The Bierkeller, Part 5 - Done!

The beer cellar has come on massively since the last update. In the past two weeks, I painted the lime plaster, repointed another section of wall and built up the floor. That was done by last Monday, and I spent an hour just sitting in there, with a cold Galway Hooker Irish Pale Ale, taking a moment to just think about next steps.

But what was done this past two weeks? You can see a video here, or keep scrolling for nice photos. First, I cleaned back the floor, again, to get a relatively even surface, and then i painted the lime plaster areas with a highly breathable silicate paint.

Then last Friday week, I began with the floor construction. I hauled 2 tonnes of gravel in by hand - well, with buckets -  followed by almost of tonne of crushed stone. 

I laid a layer of geotextile to separate the gravel (actually, more like graded pebbles, with no sand content), from the crushed stone layer.

Then started the layer of compressed crushed stone.

This all took longer than expected, and there was a party to go to, so it was parked at that stage. On Saturday morning, I scavenged the barn to get as many bricks as I could find for the floor and, with the help of my son, gave them a good clean with a pressure washer.

Laying the bricks alone also took longer than I thought, and by six in the evening, I'd only gotten this far. At this stage, a neighbour who is renovating the house next door dropped by with beer, so that was that for the day!

Next morning (not too early) I decided I wanted to get this done, so put the skates on with a nice piece of hickory, and by 6 in the evening, had the brick part of the floor complete.

Essentially, I didn't have enough brick to do the complete floor, as I wanted, but our friend Sace, who always has good ideas, suggested wood to fill the gaps. We originally considered going to a sawmill to get thick fir boards, but given we had so many old boards in the barn, it made more economic sense to reuse them. On Monday evening, a few suitable boards were found and given the cleaning treatment with my trusty Makita brush sander.

Battens were laid and leveled on the crushed stone, at the appropriate depth, and the cleaned boards screwed to them, forming a floating raft that turned out to be very stable.

And it was done!

All that remained was to fit it out and get the beer in there! Yesterday I finished assembling and started stocking the shelves.

 And here's a reminder of how it looked when we bought the house.

There's even a special place for my Grandad's old crown cork opener.

The Bierkeller, Part 4

I uploaded this video over a week ago, before going away on business (and beer) for the week, but forgot to post it here. But that's ok, as nothing much has changed in the few days I've been back, except the floor is now cleared and I've primed the plastered parts with potassium silicate. Potassium silicate (Kaliwasserglas) is what we used to prime and fix the clay ceilings before painting with a silicate-based paint, so I thought it would make sense to do the same here. The idea is that the plaster should remain completely breathable.

So, now I can delete the video I made today...

The Bierkeller, Part 3

It's been slow and steady over the past couple of weeks, working in the cool of the cellar while it's been sweltering outside. The stone wall on the right has been fully repointed following the sandblasting.

Beginning repointing

Almost done!

On the left , we've decided to partially plaster the wall, as it's just too much work to chip out and repoint. We'll use a lime plaster, so it is breathable, and will leave the bottom part exposed, with some wavy edges to make it a bit fancy-looking, much like I did in cellar 4.

Partially repointed bottom half.

 But the biggest fun was the floor. After we removed the concrete floor a couple of years ago, we thought it was just stone scree and clay underneath. A few weeks ago, we found a couple of big sandstone slabs, and this past week, we found more, suggesting that the original floor was still intact. Well, only one way to find out: do an excavation. Actually, more like just cleaning back.

The original floor was indeed still there, but it was very uneven, made of several large (the biggest 1.2 x 0.9 metres) sandstone slabs to the left and right, limestone blocks in the middle, and lots of clay in between. At some stage, this was covered with a stamped clay floor, perhaps because the stones were settling and becoming uneven, and later still, the concrete floor.

Patches of sand represent stones that were shattered.

 One curious feature was what looked liek a pit with a wooden lid, but in fact, it was just a layer of broken tiles, not very deep, with a thin layer of wood on top. Perhaps it was a drain at some stage, bu as said, it was no deeper than the subsoil under the large slabs.

Right now, the slabs have all been lifted, though moving the large ones is a bit difficult. The repointing is complete, as far as I want to go at least, so it's ready for plastering. Once that's done, the floor can be prepared, but I'll return to that in a later blog post.

As it looks today.

Meanwhile, here's a video update.

The Bierkeller, Part 2

Last Saturday I got up bright and early to collect a compressor from our friend, Sace, and get started with a small sandblasting pistol I bought online for €22. 3 hours, and several coffees later, I managed to prep, suit up and make a start.

My experience with the big blaster we used elsewhere in the house was excellent, but full protection is an absolute must, so it was back to doing Breaking Bad impressions again.

The thing about htis blaster is that it's relatively low pressure, and more geared towards precise work, like taking paint of bits of furniture, or rust removal. It's not quite cut out for cleaning clay and plaster off large stone wall surface. But, I persevered, and got three of the four walls done. Here's a before and after shot.

Believe it or not, there is a difference! Look down the bottom right for the biggest differences! Anyway, it's ok, and we can move on to repointing these parts soon.

Meanwhile, here's a before and after video.

The Bierkeller, Part 1

Just a video for now, to document how the future beer cellar started out. If I'm lucky, we may even finish it sometime this year!

