Tuesday 19 November 2013

repairing the bread oven and creating a patio

The large bread oven on the back of the gite has partially collapsed and is letting water into the structure of the building. The plan is to partially dismantle the collapsed sections at the top and create a patio on the base with a concrete roof/floor. This will seal in the oven and solve the damp problems and give the guests their own private area for barbeques etc.

The bread oven viewed from the back of the gite:



After many hours of dismantling stone by stone and brick by brick:


Many tons of earth as well as granite and bricks were removed and now you can see the inside of the oven:


The stone pile getting bigger:


Unfortunately the wall above the oven collapsed as it was supported by the stones we were removing(just missed my foot luckily :) You can now see the Granite lintel of the fireplace inside the main room from the outside! Bit of an oh sh*t moment but we just got on with the task of rebuilding the wall.


The wall rebuilt:


Stones almost removed down to the level of the roof of the bottom oven which will form the floor of the patio:


Next was to construct a shuttering from planks and screw it to the wall so it doesn't move under the weight of the concrete and use a damp proof membrane to keep the building dry..




We engineered a slight slope into the patio to make sure the water drains away from the wall. The concrete was mixed inside the cottage as we couldnt get the ballast and mixer out the back easily. Each mix was handed out of a window opening in the building and poured a bucket at a time.





Reinforcing steel was used to prevent cracking and we also added galvanised fence posts into the mixture so we can add a privacy fence later.


A tent was created from tarps in case it rained overnight. Much to my displeasure a cat walked over the new concrete before it dried :'(







Removing the 2nd floor

The second floor in both rooms needs to come out so all the Oak beams/ joists are to be removed. I bought an electric chainsaw for this purpose as it is more pleasant to use indoors than a 2 stroke saw and just as powerful- it goes through the beams like a hot knife through butter.

We fitted 2 Acro props to each beam and I carefully checked them for nails before cutting so as not to blunt the new saw.


Getting there:

And in the smaller room as well:


We also need to block in the openings for the original fireplace so we mixed up some mortar and tried to match the original stone work with the stones we had available...

Top opening blocked in:

Bottom opening half done:

You can see inside the original bread oven here through the bottom opening. The oven has partially collapsed at the back of the cottage so water drips through when it rains and enters the building via the fireplace that is being blocked in here. The Bread oven repairs are coming soon.


More stonework to block in holes next to the fireplace beam :






Working on the gite

The upper floor in the large room cleared of junk and all floor boards removed:


The doorway between the 2 room has not been supported properly with a decent lintel so it needs to be removed.

After removing the wood at a safe distance the stone work fell away in an arch:

At some point the wall will be rebuilt with a higher doorway and a proper lintel.





Ridelimousin Gite conversion

We have a derelict outbuilding which we have started to convert into a small 1 bedroomed holiday gite. Here is what it looked like before we started work, it already has a new roof with V-lux windows however apart from this it is just a shell. No water, no services, just the walls and the new roof so it will be an interesting project with no outside help.




Currently just used as a wood store...