Venting

I've been concerned for quite a while that there isn't adequate sub floor ventilation in the hallway (musty smell), so decided it was the right time to install some air vents.

Having scanned dozens of front doors in the neighbourhood to get an idea of what other people have by way of ventilation, I concluded that our circumstanced seemed fairly unique (couldn't really find other doors with the same type of set up).

As you can see there's a 7" panel at the bottom of the door frame. My assumption was, behind the panel, would be the floor joists and sub floor.

With help from my Dad we removed the panel in the hope of installing the air vents.

To my surprise instead of exposing a sub floor, we discovered that the hallway floor was in fact slightly raised, beneath which was the original stone tiles (not sure why the previous owner decided to cover it).

Having cleared the rubble we began to cut out the door panel to fit the air vents.

Thanks Dad!

To strip or not to strip...Pt. 2

Here's a link to my original post regarding stripping the stairs, To strip or not to strip...

I've recently started-up again and progress is definitely slow.

This is a most laborious, time consuming, and barely rewarding task, but I must say I actually enjoy doing it! What you're looking at here is about 6/7 hours worth of effort. Really!

Gravel

The decking will be set on to gravel; here's what 2 tonnes of pea gravel looks like, in case you're wondering!

Channel dug out to secure brace for retaining gravel.

Next step is to form decking base. Thanks to Adam...again!

We win!

It's been a long and tiring battle, which I'm pleased to announce is over...we win! The stump and iron bars are out of the garden, the mound has been flattened, new fence is in, and preparation is underway to construct the decking. 

The plan was to light a second fire around the tree in the kiln, but that wasn't necessary. The stump had been drilled full of holes to weaken it, and all iron bars cut. Adam split the rest of the wood with the aid of two log splitters and a sledgehammer.

Smoke from the fire pit.

Stummped!

So here's were we left off.

Due to the amount of rubbish we hired a 5 tonne skip, which was only just about big enough. Instead of just putting the 140 (approx) bags of soil/rubble straight into the skip, we emptied most of them to fit more in. 

It took about 1.5 hours to fill the skip. Big thanks to JK, Adam and Deb for their hard work.

The next challenge was how to tackle the remainder of the old sycamore tree (pics of the old tree), which had grown through iron railings. We built a makeshift 'kiln' and filled it with a couple of bags of coal. Here's what it looked like.

The fire roared intensely for hours and was still alight after 24 hours! Once all the rubbish had gone and the fire was at its hottest, it was time to tidy up.

The following day it was time to see the fruits of our labour and dismantle the 'kiln'.

The stump had reduced by half, maybe more, and we could now dig further down to expose beneath its mass. I think the next burn, in addition to drilling holes through the wood, will do the trick and remove the stump completely. If you look closely at the left, right and top of the trunk you can see the iron railings.

Same old, same old, except it's new!

For a look back at the saga so far, click on the links below (this will open a new window):

New for old

Secret garden

Timber!

Bag it up!

Here are the latest pics; thanks to Deb, Adam and Nenah for all their hard work. I can't take any credit for this:

Approx 210 bags filled and counting!