probably has some binoculars) to introduce himself. Like everyone else so far was very friendly and had his own little snippets of local history to throw in. He's offered to lend his services with his tractor which has a front loader whenever we need it.
I've been round and introduced myself to most of the various people dotted around, have learned a lot and they're all very welcoming.
Still a few to meet including the gamekeeper and one place which has chickens, hopefully we'll have some of those before the end of the year.
Random shot of a local res on a rainy day, there are lots of reservoirs around here as we're so high up:
Evoluzione said:
..sadly we also have a biting midge problem.
I found various larvae in the stone sump I pictured earlier, will sort them out, but i'm struggling to find any other standing water close by. We need to do something serious about them.
You don't need standing water for midges. Damp conditions, long grass, heather etc suits them fine. Great thread. I'm on the edge of the High Peak (Cheshire), and have often thought about moving in-country a bit. Sadly work and keeping tabs on an elderly parent prevents this at the moment.I found various larvae in the stone sump I pictured earlier, will sort them out, but i'm struggling to find any other standing water close by. We need to do something serious about them.
The Barn.
Apparently It's the oldest building around our small area, I think it's 17th century. That truss says 'I'm very old!'
It was converted at one time to a stables:
Now we're knocking all that out to make more storage space for now. Most of the blockwork walls came apart easy enough with Percy Sledge hammer.
The upper floor was made by laying old beams on railway tracks! Sadly they cut the centre section out to get height for the horses.
However down the centre was the mother of all walls, we hit it, pushed it and pulled at it, but it just laughed at us. I'm guessing it's a matter of safety when you have a 1 ton horse which could knock the wall over onto it's mate in the next stall.
It had been built by drilling into the concrete floor and grouting re-bar in. Huge concrete blocks with two square holes in each were then slotted over the bars and bedded on each other with 3 & 1. Finally the holes with the bars poking through were filled with concrete. It was basically a solid concrete wall keyed into the concrete floor.
Me and the 'FIL' drilled/knocked a hole through it and hooked up the Viv with some high tonnage cargo straps and I drove it away slowly. It came to an abrupt halt. Did it again and it pulled the van sideways. Then it broke the strap twice, undeterred we did it a few more times, I was just using the weight of the van really, freewheeling away with a balance of gentle and forceful.
Eventually it began to move a bit and a couple more times saw it lean over at a crazy angle. We got behind it, rocked it and pushed hard until it eventually toppled with a Whumph and lay on the floor - still in one piece.
We got the electric breaker on it, but it soon got very hot and not much work was done. It was then my wine soaked memory flickered back into life. About 20yrs ago i'd bought a diesel compressor, the type Utilities gangs used to tow behind trucks to dig the road up with. It came with a road hammer and full set of tools to insert so we coupled it up and fired up the old girl. It must date back to the 80s, but still starts up and runs perfectly.
As I was about in those times I remember them so well using these things; blokes in the road, no earmuffs or gloves on, fag hanging out of mouth, compressed air coming from the exhaust rippling their trousers, noise and fumes everywhere.
Luckily those days are over for them, but sadly not here today! It was the hottest day of the year and it felt like what's left of my brains shaking loose, but it did the job with ease - it must weigh about 50kgs to start with which helps. We broke it into strips, then smaller bits by cutting through the re-bar with the Stihlsaw. I think all in all we were two days demolishing it and taking it outside. The remains will see out their days hidden in the centre of some gabion baskets, nothing gets wasted here.
Apparently It's the oldest building around our small area, I think it's 17th century. That truss says 'I'm very old!'
It was converted at one time to a stables:
Now we're knocking all that out to make more storage space for now. Most of the blockwork walls came apart easy enough with Percy Sledge hammer.
The upper floor was made by laying old beams on railway tracks! Sadly they cut the centre section out to get height for the horses.
However down the centre was the mother of all walls, we hit it, pushed it and pulled at it, but it just laughed at us. I'm guessing it's a matter of safety when you have a 1 ton horse which could knock the wall over onto it's mate in the next stall.
It had been built by drilling into the concrete floor and grouting re-bar in. Huge concrete blocks with two square holes in each were then slotted over the bars and bedded on each other with 3 & 1. Finally the holes with the bars poking through were filled with concrete. It was basically a solid concrete wall keyed into the concrete floor.
Me and the 'FIL' drilled/knocked a hole through it and hooked up the Viv with some high tonnage cargo straps and I drove it away slowly. It came to an abrupt halt. Did it again and it pulled the van sideways. Then it broke the strap twice, undeterred we did it a few more times, I was just using the weight of the van really, freewheeling away with a balance of gentle and forceful.
