1. #1
    Hi all,

    I thought it might be interesting to start a thread about home improvements. I am sure I'm not the only one currently working on a home project.

    First, a little background info on my current project.

    I'm renting a flat in a village in Germany. Fortunately it was built in 1600. My landlord is 80 years old and cannot do any repairs himself although in the past he did great work. I've seen it. All my life I've wanted to own a house so I could do lots of work on it. Luckily, my landlord let's me do what I want. He pays for the supplies.

    The house is a timber-framed farmstead with three floors.in a village. Unlike the farms in N.A. German farms are in the villages and the field are between. Most houses have a barn in the rear and many of the farm houses have an entrance onto the main street. The entrance is usually through the house and large enough for a team of horses or oxen and a wagon. Sadly, my flat doesn't have this but it's ok. If I buy a house here in Germany I will buy one with a front enterance.

    About a month ago my landlord (Andy) asked me to to finish the third floor which is completely open. The stairs leading up were old and very steep and there was no place to put safer stairs. Andy decided I should move the stairs to another location in order to make something safer. The plan for the upstairs is to make bedrooms. This is not small job as wals had to be torn out and new ones build in other locations.

    About 60 years ago the whole back wall of the house was extended only one meter. Why only one meter? Who knows what they were thinking. It's a bit of a shame cause they did more damage than good. To add, the workmanship and materials used were really poor.

    Another strange thing they did was to build new walls on the inside, leaving a 10cm gap between the new and old. Even worse was the fact that they didn't repair the old which had holes big enough to put your head through. Mind you, the animals (birds, martins, mice, and rats) liked it and you could often hear them running around.

    Anyway, I have a big job and I'm enjoying every minute of it. It's too bad I hadn't thought about taking pics before I started but besides being a work-in-progress, it is also a plan-in-progress.

    So, here are my oldest pics of my kitchen.







    As you can see, I've got a bit to do.

    What's really interesting is to see how things were made 410 years ago. Once the timber frame was in place the gaps were filled with a combination of mud, manure, straw, and branches. Yep, I live in a sophisticated mud hut.

    In the next photo you can se the end of a wall that some idiot in the past cut with a chainsaw. He cut through timbers and the mud filling. Unbelievable.



    My new timbers (18cmx18cmx250cm) arrived two days ago. I had ordered them from a woodmill. Next week I'll begin working the new beams and carve notches and tongues. Because I want to do a combination of restoration and renovation, I build in the same style and fashion as the original timber were built.

    As I look at the old timbers I can just imagine the sounds and smells during the construction of this house. There must have been at least 10 guys working with chisels and hammers and of course various types of axes making a constant rattling noise. There's be a smell of freshly cut wood. I can imagine a team of horses delivering timbers. The pics do not justice to the workmanship and labour that went into this house. All the wood is cut by hand and all the axe marks are still there to prove it. The timbers are held in place with wooden pegs in the tongues and notches. In order to keep the mud in place branches we weaved between the timbers. I'l make a point of getting more details pics if anyone is interested.

    This is where the stairs used to lead.



    I'll also take pics of how the ceiling and floors were made.

    I'll leave this to you guys. If anyone's interested I'll make more detailed pics and post them. I'll also post updates as the work progresses.
    Share this post

  2. #2
    I put a skylight in last week...the woman who lives upstairs is furious.


    But seriously - nice idea, Mr Fritz. Keep us updated.
    Share this post

  3. #3
    Hey Pirsch, I for one would like so see more pics, and see how you progress through this project, because I love old architecture and the construction methods used. I used to work for a crew got a lot of remodeling jobs in San Francisco. Although not coming even remotely close to being as old as what you are working on, many of these remodels and repairs were on old Victorian homes that had been around from the 1850's onwards, and had the older construction methods used. A lot of the repairs were on interior walls that used lath and plaster construction, and sad to say that it was usually torn out and replaced with drywall because it was cheaper to do so.

    I learned a lot by working on these old houses, such as how walls were not as square or straight as they appeared to be to the casual eye. For example, I would find that at different points, the bottom of the wall could be two inches further out than the top, and that the wall undulated slightly and had been 'corrected' by the additional liberal application of plaster to even and fill out the surface of the wall, which happened to be the standard practice of the time.

    Good Luck on your project! It looks like you have made a good deal of headway already, judging by the pictures.
    Share this post

  4. #4
    @ Low Flyer,

    Now I understand why you were sending around the petition to ban women's underwear.

    BTW, I signed it.

