Restoration Blog as promised.
Discussion
Following on from my previous post earlier this month, I thought it about time to write up the first stages of the renovation.
We purchased the property knowing that it needed a bit of TLC and some repairs to get it back to an acceptable standard.
A bit of background on the property to start with will give you some idea of the tasks ahead.
The house built out of cob (mud) around 1700 and has 1704 carved into the inglenook fireplace. We have since found out that it used to be single storey with upstairs added at a later date. This was then followed by a milk dairy to the left and a single storey extension to the right which was then made double storey at some point in the last 50 years.
The roof was originally thatch when it was all on one level, then slate once it was extended and finally the current concrete tiles when the right hand extension was done. This is the start of the problems and the excess weight on the old beams caused the ridge to sag and put excess weight on the left hand wall causing some rather large cracks to both inside and out. This has been braced and the roof locally strengthened although this is required to be redone (rentention on the mortgage).
On the same wall you can see a large chunk of the protective lime plaster has disappeared allowing water direct access to the cob behind. Other area’s have blown behind this as the previously owner has painted the whole area with a non breathable paint resulting in the whole wall covering having to be ripped off and redone with lime plaster and a breathable paint which cannot be started to spring time.
We completed on December 2nd and immediately hit the first problem trying to find the water main (the house was empty so had been switched off and everything drained down). It was now dark and sub zero degree’s outside so luckily we found the water main quite quickly and proceed to turn the handle. Unfortunately this did not get the water flowing but did bring my neighbour out of his house as we managed to turn his off instead!
The next half an hour was spent prodding the lawn with my partners bright pink brolly (great first impression to the new neighbours) trying unsuccessfully to locate our main. At this point we were rather cold and with the house registering 3 degrees inside we called it a night.
The following day we finally found the main and got the water back on to find that the boiler didn’t work. This was more of a problem because of the type of house construction which meant the cob was getting very damp and if not rectified urgently would cause quite a bit of damage. A quick post on PH found me a friendly PH’r who was a plumber and could come out straight away. After 8 hours he finally got the boiler going but hen found out only 4 of the 14 radiators were working – I started losing faith already at this point. This was tested even more when the stopcock for the outside tap (located in the office) decided to blow smacking the plumber in the face and pissing water everywhere……
The following day was spent with the plumber replacing every single thermostat on the radiators to get them working which could be termed as successful as we got heat to every rad although trying to balance the system which comprised of standard copper piping and microbore mixed together along with no room thermostat and a faulty cylinder which was pumping hot water back into the overflow tank so so far:
New Boiler needed? Check
New cylinder needed? Check
New pipework? Check
Great start…… although we found out that the downstairs shower room has underfloor heating which we knew nothing about although as with the current theme – the repo company had kindly decided to take the electronic controller/thermostat wih a replacement retailing at £200 (more research needed).
I managed to replace the stopcock which also included ejecting the sodden carpet and underlay to the garden which revealed that it had been dripping for some time so was a blessing in disguise really.
Anyway after a stressful couple of days we finally had heat to the house which created a nicer atmosphere to work in.
During this time my partner spent the first 3 days cleaning the kitchen and utility room thoroughly and unpacking the boxes so that all the cupboards were full and starting to feel homely.
The following day bought snow and an expert to inspect all the cob walls to get to the bottom of some of the damp problems. He had great fun exploring chimneys and discovering a few additions and old parts of the house (more to come later on this) but basically came to the conclusion that the cob was in pretty good condition apart from a few areas.
Forgive me if you already understand cob construction but as I knew nothing about it before I purchased this hen I will give a quick explanation. A cob house has no foundations and is built on a pile of rubble with a 5 brick course followed by mud. This is then normally covered by lime plaster followed by lime paint which allows any moisture that is brought up through the floor to escape through the walls.
Now, large areas of the downstairs have been painted with a plastic paint and given an artex finish which is not breathable and not allowing the moisture to escape. This forces the moisture higher up the wall and in extreme circumstances can cause the cob to disintegrate leaving the house supported by just the 2 layers of plaster which wouldn’t last very long!!
