Living room done.

Big Hammer came out and now we're down to earth and stone.  Two of the joists were fine, the other six were rotten.  There was a nice woolly covering of rot under all the parquet flooring as well.  This is what happens when there is the Holy Trinity of:

1. No ventilation.

2. No drainage.

3. Cement.

 

Amen.

Walls have been scrubbed with a wire brush and all the loose material (up to a point - I could keep going and end up outside!) swept up.  Then a borate solution has been sprayed over the walls and floor to kill and prevent more rot.  The dark patch is borate, not rot!

Here is some super-bonny stonework where all the rules have been cast aside and the mason has used magic to keep the wall from coming down:

Oh well, nothing a few wee stones and mortar won't cure.

Next up is the drains - I need to move the french drain I put in earlier this year as it's too far away from the house, and put some linear drains in across the frontback door (the back door we use as the front door, as opposed to the backfront door out front) and along the bathroom wall.  Onwards and upwards, people...

Smash the System, er, living room!

Started in the lounge as this is where the dry rot is.  More than we thought - the whole floor is covered in it!

Before...

...After.  The blue wall was 2-inch terracotta bricks held together with plaster of paris and not tied to the main wall in any way.  Came down very easily.  There is a huge oak lintel above the built-in cupboard and a wee cement one above the uncovered fireplace.  The fireplace has a slate bottom which was covered up with re-enforced cement.  All the wood is rotten because the suspended timber floor is not ventilated and not actually suspended.

Dry rot shot.  Hasn't reached the beams, but is under the floor and in the old lime plaster.  All to go.

So far it's coming along ok and there are no surprises!