Interiors of 18th century small houses

[gothiceye]

Hi,

I hope you can help. We live in a 18th century small terrace house, in the style of labourers cottages and shops. Years before we moved in, it has been modernised and extended, and we are currently in the process of fixing some of the problems left behind by the builders (fuel burner installed so the short flue led directly to a wooden beam, and surrounded by breeze blocks so the chimney couldn't be cleaned...that sort of thing).

We are also keen to make our mark on the property, and have partially knocked down a plasterboard frame stud wall (non-load bearing) in our very small landing/stairs area to improve the space. At the moment, we have left the bottom half as it was - as there is a radiator attached - and have removed a lot of the top to leave three vertical posts. We are considering staining the wood and plastering over the cut areas but are unsure how this would fit in with the period of the property. We don't want whatever we do to look unnecessarily 'fake' and to drop the property value!

Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks

Jo

 

[stickybeak]

.

 

[Nemesis]

Actually you've probably met with no response as many have so much to do and not always a great deal of time to reply.

The woodburner sounds awful - very dangerous indeed.


What you are proposing actually sounds a little odd - I realise you can't move the bottom because of the rad, but is there any reason to leave the stud work at the top?

 

[gothiceye]

Sorry no pics at the moment, but will try to get some over the weekend.

Removing the wood from the stud wall at the top is an option - but when visualising it seems to look a little odd without them - a little too modern...? Just thinking that the exposed woodwork could perhaps reflect the exposed wood we have elsewhere in the property?

Probably sounding really stupid - sorry

 

[Nemesis]

No it's just hard to visualise.

(I love Shropshire.)

 

[NT]

need pics.

NT

 

[Nemesis]

Actually at the mo I need chocolate cake.

But whatever.

 

[Tom]

Oh, that is just SOOOOOOO mean when I'm trying to lose some weight!!! :shock: :shock:

 

[Nemesis]

Low calorie choccie cake.

 

[Penners]

Low calorie choccie cake.

Yeah, right.

Gothiceye - a few comments. Firstly, is the radiator the only reason that you're retaining the bottom section of this wall? That seems a poor reason to do so. Moving the radiator somewhere else is surely not a big deal?

However, if you're keeping the half-wall for other reasons, then IMO you shouldn't try to make it look like part of the original structure of the house. Just make it good as it is - a modern (?) studwork wall clad in plasterboard, and decorate it as such.

Houses develop through time, so they contain old and new details. This will be an "honest" new one.

 

[gothiceye]

We want to keep part of the wall in any case as it is the only thing currently in place to stop people falling down the stairs, so acts as a bannister - moving the radiator isn't a big deal (apart from not wanting to find out what other problems have been hidden away by the builders) but if we are keeping the wall then it seems like a sensible option to keep it where it is.

Would it be a major problem leaving the vertical pieces of wood in place? IMHO it makes the space look a lot nicer than just a half stud wall (with more options of decorating it (eg at christmas)?

 

[Tom]

Could you not cut off the studs and replace them with some nice pieces of oak, or whatever wood is in the rest of the house?

Jaqy

 

[gothiceye]

Hadn't thought of that Will have to see what we can find... I know when they had to put a purlin in before we moved in that it was quite difficult to source/expensive... and what would be the best way of attaching it to a flat surface?

 

[Penners]

If you use green (ie: unseasoned) oak, it shouldn't be too expensive. It may develop a few cracks and slight warps as it dries out, but this won't affect its strength, and is what people call "character"!

To find a supplier of green oak, have look in your Yellow Pages under "Timber Merchants". You'll probably find someone not too far away who will cut you a piece to your specified size.

As regards attaching it to a flat surface, what's the surface made of?

 

[gothiceye]

Thanks - I'll have to have a look to see what we can find. We would need to attach it to the horizontal bits of wood in the remaining part of the stud wall - would brackets work?

 

[Penners]

If you're attaching wood to wood, can't you just pass a screw through the one into the other? If you don't like seeing the screw head, here's a trick.

Buy yourself some 10mm diameter (or thicker) wood dowel and a drill the same diameter as the dowel. Use this to drill a shallow blind hole (perhaps 12 - 15mm deep if it's a fairly thick piece of wood) in the piece of wood through which the screw will pass.

Now choose a smaller drill, the same diameter as the threads of your screw (or a whisker larger) and use this to drill a pilot hole for the screw from the bottom of your blind hole right through the wood.

So now you've got a hole right through the wood that starts out the diameter of your dowel, then narrows down to the diameter of your screw.

Screw the piece of wood into position, making sure that the head of your screw goes right down to the bottom of the wide diameter hole and fixes the wood firmly in place.

Now cut a piece of dowel slightly shorter the the depth of the blind hole. Smear the sides of the hole with wood glue and hammer the dowel into the hole until it is flush with the surface of the wood. It looks much nicer than the screw head.

An alternative to the dowel is to buy yourself a plug cutter, and cut a plug from the same wood as your post. When you hammer the plug into the screw hole be sure to align the grain exactly, and your hole will virtually disappear. However, if you're not an experienced woodworker, the dowel is probably the easier solution.

 

[skier-hughes]

Use Henry Venables in Stafford for your wood.

http://www.henryvenables.com/

Graham

 

[Penners]

Yes, excellent company. But they may be quite a long way from Gothiceye in Shropshire.

 

[skier-hughes]

Depends on what part of Shropshire :wink: They do deliver.

Graham

 

[gothiceye]

Thanks - I'll check out that site

As for attaching it, the bit where the screw head would go is still in the part of the stud wall that remains (does that make sense?) - so I was thinking of some sort of bracket?