Many moons ago, my world was full of damp proofing, timber treatments and cellar tanking which, strangely enough, I found it utterly fascinating. Spores, fungus and dark damp spaces were the order of the day and I saw some very scary looking sub-floors and below ground rooms, I distinctly remember standing in one cellar where it felt a lot like being in the middle of a mushroom. I have a picture somewhere and must dig it out, it was a fabulous dry rot bonanza. The result of all that fungal focus is that I’ve little fear of the things many homeowners and even builders get very jittery about and I love a good cellar, which is why we’ve been asked to have a little play with Project Warwick.
This is a cellar with potential, which luckily doesn’t have any mushroomy horror symptoms. However it did have damp walls, far too small a washroom and was jam packed full of those items everyone just *pops* into the cellar then ends up leaving there until there’s only a thin walkway through the room! The owners of this cellar should be very proud, at least it was clean, bright and tidy….
There was such a difference as soon as the owners cleared out the room, when immediately it became easier to see what we were working with:
But there’s some way to go yet. The boys got to work just before Christmas to ensure that the living room above the cellar was warm for the festive period. The living room was very cold as there was no insulation between this cellar room, the thin lath and plaster ceiling you can see and the stripped floorboards of the living room above. Down came the ceiling, in were laid the new lighting cables in an arc from the doorway from where I took the image above, and then thick Kingspan filled the gaps between the floor joists. New plasterboard formed a new ceiling and by all accounts the living room reached new heights of warmth over Christmas – perfect!
The floor and walls are to have a tanking membrane applied and a useable room will be created over the next few weeks. My clients on all our projects have been very kind and understanding about how difficult Christmas was for me, but it’s time to get the Moregeous Motor back on track, with my pencil, brain and iPhone working overtime this month to get our projects moving quickly in 2011. With my girl watching everything from her new cloud cushion x
Ooh i love a good fungus story! More please. Can I also just add that my underfloor heating is a god send. Fools the brain every time. Slate floors CAN be toasty! x