23 April 2017
We have several tasks that need to be done under the house. We need to fabricate and install some kind of skirt wall around the perimeter of the exterior walls (for our sealed crawlspace). We need to install plumbing drain and supply lines. We need to re-wire all the electric. We need to assess the old stack stone piers still under the original part of the house. And we need to jack up the house in certain areas where doors no longer close properly or to support sagging floors.
Here is what most of the crawlspace under the front part of the house looks like now. A hand-hewn sill beam is straight ahead. 2x8 floor joists cut with a mechanical pit saw are on the left and right sides. The clearance between the bottom of the wood structure and the bare dirt is about 8 or 9 inches.
In this area under the foyer, the space is so tight that the old oil heat 6" ducts are trapped between the dirt and the floor joists. You can see the straight, regular, vertical saw marks on the floor joist indicative of a mechanical pit saw.
What this means is, that in order to do the things that need doing, we have to remove a bunch of this dirt out from under the house. Code requires a minimum 4" clearance between the bottom of any HVAC components and the ground below. My requirement is that there be at least enough room for me to roll on my side underneath a floor joist. So I'm shooting for approximately 24" between the ground and the bottom of the floor joists.
When I first envisioned how the restoration project would go, I pictured gutting the entire first floor, not just the kitchen and dining room. This would have made the task of lowering the crawlspace floor much more straight forward. But since we haven't been able to completely empty the house of its contents, and removing, labeling, and dry storing all the beadboard and flooring efficiently is problematic, we're leaving the first floor mostly intact. Which means we get to dig out the crawlspace from under the floor. Yay... In this picture you can see that we've run into a little warren of tunnels and nests.
I also have a fair bit of brick re-pointing to do. This is the outside of the chimney at the end of the kitchen. Someone else has "recently" done some re-pointing already.
When I began researching this, one of the first things I found out was that old bricks are softer and more water permeable than new bricks. And old mortar is MUCH softer, and more water permeable than new mortar. Restoration experts discovered that re-pointing old brick work with new mortar is a bad idea. If you do this, then if the structure settles or shifts, or if the brick work goes through a freeze thaw cycle, then the bricks fail instead of the mortar. And it is much more desirable to have the mortar fail or give than the bricks. There's more about the details here.
I started researching lime mortar and became discouraged about what it seemed like it would take to actually use it. You have to find the proper lime. Then you have to use the proper ratio of lime to sand depending on whether is slaked lime, or lime putty, or hydrated lime. Then after you mix it it has to sit for a while, like days or weeks before you use it. Then you have to keep it damp while it cures for a week or two (covering it with burlap and spraying water on it 3 times a day). Sounded to me like just as much art as science, and a lot of work. I choose instead to use Type K mortar which is still mostly sand, some lime, and a little cement to help it set up and cure faster than just lime. Here's what The Old House Guy had to say about the topic.
Once I started looking for Type K mortar, I couldn't find it. No one I contacted seemed to carry it. A mason I contacted who's been in the business for 45+ years had only seen it once. I did however find the mix ratio for it on the internet. So I decided to try to find the ingredients to mix my own. Eventually I was able to find hydrated Type S lime and white cement at HD Supply in Greensboro. They didn't have the lime on hand but were able to transfer it from another branch.
With the supplies and tools ready, I was eager to forge ahead. First I cleaned out the mortar joints as best I could, including removing any of the previous re-point work that wasn't solid. Then I soaked the brickwork with water so that the bricks wouldn't suck the moisture out of the new mortar and cause it to dry too fast. Then I measured the ingredients and mixed them together dry (10 parts sand, 3 parts lime, 1 part cement, by volume, you know, in case you're curious).
After mixing with water and imitating a re-pointing technique I saw used on YouTube, I have a solid looking chimney. I'm no mason, so it doesn't look too pretty, but I packed the new mortar into the joints as far and as hard as I could. You can see it was harder for me to get the mortar into the short vertical joints without getting it on to the bricks on either side. Hopefully it will last.
Amy has been hard at work in the middle room upstairs removing all traces of the wallpaper. It looks fantastic!
I found this cool old window lock on one of the sashes on the first floor. It seems to be the only one in the house.
Another issue we needed to handle was about 80 gallons of old heating oil in a tank behind the house. On the recommendation from a friend and neighbor, I called Rex Oil in Thomasville which was the company that used to deliver the heating oil to the house. I talked with Marsha who had been good friends with the previous owner, Linda Swofford. She was very pleased to hear that we were restoring the house. They agreed to come and pump out the tank. I haven't decided yet what to do with the tank, but I'm pretty sure we'll at least move it somewhere else on the property.
