Damp solutions

Excavate to expose foundations and stop damp penetration through the walls from above floor level. Insulate with natural external cork render.

Big thanks to Dave for his digger work. Accurate fast and friendly.

I Derender

The first building stripped and ready for pointing with Lime from Mike Wye. Cork insulating render to go over – shame as the stone is really beautiful but it really is the best way to treat these old walls. Oh and yes proof we did have a summer!

JJF – R.I.P.

Today and far away, whilst this joint was being lovingly crafted by John, there was a change in the order of things, an exchange of energy, a release. I know he would have been proud - Rest in Peace John Joseph. 

 

Beam me up Johny: part deux

    

There has been a lot of sanding…

Beam me up Johnny!

        

more wood…

 

We just love this wood… big thanks to Russ and Neil.

Got wood

Well for the last week we have been playing with our wood from Traditional Oak

Neil, founder/owner of Traditional Oak, delivered the oak in person, bright and early on the Monday with a trailer on the back of his Discovery. After all the time with the wet trades of lime mortars and concrete bases it was great to see something with grain. Before Neil had even finished the porridge Vicky made him,  John and Ian (our new apprentice) had started unloading, and the enthusiasm hasn’t waned since.

There is something special working with such beautiful wood… the smell, the textures, and of course the promise of the finished traditional ceiling.

Traditional Oak were great at every stage of the order and we are now going to use them for much more, including oak farmhouse doors, facias, and possibly even for the timber frame for the extension.

Of course there are always learning points – these are ours…

• Specify your tolerance on sizing. Sounds obvious but we forgot and a variance of +/- 10mm between beams means that every pad had to be individually levelled rather than running to a standard around the room. If you want to get pads in before hand then you need to specify +/- 2mm or your floor just wont be level enough.
• Moisture levels. Our oak is great, looks lovely, BUT it seems a bit moist… we would recommend agreeing a moisture level.
• Sanded finish: if you go for a sanded finish then agree the standard of that too… ours was fine but it was not to a level where we could not bother sanding it further… make sure you have a heavy weight sander ready for tidying it up… it’s tough stuff so you  are going to have to start really coarse before you can even think about 100+ grits.
• Routing: good router bits pay dividends and keep going where others overheat and lose their edge. The best ones we found were the diamond tip ones from Axminster Tools