Thursday, October 25, 2007
Doorway revealed
I finally took the ugly clothes of the doorway to reveal the king in all his glory. Et Voila. Alright it's not that pretty, but at least it didn't fall down. There is still the hole above the door to fill where the supporting timber went, but basically it is complete. Once the thing is plasterboarded (or rendered, I haven't decided yet) it will be fine.
Whilst the concrete has been drying, and along with jobs I've been doing for the roofers, I've started the next doorway but through a cob (mud and straw) wall this time. The wall is about 60cm thick and the door will be 90cm by 2m tall, roughly. I started bashing away with a chisel and hammer thinking, hey it's only mud, how difficult can it be. Well after a full day with power tools (an SDS hammer drill) I can tell you this stuff is like concrete. It's far harder and messier than a stone wall any day. The dust gets everywhere and the volume of spoil seems to double, if not triple, in size as it's excavated.
I used a similar technique to the stone doorway by knocking a couple of holes through above the door to insert two supporting timbers. Because the cob is so tough I don't think I'm going to need to shutter up the side of the door and back fill with concrete so I just cut a large slot at the top of the doorway and inserted three large bits of timber for the lintel and cemented them into place.
After they had set for a day or two I then cut through below. The door will be the width of the orange lines eventually, but I broke through first and I'm then going to trim and straighten the edges later. I friend of mine (thanks Chris) did tell me that they actually make a special saw for cutting through cob. It's got very large teeth and he believed a bit like those old fashioned two man tree saws. Fortunately he had a knackered old two man tree saw in the garage which he has lent me to try to trim the edges with. Once I find a sucker to work the other end I'll let you know how it works out.
Anyway, as I was excavating I just shoveled the mud down the staircase. Here's what I ended up with. A huge pile of rubble and god knows how many wheelbarrow trips to clear it all. Note the acro prop downstairs to support the acro prop upstairs.
| 8:40:59 PM
Doorway revealed
