Plank constructed partition wall

[Abi Cott]

I appear to have a few plank constructed walls on the top floor dating to when the house had an internal toilet and bathroom added.

I'm curious about what date these might be. How they might have been originally finished and how this type if structure generally fairs. The planks appear to be roughly an inch thick and are probably pine (pitch?).

I'm considering stripping back the modern plaster board in one area to expose the structure. I find the way the plaster board overhangs the skirting irritating.

I'd love to hear any views or experience on this.

Plus, anyone got a guess if doing it would require listed building consent?

 

[Flyfisher]

No direct experience but I believe such things are known as 'plank and muntin' partitions or screens.
Some brief info here: http://www.wshc.eu/blog/tag/plank%20and%20muntin.html

It sounds like a lovely feature to have and something of a shame to be covered up with modern plaster. Is it described in the house listing? Possibly not if it has been covered over with plasterboard. Do you have any photos?

I'd guess plasterboard removal would need LBC to be squeaky-clean regarding the listing, though I'd be surprised if obtaining it was a problem. Of course, such things can only be decided by the responsible CO, which is where a friendly and accessible CO willing to pop out for a quick chat about your plans is so valuable.

Bear in mind that an LBC application need not be particularly onerous and is quite easy to DIY with an online submission process. One of our chimney stacks needed some fairly urgent repairs (take down and rebuild actually) and I didn't want to delay while the LBC formalities filtered through the system. Our CO visited to confirm the need to rebuild and we verbally agreed on the details of the job (brick type, lime spec, original pots to be reused etc) and that work could start immediately without waiting for LBC. I then made the LBC application based on our discussion and it came through a month or two after the work was completed. So, urgent works done immediately and paperwork brought up to date later - all very easy if the CO is readily available.

 

[Abi Cott]

I invited the CO round when I bought the property earlier in the summer to discuss the plans I had. I have her email address and I've sent enquiries a couple of times. She is nice and she appears to like my attitude (possibly due to advice from you guys )

It's a drive by listing I think. It's listed as part of a terrace with significant exterior features. No internal features are mentioned.

From what she said about works on a lower floor I would guess I need permission to remove the plaster board to investigate the structure and then a further permission to leave the original structure exposed. That's not a major issue. I'm not in a great hurry. I've given myself until June to get the floor finished. I was just hoping others might confirm or deny my suspicions and to get more info about whether it was worth the effort.

 

[Abi Cott]

That plank and muntin wall is rather nice. I am fairly sure mine will be rather less grand. I will try and get some photos in daylight tomorrow

 

[88v8]

I would definitely uncover it. It's these constructional quirks that differentiate the olde house from a new one.
Thee you could start a debate about what to finish it with
Amazing, now, that pitch pine could have been used for such an 'umble purpose, but then your house does have a rather grand door case, so there was an underlying quality input back in the day.

Ivor

 

[Abi Cott]

Does this link work?

https://periodpennineproperty.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/underneath-the-wallpaper/

 

[Abi Cott]

In which case this might too

The first image shows two of the doorways in the walls I think are wooden.

This is the wall at the top of the stairs that I hope to expose (It's the wall of the loo)

This is the inside of that wall showing a central support moulding.

 

[Abi Cott]

I've found what I think is part of one of the walls reused in some pipe boxing. It looks like 3/4" pine of some description, with a t+g edge and a simple decorative bead at the panel edge. The plank is about 5 1/2" wide.

I guess this is what it might have looked like when new.

It could look pretty cool exposed if it is beaded like that.

 

[skier-hughes]

I've given myself until June to get the floor finished.

I see you have learned well, never ever give a year Most of us though say, "don't worry, it'll be done by Xmas"

 

[Abi Cott]

I've given myself until June to get the floor finished.

I see you have learned well, never ever give a year Most of us though say, "don't worry, it'll be done by Xmas"

I have every intention of throwing money at it until it's finished. My last project took far to long and cost me a marriage. The aim is one floor per year making it a three year project. I'm allowing that it might take 5 years, because after all I have done this before, but it's not a big house and I have disposable income.

 

[88v8]

Yes, match and bead of any size looks good. A tip; if using new wood, paint each strip before you put it up, or at least paint the tongue and let it dry. That way, when it shrinks, and it will, it won't show bare wood and won't need repainting.

Our previous house took thirty years and wasn't finished until a few months before we sold. Indeed, it was only the selling that eventually provided the impetus to finish. Trouble is, for me, once it's liveable other time-stealers are allowed to creep in, or one simply becomes accustomed to walls with no paper, woodwork with no paint and light fittings with no fittings.
Fortunately my wife is very tolerant.