The Last Blast

Almost two years ago, I had my first experience using a sand-blaster. We used it a lot for cleaning off oak beams in the upper levels of the house, to great effect, and a cursory clean of the walls in the cellar. Since then, the blaster went on its merry way, but we needed to call on its services again this weekend, to do a proper job on the cellar walls. Initially, we'd thought to simply clean the walls enough so that new plaster would hold, but then decided it would be better for the walls if they were left as natural as possible so any dampness coming from the foundation would find it easier to escape. My wife had spent a couple of weeks knocking the remaining plaster off the walls, but they needed a deep clean before we could repoint.

My old friend.

It's dirty, sweaty work, but enjoyable in its own way, as you see results quick. Well, once the dust has settled, which takes some time when blasting clay and plaster off walls in an enclosed space. But, it needed to be done before the heating equipment gets installed in cellar 4, and that, we hope, will be done in time for winter.

First, a look back to the type of thing we got back in late 2010.

Cellar 1

Cellar 4

Then how they looked a week ago.

"Cellar 2" is in two parts, the entry hall, and behind that as mall vaulted cellar. The left wall of the entry hall, as seen below, has been plastered over, with a damp-proof membrane under the plaster. This was disastrous for the wood beam resting on the wall, hence a good idea to leave it free. After removing the plaster and some of the old mortar (more like clay), it looked better, but pretty manky dirty. We thought it had potential, though.

Cellar 2/Entry hall

Cellar 2/Entry. The sandstone had already been blasted earlier.

In cellar 4, the easternmost former stall, we'd already began with the waterworks installation, so everything had to be wrapped up and protected prior to blasting.  There's quite a difference, even at the stage shown below, compared to what it was like when we first got it as seen above!

Cellar 4

Cellar 4

And the post-blasting shots. I think Cellar 1 is unrecognisable compared to what it was like in 2010. But it's still the messiest of all the cellars, and the floor will eventually have to be replaced, but that's on the very long finger.

Cellar 1 now.

The entry hall is important, and it's a pity the stones aren't nicer, but I think it should come out well in the end.

Cellar 2/Entry hall

Cellar 2/Entry hall

Cellar 4 is going to be fun to repoint...

Cellar 4

Cellar 4

 Difficult as it is to see through the dust, it wasn't helped by the visor on my mask getting frosted. Glad I have a backup, but I won't be blasting again!

All that was left to do was the cleanup. The used sand went to the neighbour's chickens...

Under the boardwalk

The weather has been warming up nicely, which makes it a little more pleasant doing work on the house. Stuff that has happened over the past two or three weeks includes lifting more floor boards on one of the attic levels. The existing boards looked ok, and were relatively new, but after the crap (literally) found under the other room, I thought it's be nice to make sure we had no future surprises. The boards turned out to be well nibbled by woodworm, but I've kept them all for reuse somewhere else.

2nd level, west, sans floor boards

The new beam in the living room is partially secured since last Saturday, but some more brickwork is needed to finish the job. While doing that, a neighbour asked why we were only exposing half the beams in the living room. I had taken some of the old plaster down for safety, as it was quite loose, but had to admit, the beams looked well. Of course, this meant the sandblaster had to come out of retirement for an hour.

Part of living room ceiling, a mix of clay and cement plaster.

The contemplative sandblaster, looking like a StarWars extra.

Newly exposed and blasted beams.

 And last, but not least, I had fun with a jackhammer, breaking up the concrete floor in cellar 3. Under this was hardcore rubble, ice and sand. I plan on digging down more, putting in a layer of expanded clay pellets, a limecrete floor, perhaps with flagstones or brick as a final layer. The main idea being that it is a breathable floor to regulate moisture. No treasure found yet.

That was fun, and easy!

Special delivery

I haven't been able to get a good look at the results of today's work (too bloody dark, and I can't walk on wet concrete), but it was a nice surprise to see this truck outside the house at lunchtime. That'll be the new floor of the cellar going in so!

Now there's been some discussion on whether the floor is too high, not leaving enough room for a screed and tiles, but it's a bit late now! Will just have to see how it looks tomorrow.

They also started breaking up the remaining half of the old kitchen floor, over the vaulted cellars. That'll need to be relaid carefully, as we definitely need room left for underfloor heating. It's going to be a tight fit, as the top of the vaulted cellars aren't that flexible.

Hardcore cellar

Last week the guys finished excavating two of the cellars and laid the pipes for the waste water. These have been covered with 15cm of hardcore (not yet finished), and we'll have 15cm of concrete to go on top of that, hopefully next week. The waste water pipes go as far as the wall, and another crew will come and dig a trench to connect it to the main sewer. Not very exciting, but it's a step towards having a new floor in the right two cellars.

Looking towards the back, cellar 4.

Ignore the pipe sitting on top, it's a spare. The upright one on the left is the main downpipe for the new bathroom and kitchen.

Looking towards the front, cellar 4.

Due to the way the old floor sloped (it used to be a cow stall), we'll have a step half way across the room.

Looking into cellar 3.

Cellar 3 also has a down pipe (not pictured) to accommodate the guest bathroom on the floor above. At the back left, the new door between the cellars can be seen (the one I broke a sledge hammer on while breaking through).

Meanwhile, we thought we'd waited long enough for the revised offer for our windows (7 weeks), so we paid them a visit and told them precisely what we want. A new offer was to be submitted on Friday, so hopefully we'll get that on Monday. If we accept that, it'll still be another 6 to 8 weeks before we have windows. Just in time for Chrsistmas! :P