This is the back of my house that was built in 1890...... Looking a little closer at the right hand wooden lintel support, you may be able to see the original saw/arc marks from whence the beams were cut. Now, I often sit in the room you see and look at those marks and think to myself, that must be one hell of a saw to of cut those beams going by those very gradual arcs.... Now, over a distance of 200mm, I get a tangent distance to an arc of 7mm at the widest..... Can anyone put my curiosity to bed by working out the diameter of the saw blade going by the information above please ! I'd love to know
Yes , just a bit more wall if that is possible please... Risers and stretchers.... I'm a complete amateur but curious about 1890. Mine is 1922 and Flemish Bond. Common around here. PS The maths is turning out a bit of a pig - for me at least. Lots of scribbles, sorry as yet no answer.
Ok...... Wonder if 'Kent pegs' being nailed straight to the mortar lines instead of wooden battens is common Around that time ?
Well, the beginning of the answer is somewhere here:- Unfortunately there's no equation for r, which is what we want. I tried assuming r was 2 feet i.e. ~600mm and working backwards from that but my phone calculator won't do the square root of 357,500. Hang on, my mate's a retired Maths teacher... Edit: I know what you mean, Ray, but I think that's more correctly 'chord distance' to arc. Still don't know the bliddy answer, though!
Quite possibly a forty inch diameter blade such as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvrnv5C4k6w
Ear protection? It might have started out as a 40" blade but being proper steel, I bet it has been re-sharpened many times since new...
Looks really nice place you have there Ray like older properties myself tho this one I have here is more of a hobby than a house always something to do instead of my lamps cheers pete
Thanks all so nearly five foot in diameter Yeah I know what you mean, I've had so much fun from...... Hoovering out all the broken down mortar sand slowly filling up my cavity To removing the bottom metre of all my downstairs walls in preparation for silicon injections ( a new DPC ) It's a long haul but we're enjoying it Seem to remember some pics of yours Pete, that's an oldie to with loads of character iirc
Aye, it's not good when your cavity gets full of bits of mortar and sand. I'm just wondering: do you use a small tool to get into your cavity...
ok, here is the dumm blond question: why is there (still) falling sand/mortar into your wall cavity. Over here this only happens when building and when building not carefully enough to prevent stuff falling down. btw we filled our wall cavity with small polystyreen balls which are glued together as they enter the cavity space.
Yeah, Wim, I wondered that too. I guess it was fairly normal when building a cavity wall that brickies were pretty careless and all sorts of stuff would find it's way to the bottom. But once the roof is on, nothing more should find its way in there. I can see why Ray wants it out because it bridges the cavity and allows water to penetrate through to the inner leaf of brickwork and plaster. These days, of course, the cavity is filled with slabs of insulation material as the wall is built. Older houses have the cavity filled as you suggest by blowing self-adhesive poly beads or mineral fibre in there. Over here, there are energy company / government grants available to cover most of, or all, of the cost...
Getting that mortar out of the cavity looks a painstaking job ray cost a fortune to get someone to do that tho if they would. I had a damp bay years ago was great when the silicone when in tho I remember they had to replaster inside with limelite plaster think that was the name some thing do do with salts in the brickwork from the damp over the years well worth doing. This house I have doesnot have any cavity but its pretty dry maybe bit damp in the celler but at 150 year old its never going to be perfect part of its charm. cheers pete
Well, I'm told that it's more to do with the 'Lime mortar' that was used in the day. After some decades, the lime (the equivelant to cement way back then) breaks down slightly and releases its hold/bond on the sand, so it then falls down into the cavity and over the course of nearly 130 years , slowly fills the cavity till it exceeds the height of the DPC ( which we recently renewed via silicon injections) , and as David quite rightly States , it's a great bridge for the rain/water to transport itself across from the outside skin to the inside skin Our silicon injections weren't effective till all the sand was removed well below the DPC . We're dry now though We thought about cavity wall insulation, and we could of got a grant to pay for it owing to the age of the house, but we were so pleased to rid ourselves of the damp problem, that we thought it best left alone Edit: crossed with Petes... Yes Pete, I remember having to spray the bare walls (plaster and render removed) with a salt neutraliser (some sort of acid) via an electric sprayer before the plasterer could rerender and plaster. Nasty stuff, had to wear some pretty heavy duty breathing masks to do it. Yep, was painstaking Pete, had to remove a brick every 3' to get the Hoover coverage
Well, if you got cavity wall insulation installed, it would prevent any more sand and mortar bits falling down and accumulating at the bottom of the cavity (as well as saving you fuel). It would be a shame if you had to go to all the effort and expense of hoovering out your cavities again...
Hi James Pretty much where I was when I had to make a decision Right or wrong, not sure but we chose to leave as is
I wish I'd access to all the information in the article in James' link before I had my cavity wall foam filled. What a rip-off. What keeps the heat in also keeps the heat out. Most of the money saved on heating through the winter is spent on heating through the summer. Like a bleedin' fridge in 'ere on some days. Other than having the heating on, the only other way to warm the house is to open as many doors and windows as possible. Henry.
But some folk like their houses cool in the summer, Henry, hence air-conditioning. I know what you mean though - my heating's back on. Bleedin' summer - pah! If this cool weather keeps up, I'm going to write to that nice Mr Cameron and ask if we impoverished old folk struggling to make ends meet and fight off hypothermia can't have a ******g summer fuel allowance as well as the winter one...
