Renovating an old farmhouse and living on the Pennines
Discussion
You don't need to apologise for your posts, it's natural conversation, the way things go. I'm glad it stimulates it, for the feedback and also to read about your potential projects. Also you have to remember I might not see or speak to anyone other than K for weeks on end if I don't leave our borders!
The whole point is to provide light entertainment, educate and promote discussion, bringing this thread back up from the depths does that and also presents it people who have perhaps not seen it before.
Orientation was quite important to us, but it's a mixed bag of pros and cons. We face due South, absolutely bang on to the degree on the side of a valley going East West of course. We see sunset/sunrise in Winter, but not in Midsummer as it goes too far round. We're open to the elements but the sun warms the house on a day like today which is very welcome.
A house further down from us faces the opposite way and gets no sun in Winter so it's cold and twice as miserable! But sheltered from much of the bad weather which usually comes from the South and West.
It's there on the left tucked into like a 90' angle of trees:
Then you have these at the highest point around:
There is no shelter there from anything!
The breeze they and we get keeps the mozzies down in Summer, where it's windless and the houses are in trees down below they're much worse. A former owner up there put a wind turbine up, it lasted a week in Winter before it was blown down. They're also battling with this driving rain problem.
Internal structural woodwork? Well we'll get round to that in more (pictorial) detail eventually. I haven't shown pics of the rather grubby damp stained interior yet as it's a bit embarrassing, I want a chapter with 'this is how it was', 'here is me ripping it out', this is what I did and this is what it looks like now.
I've started with an easy one at the back compared to the others.
You notice and learn things in stages of course. It became apparent after a while why houses round here were placed where they are and this was next to a spring.
More recently i've noticed many houses are surrounded by trees, often Sycamores which are not native to the UK. I'm guessing these were planted at a certain time to protect the houses from driving rain.
This is a bit premature so i'll maybe repeat it later when I tear into the ground floor rooms, that is a way off though.
We'd been in the house for a few months before I noticed the ceiling in the dining room was lower than that in the neighbouring kitchen, I'm pretty sure it's a false ceiling.
Also (and it's in the pics of the Deepdale house) the method of 1st floor construction was to put thin joists down, then support them underneath by exposed thick beams running at 90' to them.
So our kitchen ceiling was split into 3 bays (two exposed beams underneath), however now there is beam No.3 which doesn't match and is tight against the front wall of the house. I figured it was steel and a magnet confirmed this.
When I was pointing at the front there was a hole so deep I could see through and noted a concrete lintel over the top of a window internally.
Putting all of that together leads me to believe much of the woodwork in the front wall of the house rotted away years ago, joist ends and all. It's actually saved me a lot of work and in one other way it's a big bonus too. When you insulate a solid wall internally you're in danger of introducing damp, then rot into the joist ends (they're a thermal bridge). The Stormdry cream may well have prevented this, but now there is no risk of it at all, what isn't there can't rot!
I've read a few reasonably scholarly papers available online and also watched some similarly high end YT vids on the topic.
There is a similar structural issue in the roof, but that's for another day and for me to fix.
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet. One such house I investigated and pictured quite early on in the thread, it's in the middle here somewhere by that track so is accessible by car:
I doubt they are 'listed', but often in preservation areas.
If you look here there is an empty third farm (beyond the first two) hidden in the trees to the left of that long copse:
My neighbour for instance (whose house is pictured on the last page I think) has been rebuilding that for 10yrs now and is only just nearly ready for moving in soon, he has done it mainly all himself though.
The whole point is to provide light entertainment, educate and promote discussion, bringing this thread back up from the depths does that and also presents it people who have perhaps not seen it before.
Orientation was quite important to us, but it's a mixed bag of pros and cons. We face due South, absolutely bang on to the degree on the side of a valley going East West of course. We see sunset/sunrise in Winter, but not in Midsummer as it goes too far round. We're open to the elements but the sun warms the house on a day like today which is very welcome.
A house further down from us faces the opposite way and gets no sun in Winter so it's cold and twice as miserable! But sheltered from much of the bad weather which usually comes from the South and West.
It's there on the left tucked into like a 90' angle of trees:
Then you have these at the highest point around:
There is no shelter there from anything!
