What we found under kitchen floor

[John Tiller]

Hi out there, i have just joined period property after learning so much as a visitor from my frequant visits to this site. My property is an old flint cottage that has sufford from many of the problems many of you have had. over the years we have cured most damp and supported property by building exstensions on 2 sides and removing old crumbling walls etc.
(still keeping the flint into new walls to keep carictor of property) my question today is as we are now on the last room in the house the kitchen, we have removed the concrete floor as it was raised in the centre we know this was put down in 1941 found papers in the floor with date on. the base under concrete is like a mixture of flint brick and clay like hogin it is damp and is a bit soft but supported the original floor we do not realy want to dig it up unless we had to would a damp course layed on sand and a new concrete base say 5" be ok sorry about spelling mistakes not very good on computers

 

[middi]

As you have already removed the concrete floor John, you could dig a bit more and follow this example if you wish to remake the floor with cement.

4" thick concrete slab over a DPM, on 60mm celotex or kingspan insulation laid on 6" clean hardcore well compacted which is top blinded by a 1" sand.

Don't forget to leave enough room for your chosen floor finish.

 

[MdB]

A concrete floor with a DPM which isn't tied into a DPM under your walls may force damp up your walls (the problem I have here). A breathable limecrete floor (which I know nothing about) may be better if you have damp problems.

 

[John Tiller]

Thanks for the replys on this and i have taken on board we will exscavate a few more inches and put a clean layer of hard core down, because the flint siting on the shallow foundating which was below ground is all loose i thought i could run damp course over footing in a few inches before i repoint the flints.
Although it was wet under original concret base when we removed it the kitchen was the room in the house with the least damp.

 

[Moo]

sorry about spelling mistakes not very good on computers

Your computer may not be the same as mine, but I find that, as I type a message, spelling mistakes are underlined in red. It's a great help. Of course, no computer is clever enough (yet?) to know whether it should be their/there or won/one or ate/eight, but most of the time it gets it right.

And if you look at your keyboard you will find, next to the full-stop key, another one for a comma. A very useful aid to communication.

 

[Nemesis]

Actually, unless you load a separate prog which can make difficulties in other areas, spellings are not highlighted when posting messages on zillions of computers in use.

I would consider carefully before putting in any membrane and also using concrete - one of the mst uneco-friendly of products.

I'm not sure how it can be run in a few inches - it either has to be the whole hog or not at all.

I presume all this pointing is being done in lime?

I'm not at all clear about removal of walls keeping the character of the property either - do you mean you are demolishing them and rebuilding them?

 

[Moo]

Actually, unless you load a separate prog which can make difficulties in other areas, spellings are not highlighted when posting messages on zillions of computers in use.

How strange - I wonder why.
If I go to Spelling via the Edit menu it gives me the option of checking spelling as I type. Seems to be built in. Microsoft Word checks my spelling, too.

 

[Nemesis]

In the little box where you post?

Haven't found that it does that as yet, unless google toolbar is installed. Which I have uninstalled.

I think that there are freebie downloads too but all just clutter things up really.

 

[MdB]

Firefox 2.0 has spell checking built into it (it is also free and stops a large number of attacks on your computer compared to IE). If you also install Adblock plus you get rid of most of the adverts on most sites and google toolbar for me is a must (also has a spell checker).

But then I guess we are going a little off topic....

 

[NT]

Opera has the feature too, but I never use it, as you've doubtless noticed Spellcheck's a real nuisance, it keeps alerting m to spelling errors.

If youre going to put concrete down, it makes sense to dig some more and put insulation down, it will save you more in heating costs than the digging and laying of the insulation. Presumably you could reuse your hardcore, or some of it.


NT

 

[Nemesis]

I think we have discussed the alternatives to IE pretty comprehensively in the not so distant past.

I think it's personal choice but on my version of Microsoft I don't get a spell check on PPUK. I use WORD features for well, WORD obviously and for Outlook but it doesn't as far as I am aware work on PPUK posts.

There are progs to download free which can give the spellcheck feature for posting on discussion forums, but it doesn't actually worry me very much, and I have rarely had a problem understanding anyone else's posts.

 

[another_richard]

I am confused here.

The papers that were found, did they suffer from poor spelling or is this topic related to what was found under the floor?
No bones then.

My better half is an Osteologist and was dying to know if there were bones... papers (to me) are just as good though.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Actually, unless you load a separate prog which can make difficulties in other areas, spellings are not highlighted when posting messages on zillions of computers in use.

How strange - I wonder why.
If I go to Spelling via the Edit menu it gives me the option of checking spelling as I type. Seems to be built in. Microsoft Word checks my spelling, too.

I used to have a thing that checked my grammar as well, until it hauled me over the coals as a sexist for typing "Norfolk Broads" in a report I was writing. "Try using 'women'" it said, which if anything is an even more sexist suggestion. :roll:

 

[Moo]

I think I've discovered the answer (to the spelling problem - not to the floor): I have Internet Explorer installed on my machine as well as Safari (quite why, I don't know). I never use Explorer because of security issues, but when I went into PPUK through just now I found that it didn't have the spell-check facility. So it must be something built into Safari. Sorry to steer the thread up a blind alley.

 

[Penners]

it hauled me over the coals as a sexist for typing "Norfolk Broads" in a report I was writing. "Try using 'women'" it said

That lends a whole new slant to the phrase, "Enjoy the Norfolk Broads".

 

[middi]

..... some people went to school and learned about shakespeare.....
..... some went to school and just learned how to shake a spear....

 

[jocelyn plummer]

My Uncle always used to say that his 'typewriter could not spell' !!

 

[Penners]

Lucky for him that Spellcheck didn't exist then. It's rather destroyed that excuse!

I wonder whether anyone still uses a typewriter.

 

[Flyfisher]

I'm amazed that anyone could ever use those old mechanical typewriters. My Mother had one (probably still has it in the attic somewhere) and I can remember how difficult it was to use, both in terms of the force needed on each key and also the length of travel. Very awkward indeed. The IBM electric ones more or less solved this problem, though, and must have been a great leap forward at the time.

 

[Nemesis]

I didn't find them any problem. The problem came later - I still use a computer keyboard as I did a typewriter. They wear out very quickly and I have to keep replacing them. It's the fury with which I type a great deal of course which adds to the erasing of letters etc.