The Restoration - Week Sixteen

For the first week in a long time I wasn't around for most of the week so it was nice to see the dramatic changes to parts of the house when I returned.

The biggest step this week was the fitting of all the timber infills above the windows. This has really transformed the look of the house and its great to see our vision become reality.

Adding the wood arches is the finishing touch on the new windows and doors.

The front door will be sanded and painted to match the windows once the builders have finished when it won't be in danger of getting knocked or scratched :0).

The completed windows and doors really change the look of the house

Another job done this week was the repointing of the verges which, as you can see in the photos above are wrapped in Hessian to protect from frost.

Last week we thought the whole of the large chimney would need dismantling and rebuilding but on Monday this week, after a closer inspection, it was decided that repointing the lower parts would be sufficient and it would only be necessary to rebuild the top section. After removing the flaunching we found four flues, three blocked at various levels in the house and roof space. Only one is in use today for our woodburner but we'll fit capped, ventilated pots to all the blocked flues to restore the original look of this big stack with four pots.

There are four flues under the Hessian protecting the repointing and its easy to see which one serves our woodburner!

The last major job done this week was to repair the chimney breast in the kitchen. There were a lot of crumbled bricks and very little mortar under the plaster when it was removed but now its looking in much better shape!

The brickwork still needs some cleaning to remove old limewash and distemper but its now repaired and structurally stable.

Next week we hope to get close to completing the repairs on both chimney stacks. As well as the stacks there are also quite a few other outside jobs to complete; relaying some rows of roof tiles and fitting new guttering along the west wall, laying new ridge tiles, fitting airbricks in each gable to ventilate the roofspaces and repointing the stonework at the base of several of the walls. So we have our fingers crossed that winter waits for a couple more weeks! 

The Restoration - Week Fifteen

Almost 4 months since the start of building work, all major brickwork repairs to the walls have been completed. This leaves only repointing of poorer areas to be completed and that work was continued by the bricklayers Gareth and Stuart throughout the whole of week 15.

Other work started this week was the preparation of window and door reveals ahead of the plasterer who will be with us again in a few weeks. We also saw some clearing up inside the house where lime grout had leaked through the west wall (in significant amounts) into the living areas and cellar.

The oak arch infills, each of which is a unique size, handmade on site by Ben the carpenter, all received their second coat of linseed oil paint and these should hopefully be installed next week.

Another job completed this week was the upgrading of the electrics to bring OLF up to modern standard. Whilst rewiring wasn't needed since all cables are in good condition, the ring main had to be split into smaller sections, some junction boxes were upgraded to more waterproof versions in the cellar, earth cables were connected to incoming water and oil supplies, a new larger earth cable and ground spike was fitted and a new consumer unit installed.

Apart from all of the above, attention switched to the chimneys as a new "lift" was added to the scaffold to reach the big chimney in the centre of the house.

The scaffold heads skyward to reach the big central chimney

Once we had access to this chimney it was quickly apparent that it would need major attention - more so than originally thought. The mortar was extremely damaged and looks like a very weak mixture had been used in previous repairs. This leaves only one sensible option - a complete rebuild of this chimney which will start next week. The chimney stack will be taken down to roof level and completely rebuilt using a suitable lime mortar and repaired with reclaimed bricks to match the present style. We think there may be a total of 4 flues, with 2 currently hidden beneath the flaunching. If thats the case, we will probably install 4 pots to restore the original look of this big stack.

The poor state of the big chimney stack was very clear once we were able to take a close look.

There was better news from the other chimney stack which, apart from needing some repointing and a few bricks replaced is otherwise in good condition. So we will have less work to do on this one since we had budgeted to rebuild the top six courses. The leadwork will also be repaired.

The second chimney stack is raked out to be repointed and will have the lead work repaired.

So, the scaffold not only gave us a better view of the chimney stacks, it also provides a great vantage point for a unique view of the garden and surrounding Shropshire countryside - a reminder of why we are liucky to live in such a beautiful spot.

Next week we hope to see visible changes outside with repairs starting on the big chimney and the timber arches fitted over the windows.

The Restoration - Week Fourteen

This week has mostly been about repairs to the chimney on the east gable. After removing the render it was clear that this wall needed a lot of repairs and the chimney was in particularly poor condition.

Having removed damaged bricks and mortar, Stuart made a great job of restoring this section of the chimney.

There was another area of badly damaged brick further up just below the chimney stack. The stack will also require some rebuilding but that will be tackled over the coming weeks.

The bricks below the stack are transformed

When the render was removed form the east gable the ends of both purlins were revealed as they had only been covered in a thin layer of lime mortar under the render. We have decided to make a feature of these by repairing the brickwork around them and adding a flaunching of lime mortar around the timbers. After they are coated with limewash they should be adequately protected from the weather.

The brickwork and pointing around the purlins have been repaired and the exposed timber  will be a nice feature on the gable end.

