Tag der Architektur 2014

Last Saturday was Tag der Architektur, and as part of that, our architects, Architekten Dorbath + Partner, asked if we would mind opening our house (well, building site) to a group as part of a four-site tour in this region. Organised by the regional Chamber of Architects, of which our principal architect, Herr Keller, is Chair for our district, they thought our house would be interesting as it is a work in progress, a protected structure, we're doing most of it ourselves and stuff like the wall heating is still visible.

Though still in the midst of prepping for plastering, we took a few hours out on Saturday morning to really clean out the place, put boards down so people could walk in safety, cordon off some areas and stick "before" photos on the wall. Not to mention setting up a coffee and beer bar!

The bar!

Living room hasn't been so clean in years!

My wife even set up a small display of things we found during the course of the renovation. A US army mess tin knife. Some coins. A bullet. lots of nails and iron mongery, and my favourite, the front page of a Heidelberg newspaper from 1937.

A bit later than planned, we were faced with 20 or 25 people standing in our living room (itself a good structural test!), with Herr Keller giving a nice intro to the history of our project. Then they were let loose!

I have to say, I was a bit nervous about this beforehand, but it was lovely to invite a bunch of clearly interested people in and to get nice comments. Some also had old houses, so there were encouraging words and plenty of questions.

Even the kitchen was looking good.

Herr Keller giving the intro.

In an attempt to offer a bit of Irish hospitality, we also had some of my home brewed beers on offer. Not many had a chance to try, as they were under time pressure to get to the final site, but I was very pleased when one old lady popped back in when she heard there was beer on offer. She explained her deceased husband was a Braumeister, and the last Malster in Mosbach, and that he would have liked my beer. Can't ask for a nicer compliment than that.

And then they were gone.

And speaking of beer, a rather nice surprise was being presented with a pack of one of my favourite beers, Hopfenstopfer Citra Pale ale, as a token of gratitude. The other half of our architect team, Uwe Krück, was clearly also reading my other blog! Hi Uwe! :)

All in all, a nice thing to do, and they're all welcome back any time to see it progress.

ADDENDUM

We got a nice mention in Tuesday morning's Rhine-Neckar-Zeitung, in a piece about the Tag der Architektur.

And a professional translation thanks to Dörthe, a German in Ireland! :)

"As the trip continued to Mittelschefflenz, Horst Keller from Dorbath & Partners Architects promised us an insight into the inner life of a wall heating in an old farmhouse. Previously divided up into two parts, this house is currently under renovation and will, once completed, become the home of three people. It is being redeveloped by the owners themselves who are investing a huge amount of hard work, loving dedication and effort. We saw foil-protected solid wood ceiling beams, plaster fillings made of a mixture of clay and straw, low ceilings, as well as some changes in style resulting from work carried out by various owners over the years. Keller explained that even in a historical structure like this, it is possible to meet modern quality standards for insulation. He said that the way in which the Masterson family are carrying out the renovations is “exemplary”."

The heat is still on

The past two weeks have been very busy, in the lead up to a big plastering session. The final pieces of wall heating have been installed, holes are being closed up, dry walling being completed (or sometimes started), mesh being installed in ceilings, cabling relaid as I changed ideas and more. More importantly, a professional plaster has been in installing beading on corners around the window opes and all that. Let's make a quick photo tour.

My favourite room on the second floor got the panels installed  for the wall heating (a nice, easy job) and then the pipes fitted.

At the other side, same level, the bedroom got the same treatment.

And on the third floor, at least one of the two rooms up there is done, as I didn't have time yet to dry line the other room.

In the living room, we finally got the rest of the underflooring down, so it'll be safer to work there.

And as the clay plaster for the ceiling will be sprayed on, we've got some special protective sheets to cover the beams so we don't have to clean them all over again once the plastering is done. Comes with built-in adhesive strips on one side, and then we can but to size to tape up the other side. Though we'll probably need to staple them too, as tape doesn't stick so well on dusty oak beams.

