Just moved into our project :-)

[jackpoint]

Howdi all
Isn't life better now it's warmed up a little, the bathroom is nearly ten degrees, positively tropical :lol:

Thinking I would take advantage of the warmth I went to pop some airbricks into the shed wall when I remembered this little tree thingy that was growing near the corner wall and thought perhaps I would whip that out first :roll:
So I pop up some of the cobble/bricks that used to be the drive and get the fork out, start giving the root the good news and low and behold the bricks leap out of the wall :shock:
Now before you all holla 'look behind you' I'm well aware of all that icky cementy stuff where it shouldn't be, but you know what it's like.....will get round to that tomorrow....


Had to go down about three more courses before things settled down. Pullled the trusty bucket of vintage lime mortar out (I love this stuff more every day!) and hey presto...


Onwards and upwards

 

[Zebra]

Good stuff Jackpoint. Good repair there.

 

[jackpoint]

Thank you

More odds and ends this last week or two....

Finally finally put the little chamber on the end of the stormcrate 'drain' on the neighbours side. This gets a slab on top and hopefully won't be seen again. When the garden wall gets rebuilt it will be with an airbrick or two into this chamber and a little drain out at the bottom....Very many thanks to the lovely neighbours who are being so patient with us!


Recap of the rest of the drain/cavity...


Stuck my nose into the 'cavity and it smells fine. The kitchen cupboards that are currently against this wall still have a lingering dampy odour but it's a squillion times better than last year so we reckon it's doing it's job

We've also had a little bash inside the shed - currently doing a patch up on a bit of wall. There's a few of these to sort - looks like it's where internal walls have been removed. The best news for me is that I'm finding it quite easy to keep to the rustic style mortar joints :roll:


One of my lovely Dad-in-law sorting a window.


Sadly it was so knackered and on the p!$$ (the window not the Dad) that there was only one course of action......board it up and move on to the next :lol:


Long may this weather continue!!

 

[Zebra]

Hear hear to patient neighbours, and to rustic looking mortar joints, and to the good weather. Thanks for posting progress Jackpoint, I do enjoy reading this thread.
What's under those slabs then? Won't the slabs cause a bit of splashiness against the wall though?

 

[jackpoint]

Very nice of you to say

Polystorm stormcrates are under the slabs. They have been mentioned on the forum before, so this is where we got the idea - many thanks to whoever it was!

We dug down to the underpinning, lined the trench with a membrane and popped the crates in. Seem to remember we left the house wall bare to the crates in the hope that the nice big air gap would work it's magic....so far so good.
Probably will get some splash but it's got to be better than the 18 or 20 inches of soil that was against the wall, and it doesn't leave next door with an open chicken/dog/oap trap to fall in.
Would love to know what happened to the ground levels over the years as we found an airbrick about fifteen inches down, but the lane we are in has a natural slope to it. Curious!

 

[Zebra]

Aha, I see. Good idea. I went for the OAP trap for mine, but I haven't caught any yet.

 

[Feltwell]

Aha, I see. Good idea. I went for the OAP trap for mine, but I haven't caught any yet.

Be careful - Penners can get very tetchy if he's caught I'm told. Best keep a supply of Kit Kats handy to mollify him with.

 

[jackpoint]

This weeks fun....
Thought we would start with repairing/repointing a brick pillar in the shed. Not very wide and more than likely it was originally part of an interior wall which has been removed, hence the damage to it. To either side of the pillar is a big ol' wooden beam which could well be holding some weight on their broad shoulders.

Start cleaning up at the top of the brick pillar and work down. So far so good. Actually, it's only good until we get to the bottom of the pillar. Turns out the bottom four odd inches of both wooden beams is pretty much rotted through :shock: :lol:

This was all a bit suck it and see.....
Piccy of pillar. The thought was to tie the wooden beams together and hold the bricks above in place with some stuff....whatever was kicking about really
You can probably just see some 12mm threaded bar about four courses up - we put two of these through on this side.



And on the outside we screwed a lump of wood with some angle iron that had the brick courses sat on. View of outside with bricks out - you can see the rotty bottom of the right hand beam too.



Onwards and upwards. Photo of the Heath Robinson cobbled up affair that's holding it all together :lol: Got it all in place with a few props, and with clenched cheeks took a recip saw to the bottom of the beams....


No photo to show yet, but rebuilt under the beams (after treating them to some preservative) with a couple of courses of brick, including some new fangled dpm, and wedged the beams solid with slate. Will pop more photos up when it's a little further along.

Cheers!

 

[jackpoint]

Here we go, rustic inside.....



And a vaguely presentable outside...



Pleased enough, especially if it keeps the roof up

 

[jackpoint]

July last year....


9 months later....

Plenty still to do of course, but at least it has a little more curb appeal :lol:


And for a chuckle, the remains of the eight odd inch square gatepost that was on the corner


Cheers!

 

[LadyArowana]

Well done Jackpoint, a vast improvement. I would be a bit careful about showing off those lovely stable doors though, Ms Zebra might be coming round to spirit one away for "offsite inspection".

 

[jackpoint]

We leave the guard cat on site to repel inspectors. He's not always that effective though :roll:



This mornings little pre work bash.
Before...



After...



It's not held together with mayo, honest

 

[Zebra]

It's not held together with mayo, honest

:lol:

Ms Zebra might be coming round to spirit one away for "offsite inspection".

We leave the guard cat on site to repel inspectors.

I'm not scared of cats that size....

 

[jackpoint]

I'm not scared of cats that size....

Aw, and he thought he was terrifying :lol:

 

[jackpoint]

I'm sure some of you remember The Attack of the Ivy Monster


Well, the damage is currently being remedied by a couple of talented individuals who can actually lay bricks....





Sadly rain stopped play today, but they are cracking on a treat


Very pleased all round!

 

[jackpoint]

What a lovely bit of wall

 

[Zebra]

Ooh. What kind of mortar did you use?

 

[jackpoint]

The corner of the house has been finished in lime, then an expansion joint and the wall itself is made with the modern stuff. Fingers crossed that will be fine...

 

[plasticpigeon]

Very nice English garden wall.

 

[jackpoint]

How's this for dedication on a rainy day (even though it's not raining in the photo) - Our builders are lovely!




Front wall down and new gate posts in...



And some more good news is that we have just been given planning to sort this flat roofed folly out





Yay!