The pipes, part 2

A small photo update, as since the last post my camera, which had been on its last legs, finally died due to dust inhalation. Now for some all improved photos of the rest of the work the lads did on the main plumbing.

Cellar 4 is looking more like a technical room now. Plenty of pipes, the pump unit for the rainwater cistern, pressure reducer and filter all in.

The shaft is rather full now, but very tidy. This has all the pipes for the cold and hot water supply, including a circulation circuit so hot water is instantly available when a tap is turned on (a water saving effort), the main heating circuit and the downpipe, of course.

On the first floor (or 2nd, if you're American), the pipes exit the shaft and run to a box on the other side of the wall where the water supply for this floor is distributed from and can be isolated. This is an important photo, as it'll be used to ensure we don't drill into anything once the kitchen is going in!

From the conrol box, we have loops running to other distribution points for the heating, with pipes running under the wall into the living room...

... and into the distributor for the wall heating there. Quite pleased with the work Enver and Co did!

Since then, we've taken a bit of a break from heavier work, but we've done some cleaning down of the walls in the cellar/entrance hall to expose the limestone walls there. These will be completely cleaned and repointed, so they are left natural.

And I finally began closing the hole in the living room ceiling that has been open for about a year. Laths in ready for some plasterboard. Did the same in the kitchen and 1st floor bathroom, although there's still a large hole in the kitchen ceiling, as I need to set a new beam in.

And we've now got new plans for the ugly 1960s stairs...

The pipes, the pipes are calling

Pretty hectic week last week. The Bakan Brothers, Sace and Enver, popped in last weekend to look at what needed to be done for the sanitation and heating installation, then announced they'd start on Monday. Well, no time like the present! I had wanted to be at hand to do the dirty work, in an attempt to keep down costs, so thanks to a very understanding boss, I took a half day every day and worked on the house from lunch till pretty late in the night. But brilliant progress from Enver and Edgar in a week.

(note: quality of photos may not be the best, as our camera has completely died from dust inhalation)

Cellar 4 has been transformed into a wonder of waterworks, and this is just the start. The mains water pipe has been directed from the other side of the house, and from here everything will be controlled. The core installation is now finished, including the pump for the rainwater cistern so we can pump out for the garden.

The main waste pipe is in, running from the top of the house to he bottom, so I had to put the skates on and finally build part of the shaft, which was till now an open hole through three floors. This also has the side effect of closing off the remaining "shortcut" from the kitchen to the bedroom, making the kitchen feel more like a proper room. Makes for a nice, neat installation too!

Bottom of the shaft.

One level up, with two sides built.

The other side of the shaft, in the corner of the kitchen.

They got the guts of the first floor bathroom plumbing in already, so the position of the shower, WC and sink are now fixed. We've plenty of play in floor height to make the shower a walk-in one, so that should make the small room feel a bit more open than having something you have to step into. A quick underconstruction build the other night to set the levels for the shower mixer battery.

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We've planned where all the heating distribution manifolds are going (basically ranks of valves to control the wall heating system), so some dirty angle-grinding was done to cut channels in the kitchen sub-floor, under walls etc, so there's plenty of room to accommodate them. Three manifolds per floor should be enough.

The 2nd floor (main) bathroom is a bit problematic pip-wise. We've very little clearance in the floor for burying pipes, and there are oddly-constructed parts of the floor that I'd like to change to accommodate the pipes, but can't figure out a decent way to do it. Hiding them behind dry construction walls might not be an option, as we'd lose too much space, and no wall runs at 90 degrees to another, so gaps quickly narrow over the length of a wall. But at least the pipe is in for the shower drainage, dropping straight into the kitchen below and behind the wall framework there, which is great, as long as I don't put a screw through it later. And, of course, the main waste pipe is up at that level, so we know where the WC is going (because somebody wrote it on the wall).