The breeze they and we get keeps the mozzies down in Summer, where it's windless and the houses are in trees down below they're much worse. A former owner up there put a wind turbine up, it lasted a week in Winter before it was blown down. They're also battling with this driving rain problem.
Internal structural woodwork? Well we'll get round to that in more (pictorial) detail eventually. I haven't shown pics of the rather grubby damp stained interior yet as it's a bit embarrassing, I want a chapter with 'this is how it was', 'here is me ripping it out', this is what I did and this is what it looks like now.
I've started with an easy one at the back compared to the others.
You notice and learn things in stages of course. It became apparent after a while why houses round here were placed where they are and this was next to a spring.
More recently i've noticed many houses are surrounded by trees, often Sycamores which are not native to the UK. I'm guessing these were planted at a certain time to protect the houses from driving rain.
This is a bit premature so i'll maybe repeat it later when I tear into the ground floor rooms, that is a way off though.
We'd been in the house for a few months before I noticed the ceiling in the dining room was lower than that in the neighbouring kitchen, I'm pretty sure it's a false ceiling.
Also (and it's in the pics of the Deepdale house) the method of 1st floor construction was to put thin joists down, then support them underneath by exposed thick beams running at 90' to them.
So our kitchen ceiling was split into 3 bays (two exposed beams underneath), however now there is beam No.3 which doesn't match and is tight against the front wall of the house. I figured it was steel and a magnet confirmed this.
When I was pointing at the front there was a hole so deep I could see through and noted a concrete lintel over the top of a window internally.
Putting all of that together leads me to believe much of the woodwork in the front wall of the house rotted away years ago, joist ends and all. It's actually saved me a lot of work and in one other way it's a big bonus too. When you insulate a solid wall internally you're in danger of introducing damp, then rot into the joist ends (they're a thermal bridge). The Stormdry cream may well have prevented this, but now there is no risk of it at all, what isn't there can't rot!
I've read a few reasonably scholarly papers available online and also watched some similarly high end YT vids on the topic.
There is a similar structural issue in the roof, but that's for another day and for me to fix.
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet. One such house I investigated and pictured quite early on in the thread, it's in the middle here somewhere by that track so is accessible by car:
I doubt they are 'listed', but often in preservation areas.
If you look here there is an empty third farm (beyond the first two) hidden in the trees to the left of that long copse:
My neighbour for instance (whose house is pictured on the last page I think) has been rebuilding that for 10yrs now and is only just nearly ready for moving in soon, he has done it mainly all himself though.
Edited by Evoluzione on Thursday 15th December 21:46
I have no idea.
I was told you can tell the powers that be your building is for agricultural use, this bypasses certain regulations.
I don't know much more than that and it would need to be verified and explained better by someone who knows what they're doing.
Someone else mentioned a loophole whereby you buy some land and put some stables on it, after that getting PP for a house to go with the stables is much easier. Again, that's only s/h info.
I was told you can tell the powers that be your building is for agricultural use, this bypasses certain regulations.
I don't know much more than that and it would need to be verified and explained better by someone who knows what they're doing.
Someone else mentioned a loophole whereby you buy some land and put some stables on it, after that getting PP for a house to go with the stables is much easier. Again, that's only s/h info.
deadtom said:
Evoluzione said:
~ stuff about orientation, internal woodwork and other items of interest ~
If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet.
I think not worrying about orientation too much is a luxury we have due to not living anywhere properly remote, but I can imagine it suddenly becomes a lot more important when your house is situated like in your photos. The people that built these places weren't silly though and they would have known about the effects of the weather in exposed places, so why build there in the first place? Is it just because other considerations were higher priorities (access to water, roads etc)?If you want me to relay any possible project houses I see then let me know. There are a few around that aren't on the market, but they are huge projects, often totally off grid, some not even accessible by car yet.
Sounds like your house had some pretty serious rot issues, I'd certainly be interested to see the before and after. It might even help me get over the missed opportunity of the renovation project by reminding me that I have avoided an enormous amount of time, money and frustration that would undoubtedly have been involved...
That being said, that's good of you, yes please do let me know if you know of something similar that comes up for sale.
The ones you reference sound like they might be a bit far gone though; I am a fairly practical person and keen to learn new skills, however I have very little actual experience of house construction and the place would need to at least be survivable in while fixing it, though we would be happy to sacrifice comfort, convenience, luxury and modernity for a bit.
