Painted gutters and down pipes

As the title suggests, today i painted the downpipes and gutters. They look a bit better now, and slowly it's looking closer to being finished

Render - Before and after

A bit crap but not too bad

Hello all.

It's been a little while but as always we have been busy. Hannah has finished her degree and job hunting whilst gigging with her quartet and doing various other events. She met herself coming back the other day.

I have been cracking on with the house. We have now finished the render and the curtains are down, and in summary... it's a bit crap, but not too bad. So it'll do.

I spent a week putting 3 coats of lime wash on each side of the house to get a good coat. This is similar to painting your house in milk. But as it reacts with the air it carbonates and dries white. 3 coats gave a solid covering.

mmm milky

Prior to white washing i got to play with power tools again. As the lime absorbs moisutre, it is common practice to put a seal along the bottom of external render to damp isn't sucked right up the walls. Traditionally this is a cut in the render... so that is what I did. I don't suppose our ancestors would have used an angle grinder, but i did... and enjoyed it. I then filled the gap with burnt sand mastic to seal it and stop water eroding the render.




Cool. Not a lot to talk about regarding lime washing. It stings when it splashes in your eyes and that's about it. It washes out of shorts but not university of Huddersfield t-shirts. There is still cleaning up to be done - washing windows, floors, drainpipes and guttering, but hopefully a chunk of this will be done on Saturday. Here are some pics. Not a bad effort and a significant money saver.

Drains and cleaning, and scrubbing and scraping

Hi,

So the next biggish job is to get the render lime washed. This will take 3 coats and a minimum of 24 hours is needed between coats. But before we do that we need to cleanup and tidy up.

So saturday was spent replacing the downpipe on the rear elevation from the guttering to the drain. This was reasonbily easy but involved putting some wooden blocks on the wall for spacers. Hannah and I then spent the rest of the time scraping windows and window frames, cleaning doors and floors and cleaning up render spray from neighbouring houses.

There is still a bit more to do but we've made a decent start. Neither of us enjoy this kind of work!

here's a picture of our new drain pipe... i also made some modifications to the pipe from the pump and the drainage pip from the kitchen sink/washing machine so they no longer splash up /run down the wall. Splendid.

Float Coat Update #3

Here we go, some photos of the completed float coat...

Float Coat Update #2

Mmm Sleepy.

Just a quick update.

yesterday (Tuesday) I finished the float coat on the front of the house. I wrapped up at about 3pm, leaving time for a quick trip to Womersleys to pick up some lime wash.

Today was always going to be a hard day as I wanted to float coat the entire rear elevation in one go. I started at 8am and got finished at 7pm. I'm pleased it is all done!

It went without a hitch pretty much. The only 2 comical moments were catching my metal float on the flu for the boiler and it ricocheting in to my forehead, and removing the drainpipe without a new one prepared just before the heavens opened :)

I did fix up a temporary drainpipe using a soil waste pipe i had intended to use for the french drain.

Any hoo.

The forecast for the last 3 days has been showers, but until the last hour today there hasn't been a spot of rain. Its been ideal conditions really.

I'll post some pics hopefully tomorrow.

Going now. Bye.

Float coat update #1

well today went very well indeed.

The first of 3 days off work dedicated to getting the top coat of render on and i met my target.

I wanted to get the front rendered from the left side to the drain pipe - that was a suitable stopping place as the join will be hidden, and i accomplished it. I started at about 8am and wrapped up at 7 ish. If there were 2 people on it it would have been a one day job to get it all done but hey hoo.

It was still a lot quicker than anticipated, and while the finish is far from pro, i like the 'character' it. Looks authentic old! The look of a lime render is just..... nice. I'm excited to get it lime washed and get the hessian down so i can take a good look at it!

I decided the lack of hair in the mix made a significant difference to time. It takes about 10 minutes (optimistic) to hair the mortar in the mixture. If you do nine loads a day, that's an hour and a half - that's a lot of time. The top coat doesn't have hair and so I find myself with a bit more of a leisurely pace to attain the same coverage.

Also, The mix for the top coat is 1.5 nosterfield, 1.5 leighton Buzzard and 1 lime. The fine Leighton Buzzard sand makes the mix much more workable, and gives a very nice finish. I had some really nice fatty mixes today which went on like a dream - as they say.

Any hoo. Not taken any snaps today, but will update tomorrow.

The plan is to finish the front - this will be done by about lunch time i hope. The afternoon will be spent prepping the back - something needs to be done with the drain pipe!