The first floor is ready for plastering, which I simply cannot wait for, as it will make a huge difference to the house. We should be ready to start that in two weeks, as there's sill a lot of preparation work to do. But even having all the beading in place seems to make a difference.

Little covers are installed on most of the sockets now, so they can be plastered over and rediscovered.

The bare timbers in the landings upstairs are being closed off ready to receive wall heating (that's a job for tomorrow night).

And the missing wall between the bedroom and office on the first floor has finally been built after the heating system was hooked up. To add a little spice, I want to install this old window frame given to us by a neighbour. Not just so it looks nice, but also to get a bit more light into the small, north-facing office.

The heat, as I said, is still on, as there is still much to do before plastering can begin in earnest. But it's looking good!

The heat is on.

We've been keeping the pace up the past couple of weeks, trying to keep to our goal of getting the wall plastering started as soon as possible. This of course means any remaining wall heating has to be installed which in turn means all the underconstruction has to be completed before the heating panels can be stuck on. This is now complete in my favourite room on the second floor, as well as starting to close the hole in he ceiling up to the next level.

It actually makes the room feel larger and a little brighter, as the old plaster and wood behind these panels wasn't the most reflective.

Having said that, I thought I'd include myself in a photo for a change, to give some sort of scale. And I'm not a tall man! Nevertheless, despite the low ceiling, it's roomy enough, and definitely cosy.

The past few days have been spent sorting the kitchen out, as it has been neglected for quite a while. The mesh has been nailed to the ceiling to carry new clay plaster.

The gaping hole where the old chimney went has a new beam bolted to the others and laths installed ready to receive plasterboard.

Best of all, we finally closed off the wall behind which the spaghetti of cables and timber frames is hidden. Suddenly the kitchen feels cleaner and bigger.

And staying in the kitchen, the west wall was being prepped for fresh plaster by chopping off any loose stuff and keying the surface. While doing this, the big lumps were coming easily off the remaining chimney, revealing red brick. I hasn't thought his might be red brick, but it makes sense for a chimney.

Thinking this would make a nice feature, i removed all the plaster and then cleaned each brick with a nylon brush attachment on a drill, with quite nice results. All that's left to do is to scratch out some of the old mortar and repoint. I've plenty of experience of that!

Meanwhile, down in the cellar, Sace popped by yesterday and hooked up the wall heating in the bedroom and office (these designations are subject to change!), so now three rooms are running on the heating system Not that we need heating right now!

 We've now a list of tasks that we need to complete in two weeks, if we want to stay on target and start plastering. Apparently our kitchen is coming in August! I doubt it...

Even more stuff to walk on

Despite being away for a couple of days this week, progress has been good. The mesh we've been installing for the ceilings, prior to plastering with clay/earth plaster, is now complete in all rooms on the first floor, except the kitchen. Hammering into those beams makes a lot of loose clay plaster and dust come down, so I always wear a mask.

More excitingly, over Friday and Saturday I got the cabling and underfloor down in my favourite room in the house, the "3rd bedroom" on the east end of the second floor. I just love those beams in the middle of the room. Feels nice to be able to walk freely around it again.

Next steps here, finish dry-lining the gable wall and get the wall heating installed.

Meshes

Over the past week-and-a-bit, the missing living room wall has more or less been replaced. Just needs some plasterboard and finishing touches. It ain't gonna fall down in a hurry.

The race is on (well, putting pressure on ourselves) to get everything prepped for a big round of plastering. That means getting all the wall heating in (to a certain point), completing wiring and getting the temporary floors in. Plus, adding a wire mesh to all the ceilings where clay plaster will be reinstated. A rather dusty, if satisfying job, and it allays any fears of lumps of clay falling on our heads while watching telly in the future. At the time of writing, the living room, most of the landing and the bedroom are complete on the first floor, leaving just the kitchen and box room. We'll do the same on the second floor, so at least most of the really dirty work is done before we seal off that part of the house as a future project.

And finally, a gratuitous shot of the church in the centre of the village, and at the top of our street.