Previous to moving in we'd talked about living in a caravan like Mr CTO, but i'm trying to avoid that by doing a bit at a time. He'll be done and finished before us though.
Old buildings are complex, some are untouched, the faults and causes are apparent. Then ones like this take some working out because things have been added on, battles fought with the elements which then made things worse, for a long time too and by many different people. It's been an interesting journey so far unwrapping the past and there is still a lot I don't know.
What i'm alluding to is that modernising and trying to cure faults on this place in the past has caused more problems.
It was tarted up to sell, but for whatever reasons didn't and in the 5 intervening years the cracks which were papered over showed through. So instead of going up in value, £50k was wiped of it's (proposed) value.
The owner said to me he'd rather set fire to it than go any lower, so there the price was set and it was reasonable so I agreed. I could have tried to screw him over in the final throws, but that's not me and we just wanted it.
There is more than you know to the vendors backstory like the breakdown of a marriage, and more than I do too!
If you want me to look out for anything then you'll have to mention a spec and budget, by PM if you prefer. I don't get out and about much, but you never know, something might come up. I've just had a look on Rightmove and found something with 7 acres for £450k. The World and his wife have increasingly wanted what we have for years now. The more I needed and could afford this, the further it was being kicked away from me so I consider myself very lucky.
With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area' then this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
Edited by Evoluzione on Wednesday 21st December 16:41
monkfish1 said:
Evoluzione said:
If you want me to look out for anything then you'll have to mention a spec and budget, by PM if you prefer. I don't get out and about much, but you never know, something might come up. I've just had a look on Rightmove and found something interesting, but it's up for auction. The World and his wife have increasingly wanted what we have for years now. The more I needed and could afford this, the further it was being kicked away from me so I consider myself very lucky.
With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area'. That's how this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
Very much this ^^^^With my limited experience of finding houses I can't offer much in the way of useful advice really. Selling up and going looking 'Cash in hand' will fall in your favour. I think I mentioned it early in the thread, but using tools on sites like Rightmove help. That's how I found this place, by dragging the markers around the map on there to create my own 'catchment area'. That's how this place came into view, but sadly they don't have a 'Old farmhouse with land needing renovation' option.
At least by considering Lancashire it's opened up more options for you, it seems a lot of people in our position end up in Scotland.
I certainly found that i had zero success with any offers whilst needing to sell a house to make it happen. For whatever reason, this rural type stuff seems to go to those without mortgages and houses to sell.
In the end, partly through luck, and rather a lot of effort, and a curtailed budget, we put ourselves in a position to buy without needing to sell our existing home.
As Evoluzione says, this WILL give you a massive advantage. Doing that of course may not be straight forward or possible.
Look on FB marketplace in your chosen area, one down the road from us came up on there. That was oddball too, there are plenty around! It was a large unfinished house, scaffold still up. I think the couple had split up before finishing it.
I don't know what the deal is with this one, it says auction by a previous date, but for sale. Maybe didn't make its reserve:
https://www.rturner.co.uk/property/property-listin...
Might be of interest to someone. 7 acres of what looks like half decent land, but by the road in a village, lots of outbuildings though.
Another one here maybe: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/12436082/
Daft sheep patiently waits to be set free, the solidly frozen fields meant I could use Terry to get around rather than walk to keep an eye on things.
The list of damp inputs, possible or otherwise is long, but is getting slowly shorter and they'll all need ticking off.
Not the most entertaining of pictures i'm afraid, but in a brief mild/dry spell I managed to dig a trench along the base of the Easterly gable end wall right down to the foundations, which are solid rock. It seems like they've dug down until they got to a huge flatish slab of stone and built on that.
Removing the wet soil from against the wall means it isn't wicking damp up, the trench will be lined (bottom and soil side only) with a water permeable membrane (to stop the soil from coming back) and filled with gravel to allow water to run through, known as a 'French drain'.
The new over Winter veg experiment isn't going so well, some stuff making it through, some dead. More on that later, but this year i'm also working out what fully grown veg can be left in the ground over Winter to keep it fresh:
The other week I was using a pickaxe to dig the carrots up as most of the UK shuddered in sub zero temps, but they've come through ok. Must have some kind of mild anti-freeze in them!
