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THE
FARMHOUSE - Music Room
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Last
year we said we were adding a music room to the farmhouse.
After a short winter break we were back into the swing
of things by March. February was pretty busy with visiting
househunters, and my bones just don't operate properly
below 10 degrees anymore! Perhaps it was also the thought
of removing 2 feet of compacted tuf and paving stones
from the barn floor that was making my body a little
reluctant.
Anyway, one early March morning, we bravely stood at
the entrance armed with spades and wheelbarrow and surveyed
the scene, the only way of getting warm was to start.
Sticking my spade into the ground, shuddering into the
first paving slab by accident, and jarring my elbow
in the process I declared that this was as good a place
as any to start! I won't bore you with the details,
but ten days later we had it all cleared, carefully
ensuring that the large stones which also underpinned
the walls remained untouched. We now had an excavated
barn floor, tuf flooring for the exterior woodstore
and a mountain of stones filling the last remaining
empty barn!
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The
next job was to remove the old barn floor on the first
floor - this had been breakfast, lunch and dinner to
numerous generations of woodworm, who were eventually
going to discover how well a Waterford stove works!
The easiest way to remove it was with a chainsaw, dumping
the whole sorry mess into the ground floor. (Yes I know
I should be wearing a hard hat!) Then followed another
afternoon with the trusty wheelbarrow.
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New
foundations were laid around the circumerence of the
original walls to take the new beton cellulaire walls
and the beams for the raised timber floor. Because the
barn is underground at the rear, the only way to provide
underfloor ventilation was via pipework leading from
above ground level - so no, the pipework is not for
yet another fosse septique! The beton cellulaire was
15cm thick to provide good all around insulation for
the room. It is pretty easy to erect and the walls took
under a week to finish. Although below ground, the rear
wall has always been remarkably dry so in this instance
we dispensed with a drainage channel, although note
that all of the walls had a dpc installed.
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The
floor beams were then set in place (20cm for a 4 metre
span) onto the wall foundations (not forgetting the
dpc), although these were also additionally supported
by pillars in the centre of each alternate beam for
additional rigidity. The base of the beams were then
stapled with a network of galvanised wire (you can also
use chicken wire) to support the 200mm underfloor insulation).
Electrics were completed then the floorboarding began.
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New
flooring was put in on the barn first level (we used
waterproof chipboard sheets 22mm), after dropping three
of the beams by 10 cm. to provide some feature on the
ceiling. The beams were a friendly 50cm apart so proved
no problem for the chipboard apart from the usual problem
of getting the whole think approximately level, and
allowing for the dropped beams with chevron inserts.
To plasterboard in between all of them would have been
too much for the spacious look that we were trying to
achieve, no exposed beams would have made the ceiling
look featureless, so we compromised. In order to reduce
the amount of joint filling and skimming we chose to
mount the plasterboard panels along the length of the
room, (ie in the same direction as the rails which is
not normal) this meant having to be very precise in
locating the rails exactly at the point where the plasterboard
sheets would join. It also meant the suspentes (pictured
left below) had to be spaced away from the dropped beams
in order to take the rails. Ultimately this was all
worth the effort in the time it saved during the finishing
stage and made shaping the plasterboard around the exposed
beams that much easier. Once all the suspentes had been
put in place then the insulation was positioned (yuk)
then finally the rails were clipped into place. A week
of plasterboarding, the usual finishing chores and the
job was completed by mid May - Whoo!
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The
finished article. The pine floor was stained down with
Golden Oak which give a beautiful warm orange glow to
the floor, and, for the first time in this renovation,
we decided to wallpaper the walls, choosing a design
which looks like old plaster - very fitting. Time for
a rest now - maybe - with only one room to go and our
parents deciding not to visit this year. Why then do
I get this feeling of forboding???
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