Insulation on C16 Oak Frame House

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I think it's just down to extreme bodgery.
After 25 yrs of fiddling around with old buildings I have seen the most awful pieces of work - some dating back hundreds of years!!!! You will never know whether the guys doing the work had a clue what they were doing, bodged it up cos they could get away with it, or were told to bodge it by a less than opulent owner. There were cowboy builders around long before cowboys were invented!
Some of the worst examples I have seen are in houses from the georgian period. Usually the finishes are immaculate but what is under the surface is often pretty dreadful! Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

I've seen examples of this where the joists slope the other way - where a lead roof was originally what was there, and another storey added later - but this is a bit odd. I presume that there is no possibility that originally this was a shallow roof with a lead covering, and this a valley for drainage?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mike & Evlyn for suggestions. Take the point about 16c cowboys but can't believe they wouldn;t bother to remove a few inches of ' freshly ' built wall to get the joists level and I've never heard of a lead roof on a farm house of this period. It does give me pause for thought, though - were spirit levels in use at this time ? Plumb lines, yes, but . . . any info available ?
On the subject of 'sagged' beams - several of the major spans in a large barn here, are , conversely, quite 'upbeat' . Was this, I wonder, a cunning way to counteract any future sagging or was it common practice to ' reverse' re-cycled beams that had already developed a 'sag'. What implications would this have for the structural integrity of the beam, I wonder ?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I've been to a couple of houses in recent times which started life as smaller than they are now and became rather more grand and added to in the centuries which had lead roofs, which only required a very gentle slope. In later centuries proper pitched roofs were added, with appropriate timbers and attic space.

Lead may have been more available as a roof covering than other materials in some areas. It's worth considering that possibly there may have been a parapet and then a roof with an inwards slope to a valley and drainage.

Central chimney is interesting - is there any possibility it may have once been on a gable, with the building added to? Just a thought...

 

[Anonymous]

A plumbline attached to one of those giant set-squares that builders make from scrap wood?

 

[Anonymous]

One tool for obtaining the vertical was a piece of wood (roughly the proportions of a modern level) with a long continuous slot in which hung a plumb bob. To obtain level the tradesman squared off this. It is not that long ago that old tradesmen still used this method.
There were all manner of very logical methods eg. I have found small stakes at the top of cob walls that were presumably driven in when approaching finished height and then used a a level reference. Also posts around which stone walls were built. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

I once did a small job where no level was to hand. But a guillotine was. So I cut a piece of card to a precise rectangle, and put a pin through it precisely half way along near the top. Wiggle the pin to make it fit loosely. Now, press pin lightly into wood, and the top of the card will sit level. Line up wood by eye.

Sometimes its far quicker than going to town.

NT

 

[Anonymous]

What about a triangle. Pin in one corner let gravity level it off /

 

[Anonymous]

NT - a decent tradesman would have done it by eye!
Seriouly though - I have worked with some brilliant digger drivers over the years and their eye for level has been uncanny. Never been able to understand how a guy can sit up in a big machine a dig a trench that is all but level. If I did it it would be all over the place. Must be just practise but you really respect and value guys like this. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep! It's practise, I have two... no three ticket... no four tickets.
One for bricklayer.
One for up to and over 40 ton tracked excavtor,
I'ts fun operating at first....... you know 'boy's toys'..
Then after a while 'boring'
One as a swimming pool technican
and One as a plumber. (I forgotten a lot of plumbing technics etc. I have to brush up now and again)

My current ticket, that I am aiming for is spelling and Grammer punctuation.
And how not to get paranoid

;-)