It’s a wet and raining day. The forecast has it wet for probably close on the next two weeks. Fortunately, most of the work will be indoors.
7:30 and Steve arrives, with what must be the only tool he things he’ll need, a small crowbar!. He immediately gets to work removing the lath strips.
We don’t see a lot of the action. But most of the Lath is gone, they’ve cut out most of the floorboards. They’ve tried to save a lot of it, as we will probably need some extra boards when the chimney comes out of the lounge room in phase 2 in a few weeks’ time.
The joists and bearers have come out too. They need to drop the floor down to make room for the cement sheeting and the tiling, this will be much thicker than the floorboards and lino that was there before. They did discuss cutting the existing joists down, but have elected to replace them, probably a lot easier.
The wood is in pretty good condition considering its age. There is a lot of old termite damage, but we expected that. There is a bit of water damage on some of the bearers, as water proofing didn’t seem to be a priority in the early 1900’s
The plumber has made a start too, and has a new main sewer line roughed in under the house.
I get to see under the house for pretty much the 1st time since we’ve owned it. It’s much cleaner and dryer under there than I imagined.
Given the bathroom window is at the back of the carport, especially with the new wider gates I’ve just put on, they can take out a lot of waste via the window and straight into the back of Angus’ ute. They can bring timbers in this way too. So less needs to come through the house.
That is a bonus being able to take out the waste through the window, will probably wave time too.
Good that some of the timber is salvageable in case you need some matching timber for later on.