Laying flagstones on earth floor

[Flyfisher]

Hi Katie and welcome to the forum.

Last week I took possession of a 19th Century Welsh Cottage.

That, I'd say, is the crux of your post. You've only had the house a couple of weeks and yet ripping up an original-sounding floor in good condition is already on the agenda, even before you have any real idea about how the house works (not a criticism as such, how could you know after just two weeks?).

You've already done a few things to improve the ventilation (the enemy of damp) and admit that things seem to be drying out nicely. Spring has nearly sprung and the weather will be warming up, which will also help - especially if you can get some fresh air wafting through the house during the warmer days.

If you can live with the house for a while, get to know it, understand how it works and give it a bit of time to adjust to you as well, then you might not only be able to conserve the original features of the house but also save yourself a great deal of money by not fixing what isn't actually broken.

 

[meljones35]

I have learnt loads from these posts. We recently purchased a 1802 cottage at auction. We had done our homework and knew it would need everything doing. However we have received conflicting advice about the earth floors that exist downstairs. They are covered in quarry tiles which are in poor condition and the floor undulates badly. It seems from all the posts that the best thing is to lift the tiles, level the floor and replace with tiles. We must be careful not to affect the walls which have no foundations. Thanks for the advice. How do we put it all right without compromising the walls? Any advice?

 

[robgil]

I often wonder what these builders are thinking, If a 2 hundred year or more old building is suffering from extreme damp problems then why not get to the source of it, the original occupants were not stupid , they did not live in very damp conditions, these houses were not always this damp.

If you take your car to the garage because the engine is making a loud rattling noise and the mechanic said the best thing to do is to add sound proofing you would go to a different garage.

I would get a different builder to have a look and i would keep getting different quotes until someone came along who actually knew what they were doing. The problem is a lot of these ''specialists'' dont have much of a clue either.

 

[Moo]

A very warm welcome to the forum, and two requests:

Could you give us some idea, in your profile, about where you live? (Nothing too precise - just a general idea; you may well find that some very knowledgeable and helpful members live in your area).

And - please promise to keep us supplied with progress reports, questions, and pictures. Especially pictures.

xxx M

 

[Moo]

If you take your car to the garage because the engine is making a loud rattling noise and the mechanic said the best thing to do is to add sound proofing you would go to a different garage.

That's absolutely brilliant! We must all memorise it.

 

[meljones35]

Our cottage is just outside of Norwich! It is a long term plan of extension and renovation with a view to downsizing there in retirement. We have submitted plans and Building Regs. and want to start on the work we can undertake ourselves, hence questions about the floor. I think your floor sounds as if it is exactly what we want. I envy the condition yours is in!

 

[MatthewC]

Our cottage is just outside of Norwich!

I daresay Penners and Gareth Hughes will be round soon then (to name but two)

 

[Moo]

You beat me to it, Matthew!

Do let us know when next you'll be in Norwich - we promise to bring our own flasks and sandwiches (and cameras).

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Our cottage is just outside of Norwich!

I daresay Penners and Gareth Hughes will be round soon then (to name but two)

Possibly bearing grant aid, if they are on the right side of Norwich :wink:
And it seems we'll have a historic buildings grant budget next financial year too!

 

[Schoolmarm]

Oooh!!

 

[rebeccac]

our expeiences are in Italy but nothing is that different.

One undulating floor consited of old cement/marble tiles laid on 2cms of cement the earth!Not older than 50 years.We took it up and found the earth wast compacted at all and there were air pockets with huge boulders.We removed it all (forgeting we had no foundations we dug down rather too dep but were lucky -nothing collapsed) and compacted it.We then put a layer of the big rocks / boulders on top of the soil then added some local gravel -not pea stuff.

We got a bit stuck at this stage but now after doing lots of research has decided to use a product known in Italy as stabliemento -it's clay,sand,crushed stone etc and known here as road base.This will go down over compacted gravel then we'll compact more and finally are laying a floor of reclaimed local bricks onto a sand/lime thin base.

In our kitchen we have another floor laid onto earth but this is at least 100 years old and good not undulating but when we arrive after not being in the house over winter there are areas of damp on all the bricks on the outside of the room.We are dealing with this by improving outdoor drainage and drying out the stone walls after removing all the cement. After we've been in the house for a bit and aired it we are still getting weird wet bricks in odd places.Underneath these bricks the soil is bone dry so I'm assuming that th damp is actually in the air and is being pulled down onto the brick that have the right type of surface??

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