So, a good week, with lots of pressure to keep the pace going. And as a bonus, Sace brought his chainsaw over and cut out the last beam that was blocking the new hallway to the bedroom. Now we no longer have to duck

This was the blocker

Now a clear run through (from the other side)

Unterkonstruktion

Been a relatively slow couple of weeks, but progress is being made on the walls that will be clad with wood and/or plasterboard. The reason it's slow going might be apparent from the photos below, as the existing walls, made of oak posts, beams and filled with wattle and daub, are fairly crooked and uneven. This means planeing lots of shims to get a vertical and even plane

First, the kitchen. This needs to be well supported, as kitchen units will hang here. Using two of the posts as "null", new wood was set in to make a frame between them, extending across the door. There's a 6-8cm difference in depth in some cases, and the existing door frame was tilted quite a bit more than it looked. We'll put 22mm thick OSB sheets on this wall, which will then be covered with plasterboard. The OSB will be more secure for hanging units, and give the walls a more solid feel than just plasterboard, which I hate!

This will not fall down! Ready for wiring.

New wood is vertical, old posts not!

On the other side of the same wall, I've gone for laths that are not so thick to save some space. It's a bit of a problem, as there's not a lot to secure the laths on, but it won't have to support to much weight. The hole through the wall, visible in the middle of the photo, will become a cubby hole to house the distributor for the wall heating system on this level. The post running into the wall will be chainsawed off to make this into a doorway going from the hall to give access to a bedroom and the small bathroom on this level.

In the same area, I've put laths in to level the floor, and bring the joists up to the same level as those in the hall. This is our benchmark level for this floor, so whatever we choose for flooring, the lebvel ill be the same throughout.

And looking up from the floor in this new hallway, the frame for the bathroom wall is complete.

There's always room for a bit of plastering when you run out of material, so part of what i like to refer to as the TV wall got a base coat. I've left space on the left for an idea for a decorative feature. The wall dips in by a few cm here, so I was considering sticking fake bricks onto the lower part, then partially plastering over them to make it look like the wall is made of brick, with parts of plaster cut out to show them. On the right, I'd like to stick in an oak post to break the wall up, and break up an otherwise boring stretch of flat wall. We'll see.

Next tasks: more under-construction on the small bathroom walls, bricking up the old doorway and levelling the joists in the living room.

First steps with woodwork

Action on the rotten beam has been parked a bit. It ain't gonna fall over just yet! Our carpenter, Lutz, reckoned just replace the rotten sections, and leave the base-plate in place, as under the posts is still reasonably sound. In any case, I want to wait till the main electrical cable is moved to a new location, as it currently goes right through a part that needs replacing.

Since then, we decided to get the living room floor up, for installing cables, pipes etc, but also to make sure there are no more rotten surprises! First the back part, the beams under which looked relatively new. Well, newer than the ones towards the front of the house. Some small signs of damp damage, but not much.

This was the fist time we'd even seen the floor boards at the front part of the living room, as they were hidden under particle boards since we bought the place. It was almost a crime lifting them, as they're beautiful wood, with a reddish tinge, and clearly had been well looked after. But, warped, partially rotted in places, and sections had been cut out and replaced in the past, including the entire right side in the photo below. There was also a fair slope from back to front, so it'd be nice to have a level floor.

Under this was the usual sandy rubble, under which are slightly vaulted bricks between the beams.

Oh, and a few mouse skeletons, including one rather macabre scene in a nest with 5 skeletons.

Other things that need to be done before starting the wiring include building a couple partition walls and dry lining in the kitchen. I got a new toy in the form of a crosscut saw to speed this up, which I'm glad I did. I'd begun in the bedroom, where the original door was to be blocked. Having lifted the floor boards in the old hall on the other side of the door, I didn't like the look of the bottom of the posts holding it all up, so I added 16x12cm posts on each side inside the frame for some redundant support. I'm clearly not as fit as I thought when it comes to using a handsaw though!

Typically, one of these additional, recycled posts was warped, so the other new toy came into play to straighten the face. This planer is going to get a lot of use.

Anyway, with these in place, the proper studwork could begin. Lutz had ordered quite a bit of 6x12cm timber in 13m lengths, so plenty to cut.

By Saturday afternoon, I'd got the footer, header and side studs in place for the frame which will become the wall for the first floor guest bathroom, then it was time to head to a party. Some things are more important!

Of course, it's been pretty cold and snowy here the past few weeks, so I've been grateful for the lend of an old stove, which is the only source of heat in the house. At least it keeps the temp up to about 5C, which isn't bad, and it's a good way to get rid of off-cuts!

Shit!

