Loose earth between inside wall and concrete floor

[dsmith]

Hi,

We've just begun renovating our mxed-up cottage parts of which are very old and other bits just quite old. One thing we've discovered after removing skirting and old plaster from the lounge is that the concrete floor stops about an inch and a half before the walls. Where it stop there is just loose earth which was pretty damp and a bit smelly.

My question is whether this is by design? Is there a reason the concrete floor stops before the wall? Why doesn't it butt up against the bricks?

Before we start thinking about fitting new skirting we'd like to sort out this floor problem as it just feels a bit weird leaving the loose earth where it is?

D.

 

[Cloudscape]

The gap was probably a good move to stop the concrete floor sending damp straight up the walls. At the moment, damp can eveporate around the edges of the floor?

 

[dsmith]

Thanks for the reply,

That does make sense, I spent the summer removing a crazy concrete ledge from around the outside of the property that was sending damp striaght up the walls.

But, it still seems weird having loose earth below the new skirting ....

Should we try to cover it at all do you think?

thanks

D.

 

[Tom]

You could take up all the concrete and replace it with a nice breathable floor with underfloor heating

Jaqy

 

[dsmith]

We'd love too, but cost of limecrete etc. and amount of excavation required makes it prohibitive.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[Tom]

We did it in our house and the cost wasn't that much, in the great scheme of things. Excavation is easy....get a mini digger in!!!!

 

[dsmith]

Nice photo

We'd have to take the digger to bits and put it back together again to get it through the tiny doors and windows!

D.

 

[Tom]

This digger had retractable tracks and goes through a 2'6" doorway

 

[dsmith]

Did you live in the property whilst doing this?

Not sure I trust my 5 year old with a life size toy digger in the house ;-)

D.

 

[Tom]

Did you live in the property whilst doing this?

Not sure I trust my 5 year old with a life size toy digger in the house ;-)

D.

:lol: Yeah, that could be a problem!!

We've been in a static caravan on site for a little while now. I think of it as a 2 bedroomed flat on wheels and this Christmas will be our 14th in here :roll:

Jaqy

 

[MdB]

Our two builders dug up and removed the complete concrete floor from our house ground floor mainly by hand in around 2 days. They did work very hard though, we worked it out to be around 30 tonnes....

If you can, I would remove as much of the dirt as you can to give as big an air gap as possible and try to leave the gap so it is ventilated however little. As for exposed dirt, many old houses with wooden floors will just be suspended over earth so it isn't anything unusual.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We did it in our house and the cost wasn't that much, in the great scheme of things. Excavation is easy....get a mini digger in!!!!

Jaqy - he looks a full size digger to me, judging by where he comes to on that great fire place of yours.

Of course it goes without saying that you need to ensure plenty of ventilation if you have engines indoors... :shock:

 

[Tom]

Jaqy - he looks a full size digger to me, judging by where he comes to on that great fire place of yours.

Of course it goes without saying that you need to ensure plenty of ventilation if you have engines indoors... :shock:

No, it's definitely a mini digger....we'd never get a full size through the door!! :shock: The reason it looks so big is that in that picture it's stood on top of what's left of the original floor!! Just after taking that picture, we drove it onto the new lower level and took out the 'big lump' it was sat on

Yes, obviously you need to be aware of fumes!! :shock: We had all the doors and windows open and, most of the time, we had a nice gale blowing through! However, we also had an air mover on the go, too

Jaqy