There was also a lot of repointing and some brickwork repairs to be completed on the North gable this week. Below the eaves there had been a lot of gaps which had previously been filled with cement render and these have now been filled completely by cutting a lot of bricks to fit beautifully into the gaps.

Gareth has been busy on this gable end and made a great job of repairing the pointing and brickwork below the eaves

Another job going on quietly in the background this week and still to make a star appearance has been the making of the timber arches for above the windows. These are being made on site from oak and are at this moment in various stages of completion  in our temporary paint shop (our sitting room which has become a store for everything we have had to move from other parts of the house). As the Linseed oil paint takes forever to dry (at least 48 hours) and two coats are applied it will take some time before the first ones can be fitted. Each window and lintel placement is also a little different because of the variety of brickwork on the house, meaning that Ben the carpenter has made every one to a unique size and design to give the best fit and appearance once installed.

Ben had a very busy week making (and painting) bespoke oak arches for fourteen windows and doors.

One job which I decided to tackle was to remove the gypsum plaster from the chimney breast inside the kitchen. Having previously removed the tiles and cement from the fireplace we wanted to reveal the brickwork on the chimney breast to see if it could be restored and kept as an exposed brick feature in the kitchen. It will certainly need some repairs as there is no mortar left in places and there are a few old coats of paint in some places but we are hopeful it can be left as exposed brick once its cleaned up and repaired. 

One little piece of interest we found this week was some of the old lime mortar which fell out around the chimney breast. It had a lot of animal hair in it. This was commonly used to help bind together the mortar and the hair I found is still in amazing condition - very soft and flexible.

The chimney breast is revealed and in need of some TLC. 

So that was week 14, originally the estimated finish date for this project. However that was always only an estimate and various jobs have turned out to be more time consuming or complex than we originally thought. Its likely we have another month ahead of us before the building work is finished. We will certainly need to wait until spring before limewashing as the temperature will be far too low to apply this material by the time the building is ready for it.

The Restoration - Week Thirteen

A bit of a weird photograph to open this week's Blogpost. This is the view inside the top of the stone wall which has been filled with lime grout. Ignore the bluish green colours caused by the flash. This picture was taken through a hole about the size of a tennis ball and you can clearly see the level area of white lime grout at the top of the wall. All the voids have been filled with this stuff which has set solid and will increase in strength over the coming months as it dries out.

The lime grout has set solid inside the stone wall

This week work started on the west gable which until now was still rendered above the lean to below. This gable also has a chimney stack on it and we didn't know what kind of state this would be in when the render was removed. The news was not good.......

Work starts on removing the cement render from the east gable

Once the chimney stack was revealed it was obvious that it would need extensive repointing where the old lime mortar has been eroded by the layer of cement and the moisture which has been trapped in this wall for decades.

This old chimney is going to need a lot of repointing

In places the render came away easily on this gable whereas in others it was quite stubborn. Eventually after a couple of days work the whole gable and chimney is revealed.

All render removed form the east gable and the scaffold is extended to reach the chimney stack

Repointing began this week on the east gable where the wall and chimney will need quite a bit of work.

A lot of the remaining work on the house is repointing brickwork and roof verges. There are also a lot of bricks to be cut to fill in holes between the roof and the gable ends where cement had been packed into gaps. But before repointing the brickwork a lot of raking our has to be done to remove the remnants of old cement render and in places some failed lime mortar. Because of the softness of the old bricks powered grinders were out of the question for raking out and a hand chisel is the tool of choice. Of course this makes it a slow job but will avoid damage to the edges of the bricks.

Stuart chisels out old cement mortar in preparation for repointing

The first stage in repointing after the gaps are filled with lime mortar

The pointing is finished off after a day by consolidating it with a stiff brush and removing the excess mortar

One job started last week was the repair to the front door jambs and the reinstatement of a brick arch above the door. Early this week that was finished off although a new door frame is still to be fitted and the door will be sanded and repainted in linseed oil to match the windows.

Door jambs repaired and the new arch is built

The scaffolders were back this week to build a new lift on the north and south gables as well as raising the scaffold to the level of the chimney stack on the east gable. This allowed repointing to start on the higher parts of the gables and the fitting of cut bricks to fill gaps under the eaves.

Gareth starts preparations on the north gable to lay cut bricks below the eaves

Next week there is a lot more repointing to be done as well as the remaining brickwork repairs on the north side of the house. Hopefully we can also start to fit some of the timber arches above the windows. Apart form these things there are still a lot of smaller jobs to be finalised:

• Raking out and pointing the stonework around the base of the walls.
• Repairing the window reveals and soffits inside the house.
• Rebuilding the top courses on both chimney stacks.
• Relaying the ridge tiles.
• Lifting and relaying the bottom rows of roof tiles on the west side to increase the overhang and fit new guttering.

..........and some other things I've no doubt forgotten!