Breathable Re-flooring (wood or flagstone) & drain pipe

[darrylmg]

Hello All,

Well I have spent a whole heap of time reading this forum.
It's very thorough and helpful.

My wife and I have recently moved into our new cotswold cottage which we think was built in around 1880.
Originally it would have been two or maybe even three seperate cottages as we can see three front doors and we have three chimneys and multiple fireplaces.
At some point it was converted into one large rectangular building.

We are currently having the electrics done replacing the old 10+ years of dodgey cabling jobs, plus removing unused rubber cabling and lead cabling and lead piping. I'm going to make a fortune with all that lead...

Looking at the front of the house we have the dining room with master bedroom above, on the left hand side. In the middle we have the lounge with the second bedroom and bathroom above. On the right we have the kitchen with the cellar below and third bedroom above.
Incidently, on one of the other posts I was reading about some people with floorboards in the kitchen. We have those too but to solve the crumbs problem, just put a cellar underneath like ours! You can hoover the crumbs in the cellar ;-)

The construction seems a little odd to me, but it may have been the "in thing" at the time.
The back wall of the entire house is cotswold stone, the sides and front are brick intermittent wth wood and with no cavity which has been rendered with pebble-dash. I suppose brick was modern and expensive back then.
Inside we have lime plastered walls with horse hair (I'm assuming it's not any other animal).

Any way, we are looking at renovating the dining room.
Currently it has a very uneaven floor that seems to be made up of original flagstone (probably on clay) intermixed with sections of concrete plus some paint and glue, then underlay and carpet.

We are thinking of two options to correct the floor:
A, Remove concrete, install matching flagstone to entire floor.
or
B, Remove all flooring including remaining flagstone and put solid oak.

:?: If we were to go with option A, what method did people in the cotswolds use to lay the foundation for laying flagstones?? I'm worried that the concreted will have been layed ontop of modern hard-core.

:?: If we were to go with option B, what method could we use to provide a firm surface for laying a solid wooden floor. Is this a possibility at all since there are conflicts?? i.e. the wooden floor wouldn't like moisture, yet the floor MUST breath.

The second issue we have is that the back of our house is a path next to a quiet road.
We have a gutter that runs the length of the back wall with one downpipe on the left hand corner of the house.
At the moment the downpipe just drops onto the path with the shoe pointing away from the house.
The surveyor suggested getting a channel put into the path that would carry the water into the road. I believe he was worried about it being slippery to pedestrians. :?: Has anyone had this done? What's the cost? The path is owned by the council.

Thanks for any help, it's much appreciated.

 

[Lime]

I vote for A.

Lift a flagstone once the concrete is removed with an angle grinder (don't hit it) to see how they were laid and copy it.

Regarding the downpipe, taking water away from your house is a good idea.
What have any of your neighbours done?
If you see a similar path channel anywhere ask at the property whether they did it themselves and what contact with the council took place.
All councils vary.

 

[Alastair]

Inside we have lime plastered walls with horse hair (I'm assuming it's not any other animal).

Possibly cow hair.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Since laying your oak floor on concrete is clearly out of the question I assume that if you went with this option you would need to dig down a foot or so to provide ventilation, then install floor joists, supported on brick pillars and if at all possible tied in to the walls. You would then need to fit air bricks in at least two outside walls.
I think Lime has the best idea.

Regarding the stone and brick construction, is it possible that at some point the house has been changed so that what is now the back (stone) was once the front?

 

[darrylmg]

Thanks for the replies.

I was siding with option A myself.
The main problem is that I suspect that we are missing some flagstones.
The concrete has been put in place of missing stones and not ontop of existing stones.

I'm trying to get to the local salvo yard to see if I can spot some matching stones.

The digging down and putting joists in sounds very messy.

The building is definately the correct way round.
There is no sign of a door at the back of the house at all.
I suppose it could be possible it was partially re-built maybe when it was converted into one house.

Cow hair? Really. At least it's not cat or dog I suppose.

Has anyone got a wooden floor installed in a cottage that had breathable flagstones? Is the "breathing" of the floor really a big problem?

Thanks again

Darryl

 

[Ian Bond]

I've got a suspended timber floor that was installed in place of a stone flagged, direct-to-earth floor. The remainder of the ground floor is stone flags.

It looks as though it was done along with some other 'improvements' in the late 19th century.

The floor was dug out, and joists laid onto rough stone piers. There's a small vent been put in at the front of the house, and another at the cellar steps to provide some through ventilation.

The boards are in excellent condition, and there's no sign of rot to the joists. I suppose this demonstrates that the additional effort was worth it in the long term. Compare with concrete screeds that force damp elsewhere, leading to damp walls and rotten skirting etc....

 

[Ian Bond]

... so to clarify, I'd go with option A too, providing that I could clean up and retain a large proportion of the original stone tiles, and source replacements for the missing bits.

 

[Penners]

I totally agree with everyone else - option A.

When I lived in the north Cotswolds (near Chipping Norton) our house had a flagstone floor in the hallway. The house had been badly neglected for decades, and every flag was cracked to pieces. So we reluctantly decided it was not rescuable. We bought new Cotswold flagstones, and laid them in the same way that the old were laid - on a dry mix of sand and lime. We finished them with 50/50 linseed oil and white spirit. They never showed any signs of damp.

We lived in the house for 13 years, during which time the new flags developed the beginnings of a patina. They were lovely.

Obviously you would want to re-use all of the intact old flags. You could search the salvo yards for additional ones to make up the full area, or get some new ones cut by a local quarry (here's one ) and decide on the best laying pattern to blend them in with the old.

 

[Cloudscape]

Cow hair? Really. At least it's not cat or dog I suppose.

I'm assured that cow hair was used in my village. This makes sense because the area is mainly grazing land for cows and sheep... there's wouldn't have been enough horses to go round - and the horses probably would have been cold in the winter, with their hair constantly being shaved off. :wink:

 

[Ian Bond]

I'd go with cow hair too - the fields surrounding my house were full of 'em.

Of course, now it is mainly an Asda, carpark and housing estate, so I have to import my cow hair from elsewhere!!!

 

[borischarlton]

When we were sorting our flagstone floor we had to replace a section that had been concreted. We found a whole load in the garden so were really lucky. I guess it was what was done origonally, they just used what was local. It may be worth a dig around.
Rob

 

[darrylmg]

All,

As per usual the responses have been more than helpful.
Thanks ever so much.

I will take a look at sourcing some stones locally. There is a salvo yard nearby.
Sand and lime you say... shouldn't be too difficult.
We have been in the garden recently (before the winter weather) and haven't found anything yet. I know they are very heavy so not easy to transport far.

On a second note, does anyone living in the Glos region know a good lime & hair plasterer?

Thanks again,

Darryl