Ivor

 

[Abi Cott]

Complacency was definitely the biggest issue. We just stopped seeing the bare walls and uninhabitable bathroom. The second issue was his determination to do all the work himself when he wasnt really well enough to do so and we had a good wage coming in. There are jobs I will tackle myself, but by and large I'm going to pay for this renovation with the green stuff rather than my own sweat and tears.

 

[fernicarry]

The partition between our family bath and the hallway is T&G but without the decorative bead. I've had to renew almost all of it on the bathroom side unfortunately. Half of it had been got at by woodworm for a good few inches at the bottom and then boarded over, and the other half I had to take down to plumb the towel rail and it didn't really survive that. Finding this on the inside was a nice bonus though:

The house is 1860's, so maybe that's when they got indoor plumbing?

The partition was really lightly built and seems to have been thrown together with whatever they had to hand. Its also not parallel with the hallway as its just strung between two door frames of different widths.

I did find when repairing it that more more recent T&G is all different widths and thicknesses so mixing and matching won't give a very consistent finish. Given how wonky it was to begin with this didn't really matter to me. I also stuffed it with insulation as sound deadening when I put it back together.

-Alan

 

[Abi Cott]

It would be fantastic to find a date like that. The archaeologist in me is champing at the bit to date the "stratigraphy" of this house.

From what I can see the wooden walls are dated to when the indoor toilet was added. They also appear to tie into a major renovation and change of use of the property.

Stylistically the wooden walls architrave is matched to the window cheeks, suggesting the windows were replaced at the same time. I think my front door might relate to the same renovation.

I think this may all relate to a change of use of the property. It was built (I believe) in 1829 as a weaver's cottage and after the local mills became successful it was converted to a shop.

Based on another house in the terrace the windows may have been 'two over two sashes' they are now one over one. The downstairs "shop window" originally had a central stone mullion. When the renovation took place the wood work added appears to be of quite high status. Which I don't think would have been the case for a weavers cottage. There is even a question over whether the 'front door ' was the original primary entrance.

Unfortunately there is a serious chance of woodworm in the panels I hope to reveal as the "known" live wood worm in the property is in the toilet floor. But if I don't get that damn Plaster board off I will never know.

 

[Flyfisher]

Our previous house took thirty years and wasn't finished until a few months before we sold. Indeed, it was only the selling that eventually provided the impetus to finish. Trouble is, for me, once it's liveable other time-stealers are allowed to creep in, or one simply becomes accustomed to walls with no paper, woodwork with no paint and light fittings with no fittings.
Fortunately my wife is very tolerant.

I can so relate to that! :lol:

Trouble is, although we're 10 years in, we have no plans to move so you've got me worried me about that finishing impetus!

 

[88v8]

Yes. The impetus.
Other than the heating, I tended to work on one room at a time. So, after twenty years of DIY, by the turn of the millennium - leaving aside when exactly that was - everything was finished other than the sitting room which I had done 'temporarily in ummm, 1990 ? and the hall/stairs/landing. And the library. Or the bare shell that was to be the library.
The sitting room never got refinished as I intended.
The hall etc was completed in c2003.
The library had become a repository. A convenient store for all those things two cluttermongers thought they wanted but for which we had no space. The room was about 13 x 15', but in the end our clutter including the future library furniture, books, oak panelling and the inheritance from both sets of parents had accumulated such that one could barely open the door. To decorate - indeed, to plaster and wire the room, it had been a bare shell since it was built in 1991 - we moved most of the contents into storage, and today after six years that's where much of it remains, including the oak panelling for which I have no possible use. Each month we shovel out £400 to store stuff much of which we will never be able to accommodate and all of which we patently do not need.
Cluttermongers we are. Can the leopard change its spots or the Nubian his skin?

Ivor

 

[Abi Cott]

I've had a reply from the conservation officer (she's been on holiday) I don't need LBC to strip the Plaster board off

The question now is how to do it without damage to the wood below.

 

[Abi Cott]

A claw hammer and a scraper seems to do the trick if rather messily.

 

[Abi Cott]

Planks with beading and very little sign of woodworm but plenty of nail holes.

 

[Abi Cott]

I thought this was worth an update

Slow progress. I took January and February off from DIY. They are my busiest months at work and I needed to earn the money to pay for all the things I'm not planning on doing myself. The loft insulation is mostly done I'm just awaiting LBC for the structural work and whilst I wait I scrape.