I had a message the other day from a friend who I work with quite often asking if I'd help with a job. And a picture of a very damp looking chipboard floor.
As the Etsy stuff hasn't been selling at it's usual level lately (I'm guessing Government turmoil and cost of living are hammering my sales) I agreed to it.
It was pretty bad! We stripped back the lino to expose the chipboard. The floor was on top of a concrete slab, a layer of plastic then 2 inches of polystyrene insulation, then chipboard then a layer of lino.
Sorry I haven't posted this last week or replied to comments - I've been working flat out to try and get so we can use some of that space again before the weather turns and we can't eat outside anymore!
Lots more progress though.
Everything was plasterboarded and ready for Sean, my good friend and plasterer, to come and skim it.
I've been told that I'm cruel to my wife whenever she's pregnant and looking at the evidence I'm inclined to agree!
The first pregnancy (nearly four years ago. I made my wife move house when she was 8 months pregnant, three days before Christmas. She gave birth two weeks later to our first daughter, I still hear about that one.
The second pregancy I ripped out the living room as her maternity leave started, re plastered, laid an oak floor and fitted a new fire place.
To be fair it nearly killed me but we were finished two weeks before our second daughter was born.
This time I've destroyed the patio, started and not yet finished the porch and now ripped out the old boiler and replaced every radiator in the house. My cousin, Ian, has been here today helping me replace all the radiators ready for the new boiler which didn't turn up yesterday (don't use plumbnation if you want something to turn up on time).
Ian Fitting a new radiator upstairs
Tomorrow we're digging through the floor, under where the boiler used to be to allow access for pipes. So should be nice and quite for the wife to relax and enjoy her pregnancy...
I'm not cruel just not very good at timing!
Hopefully the porch, heating and first section of the patio should be finished before baby number three turns up!
It's starting to feel weird unless we've mixed at least some concrete on a Sunday!
Yesterdays concreting wasn't at mine though - it was at my brothers new house. They've only been in a month but they've already done loads, lots of ripping things out, mainly concentrating on the living room and dinning room.
I called round one night a few weeks ago and Dave showed me some quarry tiles under the carpet in the living room. My heart sank a little as I knew, with the age of the house, that the chances were those tiles would be laid on ash and dirt, we lifted a couple of the tiles and could push a screwdriver 4 inches into the dirt. Only one solution really, dig it all out and lay a new floor. Lots of work.
Dave has worked like a trooper and with the help of his fiancée they've got the floor all dug out in the last week, added a layer of scalpings, wackering it down and then blinded it with sand.
I turned up Saturday to give him a hand. We got the first layer of plastic down, added the insulation then added another layer of plastic to prevent it reacting with the insulation (apparently the wet concrete can react with the aluminium layer on the insulation).
We then added a level timber around the walls to act as our datum to tamp off. The idea being that a notched timber could then be moved up and down the walls to make sure all the concrete is level. It can also be tamped to remove the air and bring the "fat" to the surface to make it easier to level.
On Sunday we concreted it. Dave had a few mates there to help as well as me and dad, all the concrete was mixed using the mixer on the tractor - that way we can do it on a Sunday rather than waiting to have a ready mix. I was in charge of laying it, helped by Dave, and I think we got a pretty good finish. He did record a short time lasp video of the floor going in (I'm the one in a blue shirt) - Maybe I should add the Benny Hill music to it!
The finished floor
Now the waiting begins! He wants to lay a wood floor on this and concrete dries at 1mm per day so they've got a bit of a wait before we can lay any flooring!
I had to do the wimps thing today and not go to work (the one advantage of being self employed). This was so I could sand and stain the floor ready for adding the top two coats of oil tonight. Unfortunately the coat of stain hasn't gone off yet (hence why I'm on my blog) this means to get two coats on tomorrow I've got to get up very early, say four o'clock, as it takes two hours to get a coat on and I need to leave for work by half six. I might seem a little grumpy tomorrow!
I was going to title this "Oh my God, what have you done". Which I think is what my wife is thinking.
Before - The old fireplace with it's two wings - made storage difficult in this room
My projects at home have a habit of escalating. Over the winter we decided that although our open fire place looks nice it's rubbish at keeping us warm. No matter how much wood we chuck on to it, it makes no difference. So we decided that in the summer we would replace it with a wood burning stove.
This is the project I've just started. The trouble is I thought if I'm doing the fireplace I might as well do the skirting and architrave (half of it's missing or doesn't match anyway). Then I thought - well if I'm doing that I might as well do the floor as well. So it becomes a complete refurb job.
The floor is a suspended timber floor and although there's no problems with it structurally, its is cold as the wind blows up and through it making the house tricky to keep warm. I could insulated between the timber joists but the old rat and mice nests under the floor made me think I've made the right decision to insulate and then concrete the floor. Although it's more work it should mean that I never have to do work on this floor again (I know I'll get comments on how I should keep the timber joists in but I've think this is the best in the long term).
After - How to knock money off the value of your house!
Once the concrete has cured and dried I'll lay a oak floor on top and then build in some bookshelves and storage for toys as well as a new fireplace. On top of this I'll change the radiator and all the skirting and architraves. Should keep me busy for a couple of nights!