Based on this, I quickly decided that now was a good time to check as we hadn’t moved in yet. The worst looking area was near the doorway between the kitchen and utility room.
We started probing a bit deeper around the damp patch when we discovered a mix of plastic paint, modern plaster, cement, chicken wire, a sandstone type render,lime plaster and lime wash all on top of the cob so no wonder that the moisture was struggling to escape.
The following day Mrs Herbs was back at work so I thought I would start stripping the wall a bit more. I then got a bit carried away…..
Strange backfilled holes
How many attempts needed to hang a cupboard?
A early 20th century plug socket
By this point you have probably noticed that the holes are all aligned which I’m still puzzles about (shelving possibly?) and you probably didn’t notice the huge amount of dust covering everything and certainly didn’t notice that said dust can penetrate closed cupboards and drawers which was the first thing Mrs Herbs noticed when she got back from work. Cue me in dog house and her insisting we go out for dinner.
More to follow….
We purchased the property knowing that it needed a bit of TLC and some repairs to get it back to an acceptable standard.
A bit of background on the property to start with will give you some idea of the tasks ahead.
The house built out of cob (mud) around 1700 and has 1704 carved into the inglenook fireplace. We have since found out that it used to be single storey with upstairs added at a later date. This was then followed by a milk dairy to the left and a single storey extension to the right which was then made double storey at some point in the last 50 years.
The roof was originally thatch when it was all on one level, then slate once it was extended and finally the current concrete tiles when the right hand extension was done. This is the start of the problems and the excess weight on the old beams caused the ridge to sag and put excess weight on the left hand wall causing some rather large cracks to both inside and out. This has been braced and the roof locally strengthened although this is required to be redone (rentention on the mortgage).
On the same wall you can see a large chunk of the protective lime plaster has disappeared allowing water direct access to the cob behind. Other area’s have blown behind this as the previously owner has painted the whole area with a non breathable paint resulting in the whole wall covering having to be ripped off and redone with lime plaster and a breathable paint which cannot be started to spring time.
We completed on December 2nd and immediately hit the first problem trying to find the water main (the house was empty so had been switched off and everything drained down). It was now dark and sub zero degree’s outside so luckily we found the water main quite quickly and proceed to turn the handle. Unfortunately this did not get the water flowing but did bring my neighbour out of his house as we managed to turn his off instead!
The next half an hour was spent prodding the lawn with my partners bright pink brolly (great first impression to the new neighbours) trying unsuccessfully to locate our main. At this point we were rather cold and with the house registering 3 degrees inside we called it a night.
The following day we finally found the main and got the water back on to find that the boiler didn’t work. This was more of a problem because of the type of house construction which meant the cob was getting very damp and if not rectified urgently would cause quite a bit of damage. A quick post on PH found me a friendly PH’r who was a plumber and could come out straight away. After 8 hours he finally got the boiler going but hen found out only 4 of the 14 radiators were working – I started losing faith already at this point. This was tested even more when the stopcock for the outside tap (located in the office) decided to blow smacking the plumber in the face and pissing water everywhere……
The following day was spent with the plumber replacing every single thermostat on the radiators to get them working which could be termed as successful as we got heat to every rad although trying to balance the system which comprised of standard copper piping and microbore mixed together along with no room thermostat and a faulty cylinder which was pumping hot water back into the overflow tank so so far:
New Boiler needed? Check
New cylinder needed? Check
New pipework? Check
Great start…… although we found out that the downstairs shower room has underfloor heating which we knew nothing about although as with the current theme – the repo company had kindly decided to take the electronic controller/thermostat wih a replacement retailing at £200 (more research needed).
I managed to replace the stopcock which also included ejecting the sodden carpet and underlay to the garden which revealed that it had been dripping for some time so was a blessing in disguise really.
Anyway after a stressful couple of days we finally had heat to the house which created a nicer atmosphere to work in.
