La Studio - December 2021 Task List

 Having finalise some calculations and ordered a few items for delivery the following is the Task List for my brief December Visit of 6 days, hopefully will be able to get all completed and prepared for the longer visit in January 2022.

La Studio - Renovation Video......work so far

The end of the autumn visit has arrived and today was a final tidy up day, in readiness for my return to the UK.

This brief video is summary of the work status so far, as has been indicated in the previous posts and pics.

https://youtu.be/xXMYvwxnurc

I will be back for a brief visit in December, but will return in January 2022 to undertake preparation work on both floors, run the electric cables and install insulated plasterboard to the ceilings and all external walls.

 

La Studio - Oak Beams Sand Blasted NEW!

Don't you love it when a plan comes together!

I had planned, at some point in the project to get my wire brush to the Oak Beams and give them a brush up, but realised it was a lot of manual work.  THEN a few weeks ago I saw another Facebook Post from SAND AND BLAST and decided to get Bobby to do the job, not realising what a fabulous end result could be achieved on my beams.

Not only did Bobby do the business of the downstairs rooms, but he did the four upstairs Purlin Beams and refreshed the old external doors.  I was not planning to use these, but having seen the end result have decided they will now make good Shutters, once I eventually do some more repair to the rotten ends.

These pictures do not do justice to Bobby's work and the end result, but I am delighted and could never have come any where near to matching.

Opposite are the before and after pics that Bobby took of his work and better shows the transformation.

So, work on La Studio is complete for this visit and will commence again in January 2022, when I return for  a month to lay the floor base down and upstairs in advance of laying Underfloor Heating, Tiles and QuickClick upstairs.

La Studio - Hayloft Door Edging

Upon inspection, I  realised that strangely the Back wall side of the new door opening edge had more gaps and stone removed, compared to the front side, which needs stone to be cut to level up.

Today, I concreted in the back edge with stone fillers to ensure strength and once full dried when I return in December, will render in and the whole wall both sides, once the old render covering is removed!

I took all morning and longer than I expected, but it was work that had to be right to find the correct stone pieces and I worked from the bottom to the top.

La Studio - Hayloft Door Opening

Successfully knocked through the 40cm door opening 80cm wide in the central wall to create access to the West Side from the stairs to be installed in the East Side.

Took care and mainly used chisel and mallet, but loosened the big stone with the electric hammer.  

I also installed an old wooden cover to hide the 3 lintels and filled the void with expanded foam.

Have left some of the edge stones until I finish the edges and concrete in, tomorrow.  Will cut off the protruding edge stone to leave an 80cm opening once I return in December and all has set firmly.

La Studio - East Side hayloft door beam

The use of the acrow props has I am sure resulted is the successful knock out of the stone and installation of a new beam in the middle of the wall section and old beam on the east side of the wall, with minimal damage.

I also managed to render in the stone surrounding the beams both sides.

So, tomorrow the central section will be removed to create the door opening,,hopefully!

La Studio - West Side Hayloft door beam installation

 

Managed to complete the West Side support beam insertion, without damage and also installed a right angled steel support at the back of the beam for additional strength.  Once the door opening is complete, will render in the stones above and whole wall.

It proved the benefit of using the acrow props and being very careful removing each stone in turn.

Obviously, the door opening is a bigger task but once the East Side support beam is installed, it should be straight forward...hopefully. 

I finished the week by boarding the floor and marking out the wall for the other side, with the acrow prop in position to support the weight of the Main Beam and the other in position.

So all ready for work on Monday.

La Studio - Hayloft Door Opening

After checking the ground floor levelling work needed and deciding my initial plan was not feasible and a reduced level approach would need to be adopted and I would need to accept a slight level drop from back to front.

I therefore started to plan the work needed to create a door opening on the middle hayloft wall to allow access between both rooms.  I marked out the West Side wall and decided to initially install a existing old beam on this side 100mm deep.  This would avoid me having to clear a support opening through the whole wall and hopefully reduce the risk of collaspe. 

I gently chipped away the render outline and then some of the stones and decided to install an acrow prop on one end to provide support as I remove enough stone, as well and a prop to the central roof beam.

So far so good!

Tomorrow, I will add some cement/concrete to support  the wall end stone that I had to remove to create the room for the end of the beam and let this set, before continuing to remove more stone across the support beam opening.

Gently as you go....

La Studio - Rear Door Opening II

It proved easier today to remove the second half of the wall opening for the rear doors. perhaps something to do it the structure being more open and fragile!

Having removed all the breeze block I installed the upper beam to support the roof, then chipped away the door sides to and removed a couple of stones that obstructed the clear installation of the vertical supports and door side mountings and stone filled most of the gaps that will eventually be sealed with Render on the exterior and some cement inside.

This leaves a 2.1m x 1.0m opening into which slim French Doors will eventually be installed in May 2022, if all goes well. Much of the small crushed bits of the breeze block will add to the rubble at the back to make a small hard standing area.

La Studio - Rear Door Opening

 As is often the case, the best laid plans can go wrong.  A week ago I booked to hire a Stone Cutter over this last weekend, but was informed by Loxam that there was not one available.  So, my good neighbour agreed to loan me his Sthil unit  Today, I planned to start work, but despite my feeble attempts I could not get it started and revert to plan C and use a masonry blade on my have rotary saw.  

SUCCESS, it worked!  I have marked up the exterior breeze block wall and was able to cut through the fist section of the three sections of the blocks to enable a clean lime on the exterior wall.  I realised that it was not necessary to do the same on the interior, as I would have plasterboard to hide the rough edges here.

It took 4 hours of hard work to complete the demolition of 1/2 the wall opening, but proved successful and hopefully will be completed tomorrow.

I will then be able to fit a wooden surround to support the roof and create a clean edge, for accurate measurement of the door(s) to be made to fit.