The Restoration - Week Eight

This week, all the attention has been on the lower half of the west stone wall. This has been raked out and repointed ahead of the grouting to fill the voids within the wall. The first 2 tons of lime grout was delivered this week and is stored, ready for use.

The Hessian is off the upper half of the west wall and it looks terrific

The lower south west corner was next for repointing and once the mortar was raked out its also become clear that the brickwork on this corner will need some rebuilding.

Having raked out the old mortar, Stuart and Jack start repointing the first section of the lower west wall

As you can see in the photo below, the brickwork in the foreground will need some rebuilding work.

Within a couple of days this section is repointed, just leaving the brickwork on the corner to be repaired.

Next the lower north west corner is raked out and repointing can start here too. In this area like most others on this wall, some stones fell out after the render came off, leaving holes or revealing voids. These were repaired and filled as the repointing progressed.

The NE corner raked out. The brickwork on this end is in better shape.

The boys start to repoint this section having reset a few stones and filled some voids

After less than 2 hours good progress has been made on the repointing. Some of the holes still to be filled are clearly visible
In the photo below.

Some of the holes are clearly visible. These will be filled with stone and then pointed.

On the west wall this now leaves one small section in the lower centre of the wall to be repaired before the spiro-ties can be inserted and grouting can begin. This is an area between the two brick buttresses where the render is still intact. It has a noticeable large bulge and is rather unstable. This will be tackled by the mason who we hope will be on site next week.

In other news........... our triple glazed, linseed oil painted windows from Williams Homes of Bala, will be arriving on Monday!!!! Having spent the last 8 weeks with eventually 6 windows removed and plastic sheets in their place, this moment cannot come too soon! Watch this space!!

The Restoration - Week Seven

The original estimate on this job was 14 weeks, so the end of week 7 signals the half way point. There's still a lot to be done but the weather continues to be on our side and hopefully we are more or less on schedule.

This week attention moved around to the west wall which is the oldest wall in the house. Its stone and made from two parallel rubble walls, the middle then filled with all kinds of soil, straw and other "stuff", much of which has long since fallen down to the base leaving big voids.

The wall will eventually be grouted - filled with a liquid slurry of lime mortar and tied together with about 30 stainless steel "Spiroties" - but first it needs to be stabilised by raking out loose mortar, repairing it where stone is falling out and then repointing it with lime mortar. This was the main job this week and eventually the top half of the wall was completely repointed by Friday.

The first section is raked out and repointing can begin

By Friday this wall will be repointed at this level right to the far end

What a transformation - the repointed section looks great and has some strength

By Friday the top of the wall is repointed and put to sleep under its protective Hessian cover to allow the lime mortar to set slowly 

Even having only been repointed so far, the difference in the strength of this wall is VERY noticeable. After the render came off it could be moved in places just by pushing it! Now its solid again. Once the Spiroties and lime grout go in it'll be ready for the next 400 years :0)

Apart from the west wall some finishing touches were made to the kitchen wall. Specially made stainless steel brackets were attached to the underside of the oak ceiling joists to tie them into the new brickwork more effectively. This wall and these joists are now much stronger than they've been for a couple of hundred years by my guess!

The new stainless steel brackets which will be painted matt black and will blend in with the old beams

Another job was finished off by completing the brickwork above the new arch for our French doors. The Acroprops are gone and all we need is a triple glazed French Door to fill the hole!

This new arch and its brickwork are done and the Acroprops are gone

On Friday, the sun came out and it seemed like a nice time to take another shot of the south aspect with 4 reinstated brick arches and the new curvy kitchen wall on the lower right of the photo. Next week - more repointing of the stone wall!

Another sunny day - let's hope the weather stays with us!

The Restoration - Week Six

Suddenly in week 6 we seemed to see huge progress as we almost got our kitchen wall back and new arches were completed on three more windows....... And preparations started inside the house ahead of grouting our big old, very hollow, stone wall.

The south wall of our kitchen is back, completed with an arch above the window

This wall is a tribute to the masons who skillfully built it with a 3 inch curve to match the bedroom wall above. Just a little bit of brick work remains to be finished but that will have to wait for a few days as we wait for delivery of the specially fabricated stainless steel brackets which will be bolted to the undersides of the ceiling joists and tied into the top courses of bricks.

Having almost reinstated the south wall of the kitchen work moved to the other side of the room where the arch of the north window was reinstated.

The north window of our kitchen with its new arch in place

This was a very quick job with work on this arch and the brickwork above completed in less than a day. Attention now moved to the north gable where brickwork and lintels were stripped out of the upstairs bedroom window and the patio door where our new French window will be fitted.

Two more lintels being removed and arches ready to be rebuilt

Within a couple of days the reveals on the French door opening had been repaired, the steel lintel treated and replaced and a new arch built.