    @ Messa,

    I understand. I think it would be blasphemous to use drywall in an old house. Had Andy asked me to use drywall I would have told him I didn't have time for the job.

    I just took some more pics (cell phone). Sorry for the low quality. Keep in mind this is my first time doing this sort of work so although I think it's acceptable, I'm no professional and probably spend more time thinking about how it's done than actually doing it.

    Currently:



    You'll notice I've closed the wall where the door used to be. The tongue and groove on the wall is recycled. Initially it didn't look usuable (years sitting in a barn) but with a little TLC and a lot of elbow grease, it looks good. About the wood is ip18, a fine cement used like plaster. Sorry but I don't know the right word for it. This is the material typically used to cover the mud.

    Currently all the circuit breakers are behind the mud/brick filler left it the upper part of the wall. My intention is to move them (not me) to the back of the new wall. I'll then put in another wall and door behind it, at 45 degree angle, so it can't be seen in from the kitchen. All you'll see it the open framework.



    I've built the ceiling but cannot finish it. In the room in the rear I have to cut out the ceiling and floor for the new stairwell.

    I've been thinking about the space between the chimney and the framework. I decided it was best to build a small cupboard, in the old style (nothing fancy), rather than leave it open. I'm rather happy since that's the first time I build furniture from wood. I haven't built the door yet.

    Here it is from the rear:



    The front:



    In the next pic you can see I put a piece of wood in the wall (right). I had planned to open the wall all they way and leave the timbers open with nothing between. Sadly, there were not timbers. They literally build the wall with a mixture of cement and garbage. So disappointing. So I decided to at least make it look as thought there was a timber support beam. I used one of the runners from the old stairs. Again, lots of elbow grease to make it look right.



    Next is the room in the back which will be the new stairwell.



    The wall facing the camera is the original. It was in pretty bad shape with so many holes. No wonder my electricity bill for 2009 was 2,258 euros. I've repaired it and now the house is much warmer. The wall on the left is totally new. I built it myself using timbers I recycles from walls I've removed. The wals I removed were not original but hundreds of years old.But keping historical value in mind I've made the wall easily removable. All four beams were put in place at the same time and pressed it. I made use of existing notched in the original timbers. It was a b!tch to do this by myself but I got it. Between the timbers in the new wall is 10cm styrofoam and then covered with the ip18. It's cheap and looks like the original.

    Remember I mentioned the ceiling and floor construction? Look at this:



    The main beam is notched and the boards are staggered. It took me a while to figure this out, the how and why. The extra work was necessary for the insulation. Once these ceiling boards were in place the space between the ceiling boards and the upstairs floor boards was filled with twigs, straw, and a very dry soil. I'm not sure exactly what it is but it is hell to breath. To test my suspicions I opened part of the ceiling and this mix fell out. It smelt bad and was extremely dusty. I guess I would be after 400 years too. The dust is so fine it instantly burns the inside of your nose. I had to literally run out of the house to get air.

    You mentioned laths and plaster. How about reeds and plaster?



    I find this interesting. Look at the lines in the mud. This was interior decoration 400 years ago.




    And the last pics for tonight, below is before the elbow grease and sweat,.....



    .... and here is after:



    I really enjoy this work and am learning a lot.
    Share this post

  5. #5
    Hey Pirsch, it looks like you are doing a great job with both your work and your ideas!

    Also, one thing that does concern me is that you're breathing the dust and debris that is coming from between the ceiling and upstairs floor. If there is enough room for mice or rats to set up shop in there, then they will most likely would have done so over the great span of years. These rodent's feces can carry diseases that folks can get by inhalation, and the possibility of mold and fungus could be present as well. I would suggest that you really should be using a paper mask at least.

    Originally posted by Pirschjaeger:
    The main beam is notched and the boards are staggered. It took me a while to figure this out, the how and why. The extra work was necessary for the insulation. Once these ceiling boards were in place the space between the ceiling boards and the upstairs floor boards was filled with twigs, straw, and a very dry soil. I'm not sure exactly what it is but it is hell to breath. To test my suspicions I opened part of the ceiling and this mix fell out. It smelt bad and was extremely dusty. I guess I would be after 400 years too. The dust is so fine it instantly burns the inside of your nose. I had to literally run out of the house to get air.
    Share this post

  6. #6
    I thought about this, not the rodents faeces but the mould and fungus. Whenever I have to deal with that stuff, after my first experience, I do wear a paper mask.

    Who knows what's up there?
    Share this post

  7. #7
    Originally posted by Pirschjaeger:
    I thought about this, not the rodents faeces but the mould and fungus. Whenever I have to deal with that stuff, after my first experience, I do wear a paper mask.

