There was a stud partition on the end wall containing rockwool. Since this end of the building faces onto the prevailing wind, I assume that there had had problems with either cold or damp (or both) penetrating this wall. As soon as we stripped off the plasterboard, you could tell that it was damp. Although the rockwool and the outer plasterboard were fine, the stone wall was damp to the touch. Many years ago, it seems to have had a coat of black bitumen paint which had then been wall-papered over (many times). There was even a football poster still pasted to the wall – Denis Law and Gordon Banks – looks like it is from the 1970’s. It was damp, but still in one piece.
We took the last remnants of plasterboard over the main beams up stairs, we took the remaining ceilings down downstairs and then finally took up the chipboard floor upstairs. It had been very poorly laid in the first place, but a plumber had then cut the boards to install central heating. It was a complete mess. It took longer than we thought to take it up, but less time that we thought to burn it on the bonfire!
Last job of the day was to remove as much of the pipework and wires for scrap and have a generally tidy up.
The stud work and the rockwool removed to reveal a rather damp end wall that had be painted (long ago) with black bitumen paint.
Football stars from the 1970s pasted to the wall behind the partition.
The floor has now be removed. Horrible tongue and groove chipboard that had been very badly treated by whoever put in the central heating.
The wooden from the floor and the ceilings ends up on a bonfire at the end of the day.