We have several tasks that need to be done under the house. We need to fabricate and install some kind of skirt wall around the perimeter of the exterior walls (for our sealed crawlspace). We need to install plumbing drain and supply lines. We need to re-wire all the electric. We need to assess the old stack stone piers still under the original part of the house. And we need to jack up the house in certain areas where doors no longer close properly or to support sagging floors.
Here is what most of the crawlspace under the front part of the house looks like now. A hand-hewn sill beam is straight ahead. 2x8 floor joists cut with a mechanical pit saw are on the left and right sides. The clearance between the bottom of the wood structure and the bare dirt is about 8 or 9 inches.
In this area under the foyer, the space is so tight that the old oil heat 6" ducts are trapped between the dirt and the floor joists. You can see the straight, regular, vertical saw marks on the floor joist indicative of a mechanical pit saw.
What this means is, that in order to do the things that need doing, we have to remove a bunch of this dirt out from under the house. Code requires a minimum 4" clearance between the bottom of any HVAC components and the ground below. My requirement is that there be at least enough room for me to roll on my side underneath a floor joist. So I'm shooting for approximately 24" between the ground and the bottom of the floor joists.
When I first envisioned how the restoration project would go, I pictured gutting the entire first floor, not just the kitchen and dining room. This would have made the task of lowering the crawlspace floor much more straight forward. But since we haven't been able to completely empty the house of its contents, and removing, labeling, and dry storing all the beadboard and flooring efficiently is problematic, we're leaving the first floor mostly intact. Which means we get to dig out the crawlspace from under the floor. Yay... In this picture you can see that we've run into a little warren of tunnels and nests.
I also have a fair bit of brick re-pointing to do. This is the outside of the chimney at the end of the kitchen. Someone else has "recently" done some re-pointing already.
When I began researching this, one of the first things I found out was that old bricks are softer and more water permeable than new bricks. And old mortar is MUCH softer, and more water permeable than new mortar. Restoration experts discovered that re-pointing old brick work with new mortar is a bad idea. If you do this, then if the structure settles or shifts, or if the brick work goes through a freeze thaw cycle, then the bricks fail instead of the mortar. And it is much more desirable to have the mortar fail or give than the bricks. There's more about the details here.
I started researching lime mortar and became discouraged about what it seemed like it would take to actually use it. You have to find the proper lime. Then you have to use the proper ratio of lime to sand depending on whether is slaked lime, or lime putty, or hydrated lime. Then after you mix it it has to sit for a while, like days or weeks before you use it. Then you have to keep it damp while it cures for a week or two (covering it with burlap and spraying water on it 3 times a day). Sounded to me like just as much art as science, and a lot of work. I choose instead to use Type K mortar which is still mostly sand, some lime, and a little cement to help it set up and cure faster than just lime. Here's what The Old House Guy had to say about the topic.
Once I started looking for Type K mortar, I couldn't find it. No one I contacted seemed to carry it. A mason I contacted who's been in the business for 45+ years had only seen it once. I did however find the mix ratio for it on the internet. So I decided to try to find the ingredients to mix my own. Eventually I was able to find hydrated Type S lime and white cement at HD Supply in Greensboro. They didn't have the lime on hand but were able to transfer it from another branch.
With the supplies and tools ready, I was eager to forge ahead. First I cleaned out the mortar joints as best I could, including removing any of the previous re-point work that wasn't solid. Then I soaked the brickwork with water so that the bricks wouldn't suck the moisture out of the new mortar and cause it to dry too fast. Then I measured the ingredients and mixed them together dry (10 parts sand, 3 parts lime, 1 part cement, by volume, you know, in case you're curious).
After mixing with water and imitating a re-pointing technique I saw used on YouTube, I have a solid looking chimney. I'm no mason, so it doesn't look too pretty, but I packed the new mortar into the joints as far and as hard as I could. You can see it was harder for me to get the mortar into the short vertical joints without getting it on to the bricks on either side. Hopefully it will last.
Amy has been hard at work in the middle room upstairs removing all traces of the wallpaper. It looks fantastic!
I found this cool old window lock on one of the sashes on the first floor. It seems to be the only one in the house.
Another issue we needed to handle was about 80 gallons of old heating oil in a tank behind the house. On the recommendation from a friend and neighbor, I called Rex Oil in Thomasville which was the company that used to deliver the heating oil to the house. I talked with Marsha who had been good friends with the previous owner, Linda Swofford. She was very pleased to hear that we were restoring the house. They agreed to come and pump out the tank. I haven't decided yet what to do with the tank, but I'm pretty sure we'll at least move it somewhere else on the property.
Comments
Post a Comment