Tag: outbuildings (Page 1 of 2)

Pointing the outbuildings

May 28, 2015 / stephen

Paddy and Jonny have started pointing the outbuildings. Last week we laid a new concrete floor in the end shed that was the original privy for the cottages. The floor in here was raised up with a large stone slab with holes in it. The ground underneath was full of organic matter and straw. I will leave you to work out how it all worked. We removed the large stone slab and dug out the floor – it wasn’t smelly as it hadn’t been used for 200 years! We then put down a waterproof membrane and a concrete floor. The floor level is just above the level of the drive outside to stop any water running in.

It is always a shame to remove original features, but this space just wasn’t usable as it was – there was a big step up and the floor was porous letting in a lot of damp.

We are using the same lime pointing that we used on the house and to point the flagstones in the patio. This way it all matches. It is amazing what a difference it makes.

This end of the shed was the original (18th Century) privy for the cottages. There was a large stone slab about 12 inches up from the floor. The floor underneath consisted of organic matter and straw. I will leave you to work it out! The slab has been removed and the floor has now been dug out. We have installed a new step and a concrete floor. This makes this space much more usable. It does however mean the door is a bit short.

Demolishing the lean-to: Day 5

May 14, 2013 / stephen

All done. But it was a real slog. Don’t know why, maybe it was the showery weather. Zep and I had to retreat to the pickup a couple of times when the weather took a turn for the worse. Zep had more sense and stayed in his bed in the cab, even when the rain stopped.

Most of the bricks from the outbuilding are now down in the orchard ready to go into the base of the dry stone wall. However, I cleaned up a few more and have stacked these on the base of the lean-to. I am not sure what these are going to be used for, but there are enough already in the orchard.

The old store-room appears to have flagstones on the floor. A number of them appear to be broken – some no doubt happened when we took down the brick walls, but many of them look like they have been broken for some time. I have removed one of them and they appear to have been laid directly onto an ash floor (which was the standard approach at the time). I will take up a couple of the broken ones this week and have a go with the metal detector. Anything that is under the floor has probably been there for a couple of hundred years.

The bases of the three toilets are now exposed. They appear to have been built with a smooth cement concave floor. There were hinged wooden doors at the back of each of the toilets. I can only imagine that the doors were used to scoop out the contents. Yuck!

Just the base of the store-room and the toilet block left. There is one large upright stone left that is too big for me to move on my own.

One of the flagstones was broken – it probably got damaged when we took down the brick wall – so I have removed it. As expected, it is laid directly onto an ash base – the standard approach in the old days.

No idea how these are meant to work, but with a wooden hinged door at the back, I can only guess that this was used to scoop out the contents.

No idea how these toilets were meant to work, but with a wooden hinged door at the back, I can only guess that this was used to scoop out the contents. Yuck!

These large weight was on the roof. 56lb is a standard weight for potato bags (in the old days anyway!).

This large Avery weight was on the roof. 56lb is a standard weight for potato bags (in the old days anyway!). It is heavy!

Demolishing the lean-to: Day 4

May 12, 2013 / stephen

Almost there. The timber from the roof was cut up using a chainsaw and went on the bonfire (together with odd ends of timber left in the store room).

The brick partitions were demolished using a sledgehammer – we will use the bricks in the foundations of the dry stone wall in the orchard. We moved them using the pickup.

The brick partitions between the old toilet stalls still to be removed.

Just an odd few bricks left!

Demolishing the lean-to: Day 3

May 12, 2013 / stephen

Made some good progress today, despite the rain. It always helps with two of us working together.

All of the facing stones have been “robbed out”, cleaned of any mortar and neatly stacked for later use (whatever that might be!).

Easily removed using a tow rope tied to the pickup truck. We will use the chainsaw on this tomorrow.

Latterly these stalls had been used for storing coal, but original these were the outside toilets for the three cottages. There was a trap door at the back of the building and I can only imagine that this was used to “scoop” out the contents. Yuck!

These are all of the facing stones from the lean-to. The bricks we will use in the foundation of the dry stone wall in the orchard.

