My man cave build - UK edition

[javadog]

Getting some sort of halfway adequate foundation under the new lower wall extension is going to be quite the trick. Hell, just putting additional stones under there is going to be a challenge. She’s going to get really sick of the tuck-pointing tools before that’s all finished.

I could say the same thing about the front wall of the house but...

[911 Rod]

Your build becomes more epic everyday.

[DonDavis]

Wish I could work alongside the good Cap'n Ahab for a week on his project.

Looks like good work.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by DonDavis

Wish I could work alongside the good Cap'n Ahab for a week on his project.

Looks like good work.

I'll supervise

[DonDavis]

^^^
d'oh!!

[gtvr6_99]

Subscribed - can't wait to see where this journey goes.

Good luck.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Rod, thanks, hope you like my next update, I've gone a all bit retro restoring the stonework on the front of the original house

Don, you're more than welcome to come and help, I'll even buy the beers, Sooner or later can keep us refreshed while pointing out what we should do next

gtvr6, wow , 1st post, I'm honored, thanks for following, the cool stuff will be fitting out the man cave but that stage is a long way off

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Little ahead of schedule so thought I'd post an update on my latest infill job before man cave work resumes ......

Social distancing for me this week was mostly vertical distancing as I've spent the whole week up and down a ladder chatting to all sorts of friendly folk while blocking the sidewalk outside my house.

The excellent craftsmanship of our builder really showed up the state of the original house so only thing for it I needed to restore the stonework on the front of the house to try and match the new man cave build as I'd like the extension and old house to look like one building built in the same century.

This is the style of 'pointing' (mortar joints between the stone) on the new man cave build, it's under flush to the stone and has a smooth, softer look



The pointing on the original house was a real mish mash of quality and style, This is the 70's style of pointing, it's proud of the stone and cut back to expose a harder edge to it



There is no quick and easy way to do the first step of stripping the wall back to bare stone. Using a small hand chisel and hammer I gentle chiseled out the old mortar trying not to damage the stone. Then hand scratching out using the chisel and a paint scraper to remove about an inch deep of the old mortar. Finally all the loose dirt/debris brushed out of each joint to clean everything up ready for new mortar



Not done this before but these are the tools I used for this job. The 4.5" grinder with a diamond blade and diamond covered rotary file was used only on the more stubborn cement/sand mix mortar joint just below the stone window sills



After removing all the old pointing I then went round and chiseled out any crumbly stones, quite impressed after 250-300yrs how few there were and most flaking/crumbling was mostly surface deep so removal was only really required cosmetically.

After day 2 the house looked like this



After 5 long days of chiseling and scraping the house looks like this. The lower section of the wall is beyond just redoing the pointing so there will be some serious action going on down there later.



Full respect to the original builders as they really knew how to build something that stands the test of time. I'd bet the original house will be standing a longtime after our new build.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

April rain showers hampered progress of what is a slow job. I can only remove a small section at a time so I started working from each end. Hoping I meet myself in the middle before it all falls down

Really pleased with how the new old stone blends in with the original old stone, should be hard to tell once it's all done pointed up with fresh mortar



Did the RH section first, then the below LH end which looked much more professional as I refined my method of attack so I had to redo part of the RH to make it look less amateur



House footings are just slabs of stone so the concrete is only there to give me a flat, level base to build up from. This pic shows the mud and rubble middle too

[Evans, Marv]

Beautiful !! And a job for somebody definitely younger than I.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Fell a bit short on my build targets this week but I'm still very pleased with the progress

Yesterday the weather was 73F with 73% humidity, perfect day for just taking it easy in the garden

As I'd booked (long overdue) a farm trailer for a driveway clear up 'easy' wasn't going to be the order of the day. We had a lot to move so Mrs Ahab and I needed help and we employed our children on child slave rates!

After a very long, hard 10hr day we shoveled, wheel barrowed and hand bucketed 25,000lbs or 11,300kgs up into the trailer

Mountain to move



We ran out of steam, we're on our knee's and just couldn't shift the last bit but with most of the mountain gone it has made a big difference



As for my mini restoration project on the front of the house I made a few more holes to speed up progress



Was aiming to finish replacing the weathered stone this week but one more day should have it done. I also decided to wire brush down the whole front so everything weathers up at the same rate. Sill got the top section to finish brushing down before I can redo the mortar joints

Really, really pleased with how the new stone (lower 2ft of the house) blends in with the old stone.

[pete3799]

Awesome job you're doing.
Labor intensive would be an understatement.

[astrochex]

Lordy, that’s remarkable. The stone matching task turned out amazing.

I am continually impressed by your attention to detail, Captain.

[IS300]

Very nice work!!!!

[tevake]

Awesome efforts and fantastic results as usual Capt.

I'm wondering if you can build a small curbside wall, maybe 2'or 2.5' high in front of the house and new building right on the curb to deflect the splashes in the future?

It must feel great to be getting the drive cleared up.

Really stretches the imagination that you are about to start digging out the drive to lower its elevation. Would be mind blowing if we hadn't been following all that has been done to date.
Have you looked into drainage of the new lower drive? Are you and the Mrs planing to tunnel to a nearby river? ��

Cheers Richard

[Captain Ahab Jr]

thanks Pete, working on the house is good work out, like having my own outdoor gym

thanks Paul, I bought the stone rear wall of a dis-used barn from a local estate https://greattewestate.com/ years and years ago. Chances are it came from the same quarry as the stone used on my house.

thanks, IS300,

thanks Richard, good suggestions/questions as always!

Sidewalk is council property so I have no ownership rights to build on it. I'm thinking for some extra protection I may spray the lower section of the walls with a clear water repel-ant coating but I've not done any research into this yet.

We'll need quite a bit of driveway drainage as this area will also be used for the roof rain water soak away.

About tunneling to a nearby river, let me take some pictures before answering this

[Captain Ahab Jr]

An unexpected bonus post here......courtesy of a neighbor giving me an old photo

Picture of my street, taken by me yesterday



Picture of my street, circa 100 yrs ago, my man cave is just behind the little girl and lady in the right of the picture.



The guy in my photo is busy unloading straw as another neighbor is having their thatched roof replaced. Really fascinating watching craftsmen building a roof using centuries old methods and traditional materials

Not man cave stuff but I'll do a 'replacing a thatched roof' post next week when it's done as I think it would be a 1st for PPOT but for now here is a snapshot view from my man cave.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Got some professional help in this week with Mrs Ahab and we completed the pointing (new joint mortar) in 3 days to finish the front of the house.

Phew, am I glad this fill in job is done!

With a bit of trail and error we achieved a close enough match to the smooth, curvy style of pointing on the man cave extension build, just needs a few rainy days and it will weather up nicely

Had a visit from a local stonemason who complained people were ruining the Cotswold's because they aren't using lime mortar 🙄 I bid him a good evening, then to his dismay revealed I use the same 5 sand/1 cement mix every local builder uses on nearly every house in the village before setting the dog and both cats on him!

Considering I replaced the full lower 2ft of stone in around 14 different sections the courses all came out pretty level which was a pleasing surprise to me



Back to my desk job next week 😩 but I'm hoping the next update will contain some 'Shed' action and a progress report on Mrs Ahab's amazing floating garden wall

[Evans, Marv]

Interesting - a thatched roof. Definitely looking forward to seeing that.

[Bill Douglas]

Excellent work their Captain. Where in England is it? I remember seeing roofs being re-thatched in South Africa and thought it looked pretty cool. Water proof and insulating all in one go...