Re: Lowering floors in a 1850's cottage.

[Lime]

Many years ago my sister bought a tarted-up 16th century cottage that had the floors lowered.
Every time there was really heavy rain the downstairs flooded.
The water leaked through the walls.
It was made much worse because the floors were impervious concrete.
Using cement in an older property is like repairing the Mona Lisa with dulux gloss.

If you intend to lower the floor make sure the outside soil level is lowered too and that there is sufficient drainage so that the water table remains low.

 

[LB27]

Excellent advice! I'll take it all on board. You are all most helpful to a novice, thanks Lisa.

 

[chuckey]

Schoolmarm, its horses for courses. When these "old" houses were built, the population was substantially shorter then today due to a poor diet. So headroom in artisan dwellings is not suitable for a lot of modern folk. Likewise the tolerance of cold and damp has gone down since the "good old days", with the side effect that longetivty has increased.

The only way (especially with rising fuel costs) is to upgrade the damproofness and insulation, else older properties will become the province of the rich who can afford the heating bills. The material that I can't mention is suitable for certain applications, but you could use a lime / hollow clay ball flooring, if you feel the added cost/inconvenience is worth it.

No one ( except for Dan Cruikshank?) wants to go back to tapers/candles/gas lighting, thats because we demand a higher level of lighting with the convenience of electricity.

Its a personal taste thing, I want an attractive house that has all advantages of a period property without any of the disadvantages. A house is just an object that serves a purpose, its not a religious object, its man-made, it can be moved and modified. I am just saying that some old houses do not really serve their prime function very well, as defined nowadays.
Frank