Day 1963: Knock, Knock ...

Who's there? Your loft .. 

Knocking Through as it's called is when the builders cut through the existing ceiling to make way for the new staircase. It's a big step in the construction and also a really messy undertaking from what I hear. Having taken out a few lathe and plaster walls myself, I can appreciate this.

The guys did a great job of blocking everything off. Dust sheets, tarps and doors closed to minimise any dust going where we don't want it. 

I didn't hear much going on .. but there again I was away in the peace and quiet of my cabin. Poor Care was basically trapped in the office for about 4 hours while the guys were working. I offered to provide food and drink through the window so she didn't starve.

The result though was .. well .. a bit hole in the ceiling. Not much to look at but still pretty cool. 

They managed to take out the brick archway as well - never liked that so glad it's gone. What I didn't appreciate before was how sloped the cieling was. I knew from the previous walls that I built that it wasn't fully level but now I can see the degree of slope. The guys will just overboard with plasterboard and make it level now.  

And since it's still technically winter and we don't have a roof and now with a hole in the ceiling .. it's a little bit chilly in the Hare house at the moment. The other challenge is the noise .. with no insulation between the house and the loft and a bunch of tarps for a roof it was pretty LOUD. The weather once again didn't want to cooperate - a week of what seemed like a hurricane outside did not make for easy sleeping. Why did we decide to do this in the middle of winter again?!!

Day 1963: A patriotic reno day

There is an unfortunate stereotype in the UK that all tradesmen drive white Ford transit vans. And while this is often justified .. good to see today we had a very patriotic convoy parked outside our place. 

Day 1962: A very expensive 60cm

Back in January, I commented on the Leaning Stack of Surbiton, an iconic landmark that unfortunately had a limited shelf life. 

Sometime over the past 124 years, the chimney had seen some movement and developed an inward lean. Also, probably due to this, it was shortened by a few courses of bricks. 

The movement was fine as it had stopped but upon building up the gable, it was realised that the height was too low and would be below the roofline. Proposal 1 was to remove it altogether - which would have been much cheaper but would lose the wood burning fire that we enjoy so much on movie nights (which has been consistently every Friday since Covid started). So that wasn't really an option.

The other option was to completely rebuild the chimney alongside the gable end wall. Good thing we were doing this as the incremental cost was much lower and the end product will be completely flush with the wall. 

Happy days .. except ...

The roof liner was about 60 cm too short now.

Initially I didn't think this was a problem .. maybe stretch it a bit, maybe get an extension. But enter HETAS which basically forbid this - not sure why other than to ensure their installers can make a bit more £££. Anyway it's for fires and I definitely didn't want the liability of trying to go against any regs.

So once the chimney was finished and the pot reinstalled (which looked great), I was on the phone to try and get a new liner. For those who have done this, you'll know this is not cheap. I was a bit ticked at all of this since the liner was less than 4 years old ... grumble.

To save a bit of £££, I agree with the installer that I would remove the old liner. This was a piece of cake and saved me about £200 on the install. I initially thought I'd lift it from the top to avoid mess but gravity had other plans. Liners do get rigid over time and are pretty heavy so this wasn't happening. 

Plan B was to take it out the bottom - much easier in the end. I put a bag over the end to limit the soot falling down and coverings on the floors to keep the mess down there and just dragged it out. 

So new cap, new liner, new chimney. 

And the fire is once again back on. 

So it wasn't a cheap venture .. the additional 60cm essentially cost us about £1,500. Talk about burning money. But it was definitely worth doing. 

Day 1961: Getting ready for the knock through

So the big day is coming soon.. the "knock through". 

This is a major event for a couple of reasons:

1) It's when the room on top becomes linked with the rest of the house and

2) It's when the mess/noise really gets into the house

So not much to do really except prepare for things and wait. Floor coverings down and doors closed.

Day 1960: Windows, balconies and doors! Oh my!

Today the widows and balcony door got installed. It went in so fast, I almost missed it. But happy that they are in now as they really start to show what the room will be like.

View from the outside. Care was asking why they put handles on the outer part. Truth be told, it will be kind of pointless once the scaffolding is out. But currently it's a good entryway for the builders to come in every day and also a great doorway to the temporary balcony. 

And check out the view now from our new bedroom. 

Day 1957: The wall in-between

With the wall nearly complete on the right of the house, it was time to look to the other side and build up the parapet (party) wall. The guys at MTL wanted to build this is brick as well which will look nicer and if our neighbours ever want to build into their loft, should make the work a bit easier than if we tiled / rendered. I've read about issues where dormers were built too close and left no room for maintenance. And the beauty of brick is that it doesn't need any maintenance. 

Here was the starting place. The top of the brick was the height of the original roof at the back. 

What I found most impressive about this work was how the guys built little platforms for themselves. I had no idea how they would do the outside but they managed to string something together which looks to be quite secure. 

The old bricks were taken back and staggered (toothed) to accommodate the new ones. You can see the double skin of the original in the photo below. 

A view from down the street. The wall again will be cement blocked on the inside and bricked on the outside to match the original. You can also get a feel for the additional height we've gained from the dormer. 

And a view from the inside. A bit like a jigsaw puzzle with the combination of bricks and blocks but it looks solid. This will be all covered by plasterboard so the inside handywork will never be seen again.

Next week the guys will come by to finish the second, outer skin of brick (the parts that people will see

Day 1955: Scraping with style ..

Carolyn and the kids were up to their favourite hobby this weekend .. scaping wallpaper. Since MTL is going to be plastering the new loft room, why not get them to continue on to the first floor. We just needed to get things ready for them.

And as usual, we found some real gems under the first layer of wallpaper. Any guesses which decade this came from?

We found a good use for the Covid masks here. 

And who says PPE doesn't have to be cool?!

Ash really got into this activity ..