Filling gaps between flagstones

[JoceAndChris]

Someone has filled the large gaps between the 18th C flags with something pollyfiller-like. Just dislodged a piece with the vacuum cleaner. Underneath it was a long, rounded fragment of bone. Somebody please reassure me that bone was a typical filler back then? :? - before I really do begin to believe I'm living in the old HQ of the Hellfire Club.

I pushed it back. What should I put over the top? I don't want to see bones when I come in the hall. :shock:

 

[Penners]

What should I put over the top?

I should play it safe and put a shroud, some garlic and a crucifix.

 

[Flyfisher]

. . . and sharpen up a few sticks, just in case. :lol:

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

What would I do without the helpful people on PPUK?

xxx

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Joce - how are the chickens coming along? How is Clara?

You have two choices here, unless you want to rake out all of the grout and redo. Firstly you could knock up some lime mortar and grout the gap. Far easier for a small gap is to replace with what is already there (some polyfilla) and then rub grub over it when dry to get a reasonable colour match.

When opting for the second, cross yourself twice and drink some witch-hazel tea, since this will not please the uber-purists. It is however, in my book, a forgivable approach for a small gap, pending re-doing the whole lot!

 

[JoceAndChris]

!!!


Thanks for your concern about the chicks. Clara (who had eaten some Dulux exterior primer whilst I was painting their gate) has made a good recovery- I ignored Robin's advice to use Klingstrip- but all the birds are completely traumatised by a hot air balloon having to make an unplanned landing in the field beind their house. The roaring, the whoooshing, it was terrifying! All humans were fine, BTW.

That's very kind advice about the cracks, thank you. It all needs pulling out, but I simply can't face it this year, so a bit of filler will have to do.

 

[Penners]

Clara (who had eaten some Dulux exterior primer whilst I was painting their gate)

You're lucky it wasn't gloss. That would have finished her.









(Sorry... :roll: )

 

[FamilyWiggs]

To be honest Penners, I thought Matt was goling to post that joke.





Groan

 

[Penners]

Joke?

I'm flattered.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Well I laughed at any rate.

Though I do think you're mean not showing ANY of your house, or giving us a single little smidge about it. Couldn't we at least see a brick or a floorboard, maybe a little description -pleeeese? Don't be shy.

Or is it that you've had enough of period properties and you've gone for a sophisticated urban chrome and glass penthouse apartment with attached pool and valet parking?

 

[Penners]

Or is it that you've had enough of period properties and you've gone for a sophisticated urban chrome and glass penthouse apartment with attached pool and valet parking?

Curses! Unmasked! (Except for your final point - I've never parked a valet in my life).

If you insist, here's a (very boring) external view, taken (by the estate agent) several months ago, before the bindweed and ground elder started to grow. If you want to imagine the interior, think of a pile of cardboard boxes, then multiply that by pi*r^2.

The nappies on the washing line are not mine. I'm old, but not that old.

 

[JoceAndChris]

The nappies on the washing line are not mine. I'm old, but not that old.

Of course we can see they're tea cloths Penners. Mrs P will have been baking that fine chocolate cake again.

Thank you for sharing your lovely house, at last I can have a mental image of where you are - is it only me who finds it strange conversing with disembodied voices - I need at least a house if I can't have a face.

It's a very beautiful house indeed, dignified and simple, and with provision for you to grow splendid hot house blooms for Mrs P's dressing table. Is it early 1800s? And is that the front or the back? A generous provision of garden too; I approve.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Clara (who had eaten some Dulux exterior primer whilst I was painting their gate)

You're lucky it wasn't gloss. That would have finished her.

To be honest Penners, I thought Matt was going to post that joke.

Joke? I'm flattered.

I thought your "gloss" and "finished" post was one of your jokes. Apparently not, which is why you all glossed over my "Matt" comment.

:roll: Never mind.

Thanks for the pics of the house Penners - looks very nice; and the conservatory and a greenhouse; what decadence!

 

[philpjuk100]

Great house penners!now cap of them chimneys install solar panels,wind turbine and heat pump,upvc windows and render it with cement then it will be perfect!(only joking,jealousy is a terrible thing!) phil.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Someone has filled the large gaps between the 18th C flags with something pollyfiller-like. Just dislodged a piece with the vacuum cleaner. Underneath it was a long, rounded fragment of bone. Somebody please reassure me that bone was a typical filler back then? :? - before I really do begin to believe I'm living in the old HQ of the Hellfire Club.

I pushed it back. What should I put over the top? I don't want to see bones when I come in the hall. :shock:

But they did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially in summerhouses, hunting lodges etc:

http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/co...ndgardens/task,image/id,1112/Itemid,292.aspx/
http://www.picturesofengland.com/Wales/Pembrokeshire/Cilwendeg/pictures/1054688

and almshouses:
http://www.stiles-genealogy.co.uk/places/j-wantage.asp (about 3/4 down the page)

should you wish to reinstate this, instead of boring old flags, here's some useful advice:
http://www.rafflesgb.com/html/knuckle_bone_preparation.html

 

[JoceAndChris]

:shock:

Well, we've had all sorts of queries about limecrete, flags and pamments, but no-one has seemed to want to pick up on this old tradition of the knucklebone floor! Yet it's got a lot going for it- hard wearing, breathable ( presumably), cheap, environmentally friendly. And in those pics it's even beautiful.

I like the advice- it's very scientific. You would need to carry out some serious chemical cleaning, even this ancient fragment I've got stinks unbelievably.

Thanks for that Gareth, most interesting.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

:shock:

Well, we've had all sorts of queries about limecrete, flags and pamments, but no-one has seemed to want to pick up on this old tradition of the knucklebone floor! Yet it's got a lot going for it- hard wearing, breathable ( presumably), cheap, environmentally friendly. And in those pics it's even beautiful.

I like the advice- it's very scientific. You would need to carry out some serious chemical cleaning, even this ancient fragment I've got stinks unbelievably.

Thanks for that Gareth, most interesting.

You could probably just get cook to make a huge charitable pot of knucklebone stew for the poor of the parish, make sure the local toothless crones sucked the last bits of sinew off the bones, and voila! a summerhouse floor ready to lay.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:
Hmmm, I think I'd better refrain from saying anything at all - except that some of your talents are perhaps wasted as a CO and you should write satire!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Don't know if you looked round the rest of that knucklebone preparation site, Joce, but they also do (at the risk of reopening an old thread), chicken houses:

http://www.rafflesgb.com/html/gal8.html
http://www.rafflesgb.com/html/chicken_house.html

 

[Penners]

they did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially in summerhouses, hunting lodges etc:....should you wish to reinstate this, instead of boring old flags, here's some useful advice:
http://www.rafflesgb.com/html/knuckle_bone_preparation.html

Bizarre and macabre - but given the death rate among edible beasts, I suppose it's good economic sense to use as much of them as possible.

My old grandad used to say of the pig: "you can use every bit of it except the squeak."