The restored brickwork around the opening for our new French door

 So three new arches are in place and a lot of other brickwork was repaired in week 6

In a few weeks the big west stone wall will be grouted to fill in all the hollow, weak areas which make this wall very unstable. Grouting involves pouring a lime mortar slurry into the wall, gradually moving up the wall a little at a time over a period of probably a couple of weeks to allow the progressive layers to harden a bit before pouring the next one on top. So that the mortar doesn't just pour out of gaps in the internal stonework, this had to be revealed in a couple of rooms where it was hidden behind dry linings. This way we can check the state of the stonework internally and point and plaster it in lime before the grout is poured.

Internal stonework on a small bedroom wall is in reasonable shape

Apart from some dampness caused by rainwater penetration and a slightly rotten lump of oak, this wall is not too bad. It wont need much work other than a little pointing and lime plastering before the wall is grouted from outside. A much larger stonewall was next to be revealed.....

Gypsum plasterboard is stripped off the timber studs revealing the stone wall beneath

Plasterboard and timber studs completely stripped

This big internal wall is covered in a mixture of very old cement render with what looks like lumps of lime in it, as well as other areas of more modern cement render. All of this will be removed in the next week to reveal the stone beneath. There is also an area of old brickwork in the lower centre part of this wall. Finally there are also a couple of big holes where stone is missing, offering a scary view of the voids inside the wall. Its these voids which will be filled eventually with grout, giving the wall its strength back AND stopping the wind which is currently whistling right through it!!

So, that was week 6 - a lot happened and there is still a lot more to be done. In week 7 the kitchen wall should finally be finished, complete with steel ties for the joists and work will start on the big job of raking out and repointing the big stone west wall in lime mortar in preparation for grouting.

The Restoration - Week Five

Over the past week we have gradually seen our new kitchen wall emerge. The bulge in the bedroom wall upstairs means that this new wall has had to be built with about a three inch curve to match the wall above.

Work continued to rebuild the south wall on the kitchen

The right side of the wall is getting close to meeting the wall above

Finally one side meets and the window opening is taking shape

Steel ties are used on alternate courses of brick to stitch the new kitchen wall to the existing walls on each side.

Over the coming week we hope to see the completion of the kitchen wall and work will also start on rebuilding the arch above the window on the north side of the kitchen. The wall below that window is also in need of some repair so the outer skin of bricks will be stripped and replaced with reclaimed ones. Next will be a new arch on one of the upstairs windows on the North Gable.

From now on work on the rest of the brick walls should be relatively straightforward but another BIG job is looming as its been decided to grout the big stone West Wall. This wall is  hollow in places and needs to be strengthened and stabilised. Grouting invokes first of all raking out and repointing the whole wall with lime mortar and then, 1 metre at a time, pouring a lime mortar slurry into the wall to fill up all the voids. But more about this later!!

The Restoration - Week Four

The yard at OLF looks more and more like a building site as the weeks go by. This week a delivery of materials for the kitchen wall foundation arrived.

Watch out for those overhead cables - please!!!

Due the Bank Holiday, it was a shorter week this week, so on Tuesday, the first job of the week was to mix concrete and pour the foundation on which to rebuild the kitchen wall.

By Tuesday afternoon, the concrete is in and work on reconstructing the kitchen wall will soon start

Like many things on this project the rebuilding of the kitchen wall will not be straightforward. This is because the wall in the bedroom above is visibly bowed due to movement which must have taken place many years ago, (due to the non existent foundations), which was also the cause of the eventual demise of the kitchen wall below. Before starting reconstruction, a lot of attention was therefore given to making sure that the reconstructed wall will match the curve of the bedroom wall above. Plum lines were dropped from various points on the wall above to create the correct curve along which to lay the bottom row of bricks. The rest of the wall will now be rebuilt following this line.

The first row of "headers" is laid on the new concrete foundation matching the curve of the wall above

Another "curve" was also recreated this week - the brick arch above the living room window. This is arch number 3 out of 12 which are to be reinstated. Another 3 arches which are still in original condition will also be repaired. Gareth and Rick, the masons working on the job this week, continue to impress with their skills in recreating this brickwork around and above the window openings in keeping with the original building.

An example of the skilled work in rebuilding the old window arches

The arch above the living room window opening is complete.

As you can see in the two photos below, there are clear signs of progress. Thankfully the weather continues to be kind to us. Next week work will start on the window on the north side of the kitchen and the southern kitchen wall rebuild will continue. The latest news from our window suppliers is that the windows will be manufactured by the end of next week. However preparation of the finished windows for the paintshop, the three coat process needed for the linseed oil paint, followed by the final assembly of the windows and window furniture means that they will only be ready for delivery in the last week of September. Consequently we will be living with temporary plastic sheeting for a month yet. So, since we are also without a heating boiler until the internal insulation and lime plaster work can be done on the finished kitchen wall and our new boiler can be installed, we're hoping for a mild September!! I sense that our woodburner may be fired up earlier than normal this year!

This week, I will sign off with a look at the progress made on the south elevations over the last 3 weeks. Some of it is hidden behind the scaffold and our hedge (which is in need of a haircut!) but hopefully you get the idea :-)

Early in week 2 there are a lot of holes in the south side of the house!

By the end of week 4 three arches have been restored, damaged brickwork in the gable repaired and the kitchen wall rebuild is under way  (bottom right)