With getting the cabling done soon in my mind, I've been doing some pre-plastering prep work on the walls and taking up some floors over the weekend and the past few evenings. All quite smooth and boring, in general, with the floor up in the northeast room exposing beams that were replaced in 1980 along with foil-packed insulation. Ready for laying cables under the floor.

Then I diligently removed the layers of paint and loose plaster from the dividing wall, again ready for inserting sockets and plastering, when the first unpleasant surprise struck. While knocking plaster off the bottom, the wall wobbled, as if it was floating at that corner. And indeed, the crack visible on the left side of the photo to the right shows the wall, which is resting on floorboards (what the hell were they thinking?!) and a beam underneath those, settled at some time, so is more or less hanging against the post on the right. It wouldn't bother me too much, but the wall to the left of the crack, which forms the eastern side of the kitchen, is only 12cm thick and is supporting the big beam spanning the kitchen. Without the bracing provided by the wobbly part, it's basically a crap, thin, free-standing wall. One option is to pretty much leave it as it, but put a thicker oak post to take the weight. Not a major disaster, but something that'll need to be looked at, and something that thre my plans for the week off.

But there's always something else to do. More floors need to come up, so we lifted the boards in what will be the small, first floor bathroom. No nasty surprises here, but an interesting layer of what looks like slag, or clinker.Presumably to act as insulation from the cellar below, or to dissipate dampness. No idea! It's all coming out as we'll be laying a deeper base of boards over which a resin layer will be poured to create a sealed wet cell for the bathroom, keeping the beams underneath safe. Bit like a moonscape at the moment!

Moving into the living room, the remaining brick walls needed the cleaning treatment to prep them for a base coat of plaster into which cables and sockets would be set. The wall is a bit warped, meaning that if I try to plaster it perfectly vertical, there'll be layers of plaster 6cm thick in a couple of places, so I'm thinking of sticking fake brick panels onto these areas and partially plastering over them, leaving some exposed to break the monotony of a 5m long run of wall.

While preparing for plastering, I took up the floor boards along the wall, so I could plaster down to below floor level. At this point, we got a really nasty surprise, hence the title of this post - I couldn't repeat what I really uttered.

Parallel to the wall leading to the landing (see photo above), there are two beams under the floor, both resting on the cellar wall underneath. One just under the floorboards and the other acting as a wall plate under the wall itself. Both are in a bad state of decay, Each are about 20cm thick, solid oak, but I was able to pull big chunks out of them with my hands. The one under the floorboards is not too much of an issue. It can be taken out and replaced easily enough, though it'd mean rebuilding part of the cellar ceiling. The one under the wall is more serious, as the door post on the left, which rests on it, is a structural member, supporting the beam cross the living room which in turn holds up the floor and walls above which in turn... well, you get the idea. Luckily, directly under the posts seems firmer, as it does under the brickwork, but in the doorway, it's just a mess. A shortcut would be chop out this section and simply pop a short beam into it's place, but then the load bearing down from the post will not be spread evenly across the cellar wall underneath. I fear we'll have to take this wall out completely, replace the beam underneath and rebuild it, but we'll take professional advice.

 Just when you think there's some momentum building up again... Shit!

A time to relax

For the past week, or nearly two, I've done sod all on the house, but I'm hoping this is the calm before the storm. The only real work was done by Lutz, our roofer/neighbour, who put a Schneefanggitter (a grill for catching snow, and I've no idea what it's called in English!) on the barn roof, so snow doesn't slide off and make piles in the narrow passage between the barn and house. We also received a delivery of 120m or so of 6x12cm timber (in 13m lengths, just about fitting in the barn) for building pretty much all the partition walls that we need, so that's the next big thing on the list.

Then we got a loan of an old range to give a bit of heat, as couple of weeks ago, when it was -11C outside, the house dropped to 0.6C, not ideal working conditions, especially for plastering.

On the bad side, last week we spotted that water is somehow coming in around the chimney. Lutz checked it out, but the roof tiles are perfect, so we're waiting on the sheet metal guys to check the flashing around the chimney. Last year was no problem, so we thought it might have been to do with the snow, but it's even worse the past couple of days, long after the snow melted. Not good! I'm wondering should I remove the Isofloc insulation around the chimney to stop it spreading, but maybe it'll dry out once the problem is rectified.

Poxy leaking roof.

 So, here's to a 2013 where we can move in!