Demolishing the lean-to: Day 2

May 10, 2013 / stephen

The weather forecast today wasn’t brilliant. Unfortunately, it was accurate. It rained most of the morning, although that didn’t stop me from working outside until about lunchtime. However, by 2pm the rain had eased and the demolition work re-commenced- brick by brick, the lean-to was taken apart.

At the start of day 2

Almost removed all of the sandstone blocks. I have removed all of the mortar as I took the walls down. The stone has been stacked in the field for use elsewhere.

Demolishing the lean-to

May 9, 2013 / stephen

At the one end of the property is a lean-to. It houses an old store-room and three outside toilets – one for each of the cottages. Since numbers 9 and 10 were knocked together in the mid 1970’s, I can only assume that these toilets went out of use around then. Both of the remaining properties had inside bathrooms from this point.

We removed the stone slates from the roof when we re-roofed the outbuildings back in March (was it really that long ago?).

It is a single skin building constructed using sandstone blocks. These are now very weathered as is the mortar that holds them together. It is a fairly easy (if not time-consuming) job to take it apart – block by block – cleaning off the old mortar as I go. The stones are then put onto the pickup and stacked at the edge of the top field. I am not sure what we are going to do with this stone, but there is a small wall to be built as part of the garden. The stone is very soft and I suspect that it is only really usable in a garden wall.

The rain arrives about 2pm. I work on for a couple of hours and yesterday’s sunhat keeps off the rain today. There is probably a couple of more days here to completely demolish the lean-to and move all of the debris.

Still, not bad for day 1.

By standing on the back of the pickup it is possible to reach the top of the wall. The mortar is very weathered and it only takes a gentle tap to loosen each of the stones.

The lean-to is taken down stone-by-stone. Each of the stone is cleaned and then stacked in the back of the pickup.

The room with the blue barrel looks like it was used as a store room. There are three old toilet cubicles on the right. I suspect that these haven’t been used since the 1970’s. Most recently, it looks as if they have been used to store coal.

Rain stopped play about 4pm, but the lean-to is half demolished.

Workshop space in the outbuilding

March 31, 2013 / stephen

We saved some of the kitchen units from No. 10 and have installed them in the outbuilding. We have put the units along one of the drier walls leaving the back wall to fully dry out over time. It is a bit of snug fit, but it does mean that there will be somewhere to store tools etc once the main building work starts. It is also a fairly good place to settle from the elements, although a tad drafty!

We saved some of the kitchen units and have moved them to the outbuilding. Once building work starts in the main cottages we will need somewhere to store tools etc.

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.

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.

Almost completing the roof on the outbuilding

March 16, 2013 / stephen

The roof on the outbuilding was completed on Saturday. At about 7:30pm – well after the sun went down. The verges (where the sloping edge of the roof meets the wall) were mortared in after dark. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it. Fortunately, it was only the rough coat and the final finish was put on my Paddy the following day.

I guess we just push our luck too far today and we ran out of time. It takes a good hour or so to clean up and pack everything away. Getting out the cement mixer means another 30 minutes at the end of the day cleaning it out!

Anyway today, we altered the top two rows of slates so that they were closer to the top wall. A bit of miscommunication between the guy putting on the slates and the folks building the top wall meant that we ended up with a 4” gap between the top of the wall and the top row of slates. A couple of minor adjustments and we were done. But it did take a couple of hours.

Next job was to put the stone slabs (called Water tables) back on the top of the wall. These are large enough to bridge the gap between the wall and the top row of slates. They are mortared into place and set so that they tilt slightly backwards (in line with the slop of the roof) to prevent water running down the front wall.

The main issue with the water tables is their weight. They are roughly 1m long and 750cms wide and about 75cm thick. Solid stone weighing it at around 60-80kgs each. These had to be man handled 12ft into the air and placed on top of the wall. Fortunately, we had some small scaffolding towers, but even then it was a struggle. We repurposed a large flagstone from the top of the side wall to make up for the gap where the chimney had been.

But by 6pm, we were pretty much all done. The light was starting to fade and then it started raining. But we had had a good day and achieved what we had set out to.