Eventually it began to move a bit and a couple more times saw it lean over at a crazy angle. We got behind it, rocked it and pushed hard until it eventually toppled with a Whumph and lay on the floor - still in one piece.
We got the electric breaker on it, but it soon got very hot and not much work was done. It was then my wine soaked memory flickered back into life. About 20yrs ago i'd bought a diesel compressor, the type Utilities gangs used to tow behind trucks to dig the road up with. It came with a road hammer and full set of tools to insert so we coupled it up and fired up the old girl. It must date back to the 80s, but still starts up and runs perfectly.
As I was about in those times I remember them so well using these things; blokes in the road, no earmuffs or gloves on, fag hanging out of mouth, compressed air coming from the exhaust rippling their trousers, noise and fumes everywhere.
Luckily those days are over for them, but sadly not here today! It was the hottest day of the year and it felt like what's left of my brains shaking loose, but it did the job with ease - it must weigh about 50kgs to start with which helps. We broke it into strips, then smaller bits by cutting through the re-bar with the Stihlsaw. I think all in all we were two days demolishing it and taking it outside. The remains will see out their days hidden in the centre of some gabion baskets, nothing gets wasted here.
The Mad Monk said:
Evoluzione said:
Water.
Or rather, water management, a surprisingly big topic here.
.................
The water supply to the house is now from a borehole in the garage, here I need your advice. It has no filter and the water has a lot of iron in it, you can taste it and it stains everything brown. I'm now living with a ginner
At the moment we've just sent off a sample for analysis, but we're looking at a £1k+ bill to put a filter in and it'll need annual maintenance. Any experiences or advice on that are welcome.
I am probably writing twaddle, but-Or rather, water management, a surprisingly big topic here.
.................
The water supply to the house is now from a borehole in the garage, here I need your advice. It has no filter and the water has a lot of iron in it, you can taste it and it stains everything brown. I'm now living with a ginner
At the moment we've just sent off a sample for analysis, but we're looking at a £1k+ bill to put a filter in and it'll need annual maintenance. Any experiences or advice on that are welcome.
I should be very careful with the drinking water supply. e.g. Lack of iodine in the water can cause serious medical problems (google Derbyshire neck). Will the local water company do some tests for you?
I wish you well (pun). It sounds a very interesting project.
I owned a house where 16.houses jointly owned 2 bore holes and 2 treatment plants.
Thanks again for the replies. Sometimes I wish PH had a 'Like' button, you do wonder if your threads are being enjoyed or not, too easy to bang on and write something which is dull. But then as a reader you can't be expected to respond to each post. This is where 'Like' comes in, just a gentle nod in the right direction.
Anyhow, hope you've had your breakfast, it's time to talk compost again:
Monday:
Tuesday:
And it's up to 64 this morning.
Meanwhile on another thread:
[quote=Dr Mike Oxgreen with his £220 bin]
It certainly won’t survive the temperature in my HotBin!
(Yes, that’s 65°C)
[/quote]
If ambient temp as a base is taken into consideration you may have a fight on your hands Mr Oxgreen
'Our investigations are ongoing' said a spokesperson. Yes and a lot to learn too.
As you've probably gathered I don't throw a lot away, 'It'll come in for something one day' is often uttered. So I pulled out a 4' piece of used copper pipe, bashed the end flat, filled it with water and pushed it into the pile. Then dropped the thermometer probe in.
It's 100% horse poo and i'm reading conflicting info on Nitrogen content of it, but have just found a more scientific test which rubbishes those claims which say it's no good and that Nitrogen is in there. Nitrogen is of course 'plant food'.
It's taken about a month to build up 1m cubed of the stuff, now it's full I'll start another next to it.
So two points of enquiry - one is making decent compost, the other is heating something worthwhile, like the greenhouse, or maybe something else, but not really the house.
I haven't gone into too much depth on compost here for fear of being on my own, but feel free to push the conversation if it interests, as I said, there is a lot to learn yet.
Anyhow, hope you've had your breakfast, it's time to talk compost again:
Monday:
Tuesday:
And it's up to 64 this morning.
Meanwhile on another thread:
[quote=Dr Mike Oxgreen with his £220 bin]
It certainly won’t survive the temperature in my HotBin!
(Yes, that’s 65°C)
[/quote]
If ambient temp as a base is taken into consideration you may have a fight on your hands Mr Oxgreen
'Our investigations are ongoing' said a spokesperson. Yes and a lot to learn too.
As you've probably gathered I don't throw a lot away, 'It'll come in for something one day' is often uttered. So I pulled out a 4' piece of used copper pipe, bashed the end flat, filled it with water and pushed it into the pile. Then dropped the thermometer probe in.