Putting the wall back

I had the full week off this past week, originally intending to have a bit of a holiday as well as getting some work done on the house. As per the last post, the action needed to replace the rotten beams meant it was quite a long, busy week. Here's a summary of what we did from Monday to Saturday, with invaluable help from Sace, Silja and Nokda:

• Removed 3 tonnes of rubble from the cellar.
• Set up shuttering for an initial concrete pour on top of cellar wall.
• Installed steel mesh.
• Mixed and poured concrete to make a lintel spanning entire wall.
• Set new 18x18cm preserved spruce beam in place on top of concrete lintel
• Got three posts in place to form main part of load-bearing wall.

• Wrapped sides of beam with damp-proof course.
• Set up shuttering and did another small concrete pour beside beam.
• Inserted a fourth 14x16cm post inder the load-bearing beam.

• Began stud-frame construction.

• Sistered another beam showing signs of rot.

• Set up a temporary exhibition at the front of the house to illustrate the progression of rot in oak beams. 

• And in between all that, got some of the frame in an upstairs bedroom wall started:

Not to mention cutting the grass, trimming hedges to make the place look nice for the May day celebrations this coming week.

Now the pressure is on to get the wall finished and get some form of floor down in the living room. We're getting pricing for plastering, as I simply can't do it myself, but there's a lot of prep work to do before that can begin. It's time to "give gas" as they say here.

Ups and downs

Been a rollercoaster of a week at the Bauernhaus. I'd been quietly working away upstairs to finish the basic body of the cabinets for the electrical switch box and a heating distribution manifold, as well as closing the hole in the wall between the landing and the east bedroom, all of which I completed.

I was delighted to get fasteners for the internal insulation/wall heating panels, to secure them to the wall before plastering can begin. I'd been looking forward to this, as once the plastering is done on these walls, it'll at least give the impression of a big jump forward. It's those little plastic discs in the photos below, which hide 20cm long screws going through the insulation to the masonry behind.

And my wife did a massive clean-out of the tobacco drying house, above the pigsty behind the house. Got some nice ideas for this place, but that's definitely on the long finger

And so, yesterday, I began the under-construction to straighten the gable wall of bedroom 3 (I'm numbering them now...)

BUT!

Our friend Sace dropped by with more fasteners for the insulation, and we chatted about replacing the rotten beam in the living room some time. The one that gave me a heart attack on discovering it in January last year (see the bottom of this post).

We'd had somebody look and say we could chop out half of the free beam and replace it with a new one, and for the beam that lies under the wall, to chop out that part between the door posts, and replace that only. Sace had a poke with a crowbar, an it soon became pretty clear that the rot was more extensive, and basically, the entire beam under the wall had to go. It's a wonder the posts standing on it had not collapsed through, as it is also a load-bearing member. As you can imagine, there were several expletives uttered, as this was a worse case scenario to me, and something I'd been hoping to avoid.

Being a man of action (him, not me), the rest of the day was an impromptu plan to get the main load-bearing beam spanning the living room supported with steel struts, rip the wall out, rip the rotten beams out, and prepare for pouring concrete.

But first, this is what the wall looked like a month ago.

Ok?

This is what it looks like now.

We got as far as getting shuttering in for pouring concrete with rebar. Unfortunately, being a Saturday in Germany, by this time there was nowhere open to get gravel, or steel, so work will continue on Tuesday, once the Easter break is done.

Here's what mighty oak gets reduced to when allowed to sit damp for a century or more. Basically, wood that normally bends nails when trying to hammer them in gets reduced to the consistency of Weetabix.

The view from the stairs.

Some of the other beams are showing old rot. We'll sister them to keep them stable.

So now we've more rubble to get rid of, nicely fallen through into the cellar.

Almost tempting to leave it open plan

One thing has to be said though. These old timber framed buildings are incredible. There is so much redundancy built into the structure, and it's so modular, you can do things like this, propping up bits to rip others out with apparent ease. Easier then with modern builds, I would say, but it does give me the shits looking at that massive beam floating like that. The sooner we've got a sturdy, permanent post under it the better!