During this time my partner spent the first 3 days cleaning the kitchen and utility room thoroughly and unpacking the boxes so that all the cupboards were full and starting to feel homely.
The following day bought snow and an expert to inspect all the cob walls to get to the bottom of some of the damp problems. He had great fun exploring chimneys and discovering a few additions and old parts of the house (more to come later on this) but basically came to the conclusion that the cob was in pretty good condition apart from a few areas.
Forgive me if you already understand cob construction but as I knew nothing about it before I purchased this hen I will give a quick explanation. A cob house has no foundations and is built on a pile of rubble with a 5 brick course followed by mud. This is then normally covered by lime plaster followed by lime paint which allows any moisture that is brought up through the floor to escape through the walls.
Now, large areas of the downstairs have been painted with a plastic paint and given an artex finish which is not breathable and not allowing the moisture to escape. This forces the moisture higher up the wall and in extreme circumstances can cause the cob to disintegrate leaving the house supported by just the 2 layers of plaster which wouldn’t last very long!!
Based on this, I quickly decided that now was a good time to check as we hadn’t moved in yet. The worst looking area was near the doorway between the kitchen and utility room.
We started probing a bit deeper around the damp patch when we discovered a mix of plastic paint, modern plaster, cement, chicken wire, a sandstone type render,lime plaster and lime wash all on top of the cob so no wonder that the moisture was struggling to escape.
The following day Mrs Herbs was back at work so I thought I would start stripping the wall a bit more. I then got a bit carried away…..
Strange backfilled holes
How many attempts needed to hang a cupboard?
A early 20th century plug socket
By this point you have probably noticed that the holes are all aligned which I’m still puzzles about (shelving possibly?) and you probably didn’t notice the huge amount of dust covering everything and certainly didn’t notice that said dust can penetrate closed cupboards and drawers which was the first thing Mrs Herbs noticed when she got back from work. Cue me in dog house and her insisting we go out for dinner.
More to follow….
Thanks for the encouragement. I have joined periodproperty and can see it being a fountain of knowledge. I forget to mention in last nights post that when I stripped the other side of the utility room (pics to follow) it opened up a small gap between 2 walls where just can just about see half a tree trunk complete with bark which was part of the original structure.
With regards to the holes, I did wonder about that but they have been back filled with half modern bricks at some point in the last 100-125 years or so rather than use cob bricks so assume that whatever was there was present for quite some time after completion ruling out building supports so still no closer to working out their purpose.
I will try and get another update done this evening with some more photo's attached.
With regards to the holes, I did wonder about that but they have been back filled with half modern bricks at some point in the last 100-125 years or so rather than use cob bricks so assume that whatever was there was present for quite some time after completion ruling out building supports so still no closer to working out their purpose.
I will try and get another update done this evening with some more photo's attached.
benmc said:
TooLateForAName said:
Have you joined the periodproperty.co.uk forum?
Was going to say exactly the same. It is like Pistonheads for old houses!Ben
I have another update ready to upload this evening but in the meantime to answer your question, the property amazingly has not been listed as it has been extended so much over the years that by the time they came to view the property, there was little resemblance to the original property externally. Verwood Historical Society have quite a bit of history on the house inclduing that it used to be a "J plan" cottage of which there is only 4 in the county/country (conflicting reports).
It also used to be owned by the Stanfield family of which two were part of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (I'll let you do your own research if you interested in the story rather than bore everyone)who were sent to Australia and it alledges that this house was one of everal properties where they used to hold their secret meetings.
It also used to be owned by the Stanfield family of which two were part of the Tolpuddle Martyrs (I'll let you do your own research if you interested in the story rather than bore everyone)who were sent to Australia and it alledges that this house was one of everal properties where they used to hold their secret meetings.
I spent the next few days attempting to strip the rest of the utility room with varying degrees of success. The external wall was extremely damp at the base – so much so that the chicken wire that had been set in concrete had completely disappeared leaving only a rust pattern in the plaster and cob.
