Category: Uncategorized (Page 8 of 10)

Damp on the back wall of the outbuilding

March 30, 2013 / stephen

Now the outbuilding has a new roof, our intention is to use it as a log store and a sort of site office. The main problem with it is that it is a single skin building that has been built directly onto the earth. It was probably the way everything was done back when it was built around 200 years ago.

In order to reduce the amount of damp coming in through the back wall, we have dug along the edge of the wall and filled it with pea shingle. This means that there will not be damp earth up against the wall. We will also fit a rain water gutter and down pipe. For now, we will put up a plastic gutter and down pipe. We may well change it later to something that matches the rest of the building, but for now our first priority is to try and get the outbuilding a little bit drier.

The fascia board has had a coat of black gloss paint, before the rainwater gutter is fitted tomorrow (weather permitting).

We have dug along the back wall on the building and filled it with pea shingle. This should help reduce the damp penetration. The pea shingle was originally around the conservatory and has been re-used.

Sunday – and more snow!

March 25, 2013 / stephen

Well, we tried to dig out part of the farmyard yesterday. But there is no sign of our hard work today as it is covered again with snow. And then some extra snow on top. Just for good measure!

The forecast for the week ahead is cold, but that we have seen the worst of the snow. We decided that now would be a good time to dig out since it will only freeze if we don’t. If with the new Pickup, we had to dig some of the bigger snow drift from the front of the yard just to allow us to get off the road. There were drifts all over the place, although there was generally only about 9 inches of snow on the ground.

Digging out the snow drifts from the front door

Turning the pickup around in the top field

Goodbye Astra Estate, Hello L200 Pickup

March 23, 2013 / stephen

We held onto the Astra Estate when I bought a new car last year. The thinking was that we would use the Astra while we were doing the house renovation and then sell it when we had finished. However, the Astra has turned out to be less useful than we thought.

While it has a lot of space inside, it can’t really handle the weight. I picked up a dozen bags of sand last week and that was really about all that you could put in it. It also isn’t that good with large bulky items (e.g. big bags of old loft insulation, old sheets of corrugated steel), so we have decided to sell it and replace it with a pickup truck. Again, we will only keep it for the duration of the renovation, but hopefully it will be a little more practical for our purposes.

It is a ten-year old Mitsbushi L2oo pickup – 130,000 miles, 4×4, single cab, 1 tonne load.

If you want to take a pickup truck (which is classified as a light commercial vehicle) to the dump, you need to get a special permit from the council. Many councils do not allow commercial vehicles into their refuse collection centres. So if you own one of these vehicles for personal use, you need to apply for a special permit. You can find the Kirkless application form here. It costs nothing to apply for.

Now the only problem I have is that the snow is preventing me from collecting it from the dealer. Ho hum.

Bought, just waiting for the snow to stop so we can go and pick it up.

Snow stops play

March 23, 2013 / stephen

Well, it snowed yesterday – a lot – probably 4-6 inches and it is snowing again today. We did manage to get out – we have 4×4’s – but the roads are pretty treacherous. It is more to do with the other drivers who really shouldn’t be out! Besides which I ended up having to push a couple of cars when I went out first thing – my short trip to the shops ended up taking 45 mins!

Having been out this morning, I was going to dig out the drive up to the farm, but it would be a mammoth task. And since it is still snowing, I have no idea how long the cleared area would remain. I tried yesteday to get onto the drive with a 4×4 but with little success. So I decided (very reluctantly) to give in to the weather today. No building work today.

Jo and Zep walking up to the farm in the March snow.

View from Upper Hagg Road. 23rd March 2013.

Snow – March 2013. We had around 9 inches, but it had drifted in places up to a couple of feet.

Finally completing the roof on the outbuilding!

March 17, 2013 / stephen

Sunday was meant to be the worst day of the weekend and it ended up being the best. Yesterday we had tried to get everything done because we thought the weather was going to turn bad. It didn’t. The good news though is that we have less work to do today!

In terms of the outbuilding roof, it is a case of putting on the sand and cement collars. This is the band of mortar at the top of the wall and running in parallel to the roof line. This is made using a very strong mortar mix (1 part building sand: 1 part cement: 1 part silver sand). This gives a much stronger and smoother finish. This requires an expert, so this is a job for Paddy. The pointing (filling in the gaps between each row of stones) of the end walls will be done using the same mix. If it is different (and even if a different brand of cement is used) the finish/colour of the mortar will be different. We add a frost protector to the mortar when it is mixed.