Wednesday will be a hardcore day of getting the float coat on the back in one go - but we got the scratch coat on in one day and i think that took 10 mixes, so that is 110 minutes more time I'll have this time around. Also, the drain pipe won't be there - and that was very fiddly to work around. So all good.

It's more than nice having the end in sight. I really hope it looks ok and doesn't fall off - the thought of the wasted effort is dreadful.

Peace Out.

All Legal

Whoop.

We got listed building consent through this week for both the external works (windows, render etc) and the proposed internal works for the summer (fireplace, replaster, pantry etc. So all set to go!

I'm pleased about that as the windows and door are already in and all but the last coat of render is on. The gamble worked then. Phew.

Plaster plaster everywhere, Plaster plaster in my hair

So it has been a little while, but I haven't been slacking!

Last time we spoke I was about to but the first haired scratch coat on the front elevation - well now we have put 2 scratch coats on the front, and a stipple and a scratch coat on the rear. So just the top coat to go now.

I could talk a long time about how what and when, but it isn't really that interesting so I'll summarise.

Hairy

My previous post anticipated rain and sure enough it was miserable for 2 whole days! grim. Wind, rain and cold. But I conquered and got the first scratch coat on. I had hoped it would take a day - it actually took 3 in total. I also suffered some rather nasty lime burns...


Windows and door ways are surprisingly difficult! I have had a bit more practice now though so they're not so challenging.

This was demonstrated at the weekend when a long day on Saturday with Hannah, and a Sunday afternoon/evening (about 6 hours) got the front of the house rendered with a second scratch coat.

First scratch coat on the front - miserable weather.

These mid coats are optional, but the more layers, the stronger the render, and as that side gets the wind and rain, I thought a second coat would be desirable. In contrast, this coat was applied on the hottest day of the year so far. Glorious sunshine! beautiful.

Now, skipping back in time, I spent the Saturday and Sunday of the bank holiday in London engineering a catholic conference in Euston - this earned a little pocket money to stick in the coffers. This left the Monday to put on a stipple coat on the rear side. This took a whole day with the help of Hannah to throw the render on. It always surprises me how long this takes.

Now, back to this weekend. Having completed the front scratch coat, I had taken Monday off work to put a single scratch coat on the rear. This was very successful and although it was a long day (9am-9pm with a trip to Womersleys before that) it was well worth it as we are now at the stage of doing the top coat as a second coat isn't necessary as this elevation is quite sheltered. Brill.

Rear elevation ready for top coat

So, I'm back at work now for a rest! Long days doing physical work is truly knackering! I'm hoping I'll be butch when summer is over!

Right, now here is a little information that I couldn't find in plain english on the internet when doing my research, so on the off chance someone is reading this that might find it useful, here it is...

Stipple coat 1 part NHL 5 to 2 Parts Grit sand (nosterfield)

1st Scratch Coat 1 part NHL 3.5 to 2 parts grit sand (nosterfield)

2nd Scratch Coat 1 part NHL 3.5 to 2.5 parts grit sand (nosterfield)

Top Coat 1 part NHL 3.5 to 1.5 parts grits sand (nosterfield) to 1.5 parts fine sand (Leighton buzzard)

Obviously this is what was right for our house, but varies from building to building.

Now the quantities - as a rough guide for costing a project

for each 25kg bag of lime, you will need 3 x 35kg bags of sand at a ratio of 1:2 (stipple and scratch).

If you are mixing haired lime mortar, you get about 55 square meters coverage from 0.75kg of goat hair at a mortar thickness of about 5 - 7 mm.

With a coat of about 7 mm you get about 15 square meters from 3 bags of lime and 9 bags of sand.

Well, I hope that might be useful to someone, maybe.

Now then, the book of Exodus Chater 5 states - "⁶ That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: ⁷ "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. ^8"

I would highly recommend Womersleys in Heckmondwike, for my natural building products - and perhaps if the Israelites had done a bit of research they might have found this out and wouldn't have been branded 'Lazy' by Pharaoh. I highly recommend them - they know what they are talking about, have a good stock, happy to help and are reasonably priced. Big shout out to Dave and co.

All I can say it's a jolly good job God liked the Hebrews or they would have been stuffed without a reliable building merchant.

So what's next... I'm stocking up on lime and sand ready to take a few days off next week to get the top coat on. Ding dang doo, the end is in sight.