Other discoveries included half a tree trunk complete with bark which i’m guessing is part of the original structure of the house. We also managed to uncover an old electric box complete with trunking. The cob around the window sill was in particularly bad shape and had been concreted over which having looked at the condition behind it decided to leave in situ rather than cause further problems.
I’ll let the photo’s explain more.
The next job was to insulate the three tanks in the loft as one had frozen solid and the others were not far behind it so we bought some of the space foil and covered all the sides and lid in it which to date have worked quite well. It has also uncovered another job meaning that I now need to insulated the whole loft as the current insulation is not up to standard.
Whilst we are in the loft, it is a good time to share a discovery with you. As mentioned previously, the left hand wall had been braced on the outside and the roof strengthened internally. It looks like they have built a breeze block “breast” to take some of the load of the floor/ceiling joists. (you can see the new ones put in that do not extend to the external wall once I get a photo taken) By crawling up to the edge you can actually see the bedroom room as it used to be with the original fireplace in and decor from circa 20 - 40 years ago. We were hoping to reopen this at some point as it would be nice to have the fire exposed as well as opening up more space as the cupboards either side are quite deep but after seeing this I don’t particularly fancy disturbing the structure any more than necessary so we will leave it hidden.
At the weekend we got a chimney sweep out to sweep both chimneys in preparation for a wood burner and open fire (although we may put two wood burners in). One of the chimneys is lined whilst the other is not. However he did discover that the pots on the left hand chimney are cracked and one needs to be capped as you are only meant to have one pot per fireplace (the other one would have serviced the fireplace in the bedroom which has been covered up). I’m still in the process of trying to find replacements as they are a quite rare twisted design and seem to be bloody expensive). The boards on the inglenook are not fire board so these need to be removed, template and replaced.
My attention next turned to the two lounges where the previous owner told us they have used anaglypta wallpaper which is reality turns out to be woodchip paper which is some area’s have been covered with a plain paper and then painted. Mrs Herbs along with her parents spent the best part of 2 days stripping this off which was extremely tedious. They did uncover some drawings done in pencil right back on the lime plaster although we have no idea on dates on this.
Whilst they were doing this I turned my attention to the wall on the right of the inglenook which had been papered and then painted with what I can only describe a cross between a terracotta plaster coupled with butterscotch. The back of this wall is visible inside the old kiln room which is accessed via a door inside the inglenook and is made of cob. I decided to strip back the plaster as far as I could so that I could expose a bit more of the brick column to mirror the left side which IMO looks much nicer. I made a start hoping that I wouldn’t hit the cob too early and then kept going and going and going..... The whole wall was faced with brick which was a great result and whilst stripping it back came across the original layers of lime wash which included a lovely deep red one.
I’m still in the process of trying to clean the bricks up to a decent standard whilst retaining the character which is a b
h of a job and extremely time consuming but needs to be done and sealed before the plasterer comes in. I haven’t made my mind up yet whether to leave the whole wall as exposed brick or go for a thicker column. I’m swaying at the moment towards an “L” shaped section of brink and the rest plastered (similar to the picture above). Thoughts appreciated on this one?
Whilst you are on a roll doing demolition why stop?
I have agreed to get a plasterer in to do 4 rooms in one go as lime plaster is made up of several different coats which need time to dry in between so doing a big chunk of work in one go works out much cheaper. Bearing this in mind I needed to strip the old external cob wall which now separates the lounge and breakfast room.
I think pictures explain this well!
Apart from the uncovering the usual chicken wire, we found a live lighting cable which had just been plastered over and more interestingly 2 bricked up holes (which can also been seen inside the second chimney once I take a photo) which I am taking as an uneducated guess to be possibly be small external ovens. (The land here was not very arable hence the pottery kiln which was sandwiched between the Inglenook and bread oven (mentioned above). They used to make pottery to supplement their income alongside animals as they couldn’t grow crops. With this in mind I can only assume these used to be similar although that is a completely uneducated guess and is something I will look into more in the future.
