wood embedded in wall

[Cubist]

Hi cubist ,

I’m in the process of restoring a 1900 house and I’ve come across a few problems. My floors are a mix of concrete & suspended timber ,

Floors are dug up now for 4 months .

Q1 I am considering putting in glass insulation with LimeCrete is it worth the expense & the effort (100sqm) should I do concrete or some sort of hybrid floors .



(My worry with concrete is, the problem below will only get worse .

my internal walls are timber stud , infilled with red brick , problem is timber at base 4”x2 but has narrow in places , it’s wet , soft & rotten in places

Q2 can I cut out sections and fill in with red bricks with lime

Or should I replace with timber ?

Thanks Mike

Hello Mike,
I'm a little pressed for time at present so please forgive the brevity.

In your shoes I would be reluctant to use concrete in those floors and would err toward a limecrete solution as this would be less likely to introduce or induce new issues with damp in the short term and perhaps differential movement in the more distant future.

The rotting timbers need to be dealt with and the brickwork stabilised asap. Your choice is really whether to apply a short term fix that gets the house through the next few years or a repair that gets it through decades. Come what may you need to get the rotten timber out and new support in place for the brickwork above as a priority and I would use bricks for the job rather than inserting new wood.

BTW You're right to use lime mortars in all the repair work - provided the old mortar is lime based. Using OPCs to repair lime mortars in walls is a particularly bad idea.

Hope this helps and cheers for now,
Cubist

 

[Mikeyboy7]

Hello Mike,
I'm a little pressed for time at present so please forgive the brevity.

In your shoes I would be reluctant to use concrete in those floors and would err toward a limecrete solution as this would be less likely to introduce or induce new issues with damp in the short term and perhaps differential movement in the more distant future.

The rotting timbers need to be dealt with and the brickwork stabilised asap. Your choice is really whether to apply a short term fix that gets the house through the next few years or a repair that gets it through decades. Come what may you need to get the rotten timber out and new support in place for the brickwork above as a priority and I would use bricks for the job rather than inserting new wood.

BTW You're right to use lime mortars in all the repair work - provided the old mortar is lime based. Using OPCs to repair lime mortars in walls is a particularly bad idea.

Hope this helps and cheers for now,
Cubist

Thanks Cubists,
Ive attached a few pictures of a sample run I did ( does this look ok ) , I’ve cut down a few bricks & im using hotlime , is there a need to put a strip of dpc under the new bricks ,
In the picture below there is a slate dpc below the old timber but it didn’t seem to work ! What do you think
Thanking you in advance
Mike Murphy

 

[Mikeyboy7]

Hi Cubist ,
The glass type insulation is working out at €6500 alone !
Would it be worth considering doing some kind of hybrid , like the picture below ,placing concrete forms 8” away from the internal walls
or
would it be putting insulation board
Down the foundations stone plinth and use concrete
Thanks Mike

 

[Cubist]

Ive attached a few pictures of a sample run I did ( does this look ok ) , I’ve cut down a few bricks & im using hotlime , is there a need to put a strip of dpc under the new bricks ,
In the picture below there is a slate dpc below the old timber but it didn’t seem to work ! What do you think
Thanking you in advance

From what I can see that looks good. Replacing lost/failed DPC is always the right thing to do. Slate works well but it, like any other DPC, will not do its job if it is 'bridged' by any coating material from below or above.

The glass type insulation is working out at €6500 alone !
Would it be worth considering doing some kind of hybrid , like the picture below ,placing concrete forms 8” away from the internal walls
or
would it be putting insulation board
Down the foundations stone plinth and use concrete

Provided the new floor, irrespective of its type, does not bridge or compromise the DPC then you have options. Frankly a hybrid approach makes a lot of sense to me and there are other members here that I understand have used just such a strategy.

 

[Mikeyboy7]

From what I can see that looks good. Replacing lost/failed DPC is always the right thing to do. Slate works well but it, like any other DPC, will not do its job if it is 'bridged' by any coating material from below or above.

Provided the new floor, irrespective of its type, does not bridge or compromise the DPC then you have options. Frankly a hybrid approach makes a lot of sense to me and there are other members here that I understand have used just such a strategy

 

[Mikeyboy7]

Thanks Cubist ,
Ref. to hybrid limecrete floors

It would be great if anyone out there has had it done & would have any examples as how it would work with UFH piping where the concrete would meet the limecrete
Cheers Mike