Category: demolition (Page 3 of 3)

Having started on the downstairs by removing the kitchen, the next job was to remove the fire place in the lounge.  The existing fireplace surround was built of stone and probably dates to the 1970’s.  This was quickly removed as was the gas fire itself.  The stone from the fireplace surround will be used in the dry stone wall in the orchard – as long as we don’t use the flat edges in the front face of the wall, we should get away using this stone. It would be a shame to throw it in the skip.

Once the gas fire was removed, it revealed an old cast iron back boiler that seems to have been used for heating the cottage and the hot water.  There was a circulation pump hidden to the side of the fire. I think this was disused once the central heating was installed.    All of this was fairly easily removed.  The rest of the fireplace seemed to be packed with a mixture of engineering bricks and rubble.  This was all mixed up with a fair amount of soot!  However, once it was all removed the fireplace is very clean and you can see right up to the sky through the chimney pot.

The fireplace surround is made up of solid stone – two large pillars with a large stone beam across the top.

The original 1970’s gas fireplace

Gas fire now gone to reveal the old cast iron back boiler

Fireplace cleaned out. There are a couple of spots of water in the hearth where the rain has come in via the chimney pot

This weekend we turned our attentions to the downstairs.  The kitchen was first to be removed, including all of the tiles (which were floor to ceiling).  Once the main stop cock was exposed, we removed the pipe and installed a stand pipe – at least we now have water in the property – even if it is in a bucket!  The stop cock in this cottage controls the water to the cottage next door, so we haven’t had any water for the past couple of weeks.  The boiler was fairly easily removed as is this hooked onto the wall.  The gas to the property is now turned off and the gas pipe coming into the cottage has been capped off.  The last job in the kitchen was to take down the ceiling (revealing some bright yellow ceiling joists).

The kitchen units were a mixture of old and new units and went on a bonfire.  Too expensive to use up valuable “skip space” and there is surprisingly little ash left. The wall tiles were ceiling to floor and a hideous 1970’s patterned tile.  These had been painted over in cream with random red and blue tiles mixed in.  This wasn’t much of an improvement!

All of the pipework was removed and the wiring also came out without too much trouble.  So all in all, this is pretty much stripped bare.

The kitchen as it was

Halfway to removing the kitchen

Sink and boiler now gone

The kitchen ceiling now removed to reveal bright yellow joists