Other discoveries included half a tree trunk complete with bark which i’m guessing is part of the original structure of the house. We also managed to uncover an old electric box complete with trunking. The cob around the window sill was in particularly bad shape and had been concreted over which having looked at the condition behind it decided to leave in situ rather than cause further problems.
I’ll let the photo’s explain more.
The next job was to insulate the three tanks in the loft as one had frozen solid and the others were not far behind it so we bought some of the space foil and covered all the sides and lid in it which to date have worked quite well. It has also uncovered another job meaning that I now need to insulated the whole loft as the current insulation is not up to standard.
Whilst we are in the loft, it is a good time to share a discovery with you. As mentioned previously, the left hand wall had been braced on the outside and the roof strengthened internally. It looks like they have built a breeze block “breast” to take some of the load of the floor/ceiling joists. (you can see the new ones put in that do not extend to the external wall once I get a photo taken) By crawling up to the edge you can actually see the bedroom room as it used to be with the original fireplace in and decor from circa 20 - 40 years ago. We were hoping to reopen this at some point as it would be nice to have the fire exposed as well as opening up more space as the cupboards either side are quite deep but after seeing this I don’t particularly fancy disturbing the structure any more than necessary so we will leave it hidden.
At the weekend we got a chimney sweep out to sweep both chimneys in preparation for a wood burner and open fire (although we may put two wood burners in). One of the chimneys is lined whilst the other is not. However he did discover that the pots on the left hand chimney are cracked and one needs to be capped as you are only meant to have one pot per fireplace (the other one would have serviced the fireplace in the bedroom which has been covered up). I’m still in the process of trying to find replacements as they are a quite rare twisted design and seem to be bloody expensive). The boards on the inglenook are not fire board so these need to be removed, template and replaced.
My attention next turned to the two lounges where the previous owner told us they have used anaglypta wallpaper which is reality turns out to be woodchip paper which is some area’s have been covered with a plain paper and then painted. Mrs Herbs along with her parents spent the best part of 2 days stripping this off which was extremely tedious. They did uncover some drawings done in pencil right back on the lime plaster although we have no idea on dates on this.
Whilst they were doing this I turned my attention to the wall on the right of the inglenook which had been papered and then painted with what I can only describe a cross between a terracotta plaster coupled with butterscotch. The back of this wall is visible inside the old kiln room which is accessed via a door inside the inglenook and is made of cob. I decided to strip back the plaster as far as I could so that I could expose a bit more of the brick column to mirror the left side which IMO looks much nicer. I made a start hoping that I wouldn’t hit the cob too early and then kept going and going and going..... The whole wall was faced with brick which was a great result and whilst stripping it back came across the original layers of lime wash which included a lovely deep red one.
I’m still in the process of trying to clean the bricks up to a decent standard whilst retaining the character which is a b
h of a job and extremely time consuming but needs to be done and sealed before the plasterer comes in. I haven’t made my mind up yet whether to leave the whole wall as exposed brick or go for a thicker column. I’m swaying at the moment towards an “L” shaped section of brink and the rest plastered (similar to the picture above). Thoughts appreciated on this one?Whilst you are on a roll doing demolition why stop?
I have agreed to get a plasterer in to do 4 rooms in one go as lime plaster is made up of several different coats which need time to dry in between so doing a big chunk of work in one go works out much cheaper. Bearing this in mind I needed to strip the old external cob wall which now separates the lounge and breakfast room.
I think pictures explain this well!
Apart from the uncovering the usual chicken wire, we found a live lighting cable which had just been plastered over and more interestingly 2 bricked up holes (which can also been seen inside the second chimney once I take a photo) which I am taking as an uneducated guess to be possibly be small external ovens. (The land here was not very arable hence the pottery kiln which was sandwiched between the Inglenook and bread oven (mentioned above). They used to make pottery to supplement their income alongside animals as they couldn’t grow crops. With this in mind I can only assume these used to be similar although that is a completely uneducated guess and is something I will look into more in the future.
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