Monday, August 06, 2007
Preparation for sandblasting
Debbie and I spent the day getting the walls and beams ready for sandblasting.
The two walls I want to keep as exposed stonework were covered in a mud and straw render with some parts rendered in a horrible 'concrete' type render. The problem with any type of cement covering is that it traps any damp and prevents the walls from breathing. That is why they use lime mortar and render because older houses do not have a damp proof course. Stripping the render back to the stone was just a matter of chipping away with a hammer whilst trying not to mark the stonework. The more mud removed now the less dust when sandblasting.
The beams are in various states of uglyness. One room has the beams painted with brown gloss paint. I just hope the sandblaster can shift it. In another room the beams had been painted but it looked like with a 'lime' wash. Most of the paint has fallen off but the beams look very stained from soot and tar from the open fire. Also someone had tried to tidy up the beams by filling the gaps between the top of the beams and the floorboards with a cement mortar. That all had to be excavated.
Wall gone
Wall before
To make life a little easier an internal partion wall that was not required was also removed. Apart from the rubble clearance it was only a 10 minute job because it was built of hollow terracotta clay bricks. I just bashed out the bottom of the wall with a sledge hammer and gave it a sharp kick. These red bricks are something they use quite a bit here and I have seen them used alot in Spain. Personally I don't like them because they sound very hard and echoey.
I was hoping to have the sandblasting equipment delivered tomorrow but on the way home to arrange it I found out that the hire shop has run out of sand. He said that he can get a pallet load from Rennes tomorrow then I should be able to start work on Wednesday.
| 8:51:55 PM
brittany
renovation
Preparation for sandblasting
