What Can I Do With My Floor?

[JohnB]

I've just discovered that I haven't been here for 9 months, but I'm back! During that time I've done some more archaeology on the house, assisted by my SDS chisel. I'm discovering more examples of how a bloke in the late 1960s, obviously with plenty of time on his hands, and probably with shares in a cement company, went to great and energetic lengths to bodge up a perfectly good house. Here's my latest find.

This was what was used as the sitting room. A fine example of a plain simple modern box with a pretty fireplace . Apart from the damp patches of course!


This is it after a bit of chiselling, revealing its original use as the kitchen, with a nice hole that would have contained a range. Note the vertical join in the stonework on the left.


This is what was to the left of the fireplace after removal of up to 2.5 inches of cement, a big pile of stone, and lots of stone, bits of brick, broken quarry tiles and cement filling the gap at the back. The original lime plaster is mostly intact. There used to be a lintel across the alcove, but that was long gone. It looks as though it was plastered after shelves were fitted, as it has been filled in where they were later removed. I'd often wondered why this wall was 3ft thick when the others are only 2ft!


So assuming we're still limited to three photos per post, I'll get to the point in a minute.

 

[JohnB]

The floor in the room is concrete. Once I'd dug out the alcove I found I was several inches below floor level. The wall I had just taken out had a row of concrete blocks at the base, laid on what looks like bitumen damp course laid on a smooth surface that I think is original. I suspect it's lime, but haven't investigated yet. The plaster on the wall goes down to this level. I found bits of broken quarry tile, so am guessing these may have been there originally.


Putting the camera in the hole facing into the room, I took this. It looks like a course cement laid roughly and unevenly over the original floor level, then a thin transparent plastic sheet, and two layers of finer cement.


The corner of the floor was damaged, so I chiselled away the top layers of cement and found this. It looks as though the original lime surface is very thin, and is on what I think is a mix of lime and earth, that is quite wet.


Would I be right in guessing that the floor was probably quarry tiles laid on a thin layer of lime mortar on bare earth, maybe with some lime mixed in it?

The bottom of the walls are damp, and the floor level seems a bit higher than it was originally. There's also a concrete path at floor level along the outside that doesn't help, but it's useful for standing scaffolding on at the moment, although it will go eventually.

So what do I do about it? I really don't want to get involved in replacing the floor at the moment, unless it's a very cheap job, which I bet it won't be! Are there any options like leaving the bulk of it down, and replacing it with something breathable around the edges, or do I have to replace the lot or leave it as it is?

If I leave it, what's the best way to build the bit in the alcove up to the current level?

 

[JohnB]

Would these be the remains of the quarry tiles?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

That fireplace opening looks too low to have contained a range.
But a textbook example of what happens when someone stuffs plastic and concrete in where it has no right to be.

 

[JohnB]

That fireplace opening looks too low to have contained a range.
But a textbook example of what happens when someone stuffs plastic and concrete in where it has no right to be.

The right hand side was built up with a low brick wall with a very neat infill of stone set in lime mortar, looking as though it was original or pretty old. Unlike the infilling that was done to close it up! What would have been there if it wasn't a range?