While Paddy is doing this, we get on with taking out the fireplace in No. 10. During one of the breaks, Paddy gives me a lesson in how to point the wall. Nothing fancy. Just a flat finish. I am going to have a go at pointing the end walls. I will leave the front wall to Paddy. Now all I did to do is find the time – pointing is exceptionally time-consuming.

This is the east end of the buidling. This houses the outside toilet. The large hole is for ventilation (a standard design in this part of Yorkshire). You can also see the bricked up small doors towards the right hand side. These were for scooping out the contents. The original building dates from around 1750 and we suspect that these toilets went out of use around 100 years later. That’s alot of “scooping out”!

This end of the wall faces South-West and gets the worst of the weather. The weather has taken it’s toll on the pointing and from inside the outbuilding you can see sunlight between the stones. Notice the sand and cement collar along the top of the wall follosing the edge of the slates. You can see the “Water tables” right on the top of the wall – angled slightly back to stop the water from running down the front of the wall.

The roof now complete. We still have to point all the stone work as well as putting up a rainwater gutter. The felt (the white material at the bottom of the roof) will be cut when the gutter is put on. The felt will just be tucked into the gutter.

Temporary farmyard gates

March 5, 2013 / stephen

Now the building work has started, we have decided to put up a gate across the front of the farmyard. Since this is only really going to be a temporary arrangement, there is little point in purchasing an expensive new gate. However, we were lucky enough to have a gate in the back field together with a side gate. These two gates together are enough to stretch across the farmyard entrance. With the gates padlocked together, the only issue is that the postman can’t get to the letter boxes to deliver the mail. The solutions? A letter box on the side of the wall next to the gate.

This gate was originally on the entrance to the field at the back of the property, but we have now moved it to the front for added security.

The problem with putting a gate at the front of the farmyard is that the postman cannot get to the letter boxes. This seemed like the simplest solution.

Removing the base of the last shed

February 27, 2013 / stephen

Shed #3 was removed a couple of weeks ago. It was a big shed – twice the size of the others – and it took all day to remove all but the base. This base is just behind the outbuilding and tomorrow the plan is to strip the roof therefore it needs to go. The plan was to remove the base in the morning and then spend the rest of the day dry stone walling. The weather was lovely today, particularly in the afternoon. Even sunshine! However, it took all day to remove the shed base. I can’t believe that it took so long. However, when you look at the bonfire (remember this was only burnt down yesterday), you realise exactly how much wood there was left in the base.

I didn’t get time to set the bonfire, so that will have to wait until another day.

Stripping out the larger cottage

February 26, 2013 / stephen

I am off work this week which means more time to spend on the renovation

Day 2 of stripping out the larger cottage. I was going to work on the dry stone wall, but rain soon put an end to that idea. So inside working is the order of the day.

Today it was all about removing the bathroom and partitions upstairs. We are getting quite good at this now. By the end of the day, the upstairs are cleared out.

This cottage is much nearer to the skip and this makes life a lot easier (not to mention much quicker).

Temporary sockets in the cottages

February 26, 2013 / stephen

With work now starting on the larger of the two cottages, we simply can’t turn the electricity off as we did in the other cottage. Otherwise, we would have now electricity on site at all. The solution is to fix a single temporary socket in each of the cottages. The socket is right next to the meter so that there is no danger that you can accidentally cut through the cable as it is only 20cms long. This will provide us with the opportunity to power lights, kettles, or the occasional cement mixer.

This is definitely a job for a qualified electrician and we were lucky enough to find someone locally that was available same day! It only took an hour or so! Thank you Dave!

Stripping out – starting on the larger cottage

February 25, 2013 / stephen

With the smaller cottage all but bare, it is time to start turning our attention to the larger of the two cottages. As we are still using the kitchen for making cups of tea, we will leave this til last. First things to go are to remove all of the doors. These are solid pine and our initial thoughts were to put them on eBay, but frankly they are all odd sizes and unlikely to fit anyone else’s house. I removed all the brass fittings (for scrap) but unfortunately, the doors are destined for the bonfire.

Next came the carpets up the staircase and on the landing. Then the bathroom. Shower cubicle was quickly removed and then onto the other fixings. The water is turned off here, but the electric is still on. To be able to proceed with the stripping out much further will require the electric to be turned off, but then this will mean no electric on site. Therefore the next job is to get a temporary spur set up off the meter, so that we have one live socket in each house, but the rest of the electric is turned off. This is a job for a proper electrician!

With the carpet and the underlay removed, you can see the original stone staircase. The edges have been painted (many times) as there would have be a narrow “stair carpet” that would have run up the middle.

The only thing left of the shower cubicle is the shower tray. The wall behind the sink is a partition wall, however the electrics need to be sorted out (i.e. turned off) before we do too much stripping out here.