    Who knows what's up there?
    Mostly, you don't want to know whats up there.. I pass on the paper mask and go directly for HEPA masks. My house here is 110 years old.. So, a bit younger than 400.. But, it spent a good chunk of time being heated with coal, and lit with natural gas. When we have had a project phase where we could not avoid gut remodeling HEPA masks were a requirement. When we did the master bedroom we spent a few days covered in a nasty mixture of plaster dust and coal dust. I have to say I appreciate seeing the pics of the internals there.. I have worked on houses that were old enough to have square nails.. But, I have not seen much mortise type joinery outside of my grandparents barn when I was a kid. Back in the olden days buildings tended to get over-engineered.. They also had the advantage of old slow growth timber that is very strong, tight grained and lasts forever. The advantage we have now is that we have more precision on our parts, and they are less likely to change shape after we put them in. So, my current house does have dimensional 2x4's but they are occasionally a bit warped in places. The result is that the walls end up with some variance, thankfully the builders in my part of Milwaukee held to 18 inches on center like it was a religion. 8^) Last year we toured the Winchester House in San Jose.. I had always wondered how the finish carpenters managed to get the molding and trim installed so well despite the lack of laser like straightness in the walls and the lack of real flatness in the plaster. I finally saw the answer there. They had some semi finished rooms from back in the day. Apparently the wall went up, the lathe went up then the trim went up with a gap between it and the plaster then the plaster guys did the plastering and made the plaster work with the trim already in place.. Knowing that has not made re-hanging original trim any less frustrating though..


    BSS_AIJO!
    Share this post

  8. #8
    Originally posted by iroseland01:
    Last year we toured the Winchester House in San Jose.. I had always wondered how the finish carpenters managed to get the molding and trim installed so well despite the lack of laser like straightness in the walls and the lack of real flatness in the plaster. I finally saw the answer there. They had some semi finished rooms from back in the day. Apparently the wall went up, the lathe went up then the trim went up with a gap between it and the plaster then the plaster guys did the plastering and made the plaster work with the trim already in place.. Knowing that has not made re-hanging original trim any less frustrating though..
    The Winchester House is awesome! My wife and I will take friends and family to see the house when they come to visit in Ca. Do you recall seeing the faux embossed and tooled Dutch leather wall coverings that was actually pressed paper? I thought it was actual leather until the tour guide told everybody that it was really paper pulp that was pressed between rollers which left an embossed surface on it. Once it was tacked up on the wall, the surface was stained and sealed. They still have a number of rolls of the stuff still in the outside storage area so you can see what it looked like when the work crews received it.
    Share this post

  9. #9
    Originally posted by Messaschnitzel:
    <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by iroseland01:
    Last year we toured the Winchester House in San Jose.. I had always wondered how the finish carpenters managed to get the molding and trim installed so well despite the lack of laser like straightness in the walls and the lack of real flatness in the plaster. I finally saw the answer there. They had some semi finished rooms from back in the day. Apparently the wall went up, the lathe went up then the trim went up with a gap between it and the plaster then the plaster guys did the plastering and made the plaster work with the trim already in place.. Knowing that has not made re-hanging original trim any less frustrating though..
    The Winchester House is awesome! My wife and I will take friends and family to see the house when they come to visit in Ca. Do you recall seeing the faux embossed and tooled Dutch leather wall coverings that was actually pressed paper? I thought it was actual leather until the tour guide told everybody that it was really paper pulp that was pressed between rollers which left an embossed surface on it. Once it was tacked up on the wall, the surface was stained and sealed. They still have a number of rolls of the stuff still in the outside storage area so you can see what it looked like when the work crews received it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

    anaglypta.. Yes. I am a big fan of the stuff.. I was even more amazed by the huge pile of unused rolls of the stuff in storage there..

    We went on the Winchester house tour about a year ago.. we did the house of seven gables in Salem about 6 months earlier. The Winchester folks won hands down for having their act together. We do these tours because I am a old house geek, and my wife is a costume/old cloths geek. We had a great time at the 7 gables house, mostly because the tour guide was managing to get all of the above wrong.

    BSS_AIJO!
    Share this post

  10. #10
    My home project for last year was building a swingset/play area for my youngest.
    I figured out what I wanted it to look like and then ordered a bunch of wood.
    It is mostly finished, having worked on it off and on over the Summer and will resume in the Spring.
    I will put some photos up shortly.
    Share this post

Page 1 of 7 123 ... Last ►►