I need to have a chat with a neighbour, that's the Clough on their side under full spate eroding it's way under the fence onto our land. Any adjustments and repair will have to be done by hand as you can't get a machine down there.
Yes I know what you're thinking
but the Pheasants were bought at a market so ours get to live on
Christmas brought me a book:
Got to get to know your neighbours you know
Happy Christmas all
https://www.rturner.co.uk/property/property-listin...
Might be of interest to someone. 7 acres of what looks like half decent land, but by the road in a village, lots of outbuildings though.
Another one here maybe: https://www.onthemarket.com/details/12436082/
Daft sheep patiently waits to be set free, the solidly frozen fields meant I could use Terry to get around rather than walk to keep an eye on things.
The list of damp inputs, possible or otherwise is long, but is getting slowly shorter and they'll all need ticking off.
Not the most entertaining of pictures i'm afraid, but in a brief mild/dry spell I managed to dig a trench along the base of the Easterly gable end wall right down to the foundations, which are solid rock. It seems like they've dug down until they got to a huge flatish slab of stone and built on that.
Removing the wet soil from against the wall means it isn't wicking damp up, the trench will be lined (bottom and soil side only) with a water permeable membrane (to stop the soil from coming back) and filled with gravel to allow water to run through, known as a 'French drain'.
The new over Winter veg experiment isn't going so well, some stuff making it through, some dead. More on that later, but this year i'm also working out what fully grown veg can be left in the ground over Winter to keep it fresh:
The other week I was using a pickaxe to dig the carrots up as most of the UK shuddered in sub zero temps, but they've come through ok. Must have some kind of mild anti-freeze in them!
I need to have a chat with a neighbour, that's the Clough on their side under full spate eroding it's way under the fence onto our land. Any adjustments and repair will have to be done by hand as you can't get a machine down there.
Yes I know what you're thinking
but the Pheasants were bought at a market so ours get to live on Christmas brought me a book:
Got to get to know your neighbours you know
Happy Christmas all
Wow that's remote, I think you could go for years without seeing anyone there. They must have to pick their post up from the nearest PO and it's unlikely Amazon or DPD will deliver there 
You could renovate that long row of barn buildings and have them as holiday lets.
If you look carefully you can see the struggle they've also had with wind driven rain. Huge lead flashings on the porch and chimneys, even a lead face and cap on them too. A slate hung gable end which points to the house facing South.
Google maps here: https://www.google.com/maps/@54.1983967,-2.2197718...
It reminds me of a lovely old Lady called Hannah Hauxwell. Many years ago now someone discovered her living on her own, completely off grid (no electric, no running water) and self sufficient somewhere remote in N. Yorks. They made a few programs about her life there before taking her on a round the World trip and filming that too of course. It's on YT now.
You could renovate that long row of barn buildings and have them as holiday lets.
If you look carefully you can see the struggle they've also had with wind driven rain. Huge lead flashings on the porch and chimneys, even a lead face and cap on them too. A slate hung gable end which points to the house facing South.
Google maps here: https://www.google.com/maps/@54.1983967,-2.2197718...
It reminds me of a lovely old Lady called Hannah Hauxwell. Many years ago now someone discovered her living on her own, completely off grid (no electric, no running water) and self sufficient somewhere remote in N. Yorks. They made a few programs about her life there before taking her on a round the World trip and filming that too of course. It's on YT now.
Edited by Evoluzione on Saturday 14th January 18:34
Snow and Rocks said:
Evoluzione said:
Wow that's remote, I think you could go for years without seeing anyone there. They must have to pick their post up from the nearest PO and it's unlikely Amazon or DPD will deliver there
Haha, it's amazing where a delivery driver can get a sprinter. During the recent snowy spell I was surprised to see our normal parcel guy appear at the door and actually assumed he'd walked all the way from the road, but no he'd made it all the way to the house, obviously with some commitment going by the remains of the drifts he'd bashed through!Out of interest, do posties get 4x4 vans down there in areas like that?
That was one of our local drivers
Don't get me started on delivery drivers around here, we'll be here all night 
AFAIK Posties round here just get normal vans, they generally know where they can and can't go and when. Although I was told that once one was delivering here when he came off the gritted road onto the top of our track which was frozen and slid straight off into a field.