It's 100% horse poo and i'm reading conflicting info on Nitrogen content of it, but have just found a more scientific test which rubbishes those claims which say it's no good and that Nitrogen is in there. Nitrogen is of course 'plant food'.
It's taken about a month to build up 1m cubed of the stuff, now it's full I'll start another next to it.
So two points of enquiry - one is making decent compost, the other is heating something worthwhile, like the greenhouse, or maybe something else, but not really the house.
I haven't gone into too much depth on compost here for fear of being on my own, but feel free to push the conversation if it interests, as I said, there is a lot to learn yet.
Evoluzione said:
So two points of enquiry - one is making decent compost, the other is heating something worthwhile, like the greenhouse, or maybe something else, but not really the house.
I haven't gone into too much depth on compost here for fear of being on my own, but feel free to push the conversation if it interests, as I said, there is a lot to learn yet.
You'll get decent compost, quite quickly if you keep the temperature and moisture balance quite nicely.I haven't gone into too much depth on compost here for fear of being on my own, but feel free to push the conversation if it interests, as I said, there is a lot to learn yet.
In terms of making good use of the heat, I don't think you'll get much from it. Once you start removing heat you start to slow the reaction down, so you're more likely to stall the reaction before you get any real warmth.
That said, having a good size container of it in the greenhouse might keep the frost away...
Evoluzione said:
Well mi new Winter coyte arrived this morning courtesy of Handsome Dan:
https://handsomedans.co.uk/products/h-d-forrester-...
Ah, you get the same Facebook ads fed to you as I do!https://handsomedans.co.uk/products/h-d-forrester-...
Evoluzione said:
Thanks again for the replies. Sometimes I wish PH had a 'Like' button, you do wonder if your threads are being enjoyed or not, too easy to bang on and write something which is dull. But then as a reader you can't be expected to respond to each post. This is where 'Like' comes in, just a gentle nod in the right direction.
One of my favourite threads on PH at the moment! 
CAPP0 said:
Evoluzione said:
Well mi new Winter coyte arrived this morning courtesy of Handsome Dan:
https://handsomedans.co.uk/products/h-d-forrester-...
Ah, you get the same Facebook ads fed to you as I do!https://handsomedans.co.uk/products/h-d-forrester-...
Great thread keep it coming.
Evanivitch said:
Evoluzione said:
So two points of enquiry - one is making decent compost, the other is heating something worthwhile, like the greenhouse, or maybe something else, but not really the house.
I haven't gone into too much depth on compost here for fear of being on my own, but feel free to push the conversation if it interests, as I said, there is a lot to learn yet.
You'll get decent compost, quite quickly if you keep the temperature and moisture balance quite nicely.I haven't gone into too much depth on compost here for fear of being on my own, but feel free to push the conversation if it interests, as I said, there is a lot to learn yet.
In terms of making good use of the heat, I don't think you'll get much from it. Once you start removing heat you start to slow the reaction down, so you're more likely to stall the reaction before you get any real warmth.
That said, having a good size container of it in the greenhouse might keep the frost away...
This article suggests adding Nitrogen is needed: https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2012/09/28/horse-manur...
But it talks about 2 things in that respect; getting the pile going and the end result.
This more scientific PDF however goes further. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/411/2014/12/Pa...
It backs up what the first article says about being careful about mixing wood derived bedding in and shows tests done with and without.
I agree that removing too much heat is something to be careful about and I have already made note of that. Especially as we need the most heat at the coldest time of the year...
Aerating is also something to be considered. there are talks and pics of people shoving a drilled soil pipe in the bottom to get air in, but i'm unsure of its effectiveness. Also it's admitting cold air in. This this where rotating composters come in, but their effectiveness is highly questionable.
There is no way I can turn all of this thing over to mix it so i'm not going to get a complete thorough compost as we have a hot core and cold outer.
I do have some sheets of 100mm Kingspan which I could line the next heap with, this would increase thermal efficiency, but could reduce the heaps ability to breathe (if it needs it).
Two of the downsides of using horses are:
1. It contains 'live' grass seeds.
2. It doesn't contain urine like bird poo does thus has less nitrogen.
Using it to heat a greenhouse:
Putting the heap inside would create a gaseous risk!
Yes you can indeed heat buildings with compost, just if or how i'm going to do it remains to be seen and experimented with.
At 1.5hrs this is a long and laborious listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvMi6hgfcnw&ab...
But gives us two important names, one is the speaker and author of his own book Gaelan Brown (am just about to order it) and the other is one of the pioneers of the technique, a Frenchman called Jean Pain. Those two names then open up a whole new avenue of more professional things to explore, there are already many amateur ones to view on YT.
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