I am going to give the hammer and chisel back to Aussie John. I am going to cut off my hands. I am going to lock myself in the cellar so that I cannot hack away at the colombage with my bloody stumps. I cannot, repeat, CANNOT allow myself to knock anything else down. The dust is driving me potty.
I'm escaping to the Correze this weekend for some jollity involving a party and a trumpet and no dust. When I go back, I'm going to get on with the far more urgent task of applying 3 coats of Xylophene to all the beams. And for a little house, there's a heck of a lot of beams.
It was this that got me started. Remember the post that ended:
There's only on way to find out? Well, this was what I found. Obviously needs a clean and some Xylophene...
I was actually attempting to
CLEAN UP when I had an innocent little poke about and ended up doing this. Jolly good thing, as these beams all need treating.
Now I could be going a little crazy as a result of an overdose of dust but it looks to me like the previous owner has put in a decorative beam and that triangular nonsense isn't actually supporting anything. Hmmm. Paul???
The real insanity is this. I got overexcited at the sight of colombage and started chipping away at a partition
that Paul is taking out anyway! I now have straw and mud at my back when I sit on my 'sofa'. Nice one Lally.
So a little R & R is just what I need. The Correze is further south than the Haute Vienne and generally warmer by about 2 degrees, which in April is definitely a good thing. They'll all be coming to me in the height of summer when they can't move without leaving a trail of sweat behind them.
If you want to daydream check out some of the properties here:
http://www.francehouses.com/
It's an agency run by nice English-speaking Dutch people who've been selling houses in the Limousin for donkeys years and have oodles of experience. Anything is possible when you don't have to pay astronomically high UK prices...
That triangular nonsense could be thumped with a sufficiently large hammer. If you are lucky it is doing nothing except looking ugly. Before thumping, you need to look at the joint between the white beam (decorative??) and the original one... cos if there isn't a joint then taking out the triangle will allow the white beam to flap in the breeze or even fall down ROFL
ReplyDeleteWhat worries me is that the big old beam is only half supported by the upright. I think there may have been something more but when the previous incumbent removed the upper half of the partition he took out some of the support. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, what big beams you have!
ReplyDeleteThis is all jolly domestic. Crikey. I'm impressed x
I shouldn't worry about the upright. If the main beam is on corbels at the ends (pic 2) then I doubt the vertical is structural (it isn't big enough) - you need to look at its joint with the main beam and the floor joist as well. Unless it has a shoulder, or sits in a mortice, it isn't supporting the main beam much if at all. If it was put in to replace a much bigger timber (this is not good news if true) you will be able to see the old joints... BTW parents live in a 600 year old half timbered house which is how I know a little about how old timber framed buildings hang together - the techniques and bodges don't change much over the years :)
ReplyDeleteok - i have had a closer look at the picture.
ReplyDelete1. Decorative beam (the white one) is held up by the pine triangular thing. Do not remove pine triangular thing until you want to remove your ceilings cos I suspect that the decorative beam is only held up at the ends and by paint /paper sticking it to the ceiling; remove the support from one end and the whole lot will fall bringing stuff with it. could be fun though :)
2. Vertical is a support for the edges of the plaster partitions - it is not supporting the main beam; it is too small for that job and if it were supporting the main beam it would be in the middle not on one edge - or it would be much bigger :)