Edited by Evoluzione on Sunday 15th January 00:39
Places like that ^ get my juices flowing, I don't know why, do you, what is it? It's a lovely place, look at the way the stream flows under the extension.
It's something romantic or primeval.
I sit here sometimes in a place which is half that in many ways, cat beside me, the stove on, music on, wind and hail howling, bouncing off the house and can sit sipping a drink for hours on end. It's gone 4am as I write, i'll be of no use today/tomorrow (?!), but am in solitary heaven now.
It seems a waste to hide from Winter, but so much comfort can come from it.
Are we here for a long time or a good time?
It's something romantic or primeval.
I sit here sometimes in a place which is half that in many ways, cat beside me, the stove on, music on, wind and hail howling, bouncing off the house and can sit sipping a drink for hours on end. It's gone 4am as I write, i'll be of no use today/tomorrow (?!), but am in solitary heaven now.
It seems a waste to hide from Winter, but so much comfort can come from it.
Are we here for a long time or a good time?
Mark Benson said:
We bid on a place near to where I took the above picture - was 'Offers Over £325k" we bid £450k based on a full renovation of the house and some put aside for outbuildings. We also took into account the fact that the 15 acres it came with were completely neglected - full of thistles, nettles and rush clumps. We found out we were the third highest bidders, with the winner bidding £650k.
A few months later, the agent called us as the £650k bidder had dropped out, we reiterated the £450k but the other bidder bid £500k. We think, through the grapevine that this bidder has also now dropped out, but the place hasn't been re-marketed.
You don't fancy knocking on the door and speaking to them? That's what I did with this place.A few months later, the agent called us as the £650k bidder had dropped out, we reiterated the £450k but the other bidder bid £500k. We think, through the grapevine that this bidder has also now dropped out, but the place hasn't been re-marketed.
Muppet007 said:
Can I ask what membrane you used here? I have a similar problem (damp old stone wall). I have the will to fix it, just not the knowledge of materials.
Thanks.
I can search it out somehow and find out the exact one if needed, but it's nothing special. It's just a general landscaping membrane, used for putting on the ground to stop weeds from coming through.Thanks.
There is another way of doing the job and that is to line the outside of your trench with slabs. You then fill the trench with gravel and the slabs stop the soil from mixing with it.
The sun has a way to go before it sets a long way from there, but the daylight hours are increasing noticeably now, was able to play out in the recent decent weather until about 5.30 recently. I feel guilty for wishing my life away, but roll on March 31st.
Pic courtesy of ace photographer Steve Bradley.
Not much new has been happening, hence me not posting.
I've just had Op No.2 done so am having a few hrs off while the anaesthetic wears thin and the pain starts.
As you may have seen I started a fruit and veg growing thread, it is to separate that side of things from this one and appeal to normal gardeners. Anything which is a bit more er, industrial i'll keep here.
As with the rest of the UK, we've been treated to some lovely Winter sunsets.
Get down Benford you tart
Took advantage of the frozen fields to get about, plant the tree there in Benford and stake the others as the wind was doing them no good.
The good weather has seen me outside more than in just recently and it was time to tackle this dumping ground by the entrance:
I'd previously had a prod around and surprisingly found the whole stretch to the left paved, but buried under a foot of pretty decent soil:
As you can see in the foreground we already have one layer of mill flags laid over another, but they can stay as they are until I find a use for them
We found new homes for all the stuff on top then I went in with the rusty duo to dig up a few tons of hidden stone, then found a temporary home for that too
The soil surface was already a bit low, it was going to be even lower with the stone pulled out. So I tipped in a few tons of crap soil in the bottom before putting the decent stuff over the top.
Mmmm, tilth. Try saying that without smirking.
The South is to the right and I let last years strawberry plants go mad and throw out loads of runners which has resulted in about 80 new plants. Current thinking is to plant them to the right, sow wildflower seeds over the majority and then maybe some espalier apple trees against the wall, but we'll see, we have a few weeks to think about whilst the soil settles and the weather gets better.
As my hand gets better and presumably as the weather gets worse i'll carry on in the house to get some jobs finished in there.
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
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...
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