Carogil Farm: Demolition Time Part 2

Hello dear friends, after a little break I am back with an update on our renovations!

The main floor of our house was built on rough hewn timbers. Many of the timbers still have bark after all of these years! When we first bought our house we thought this was fascinating. Although the timbers were still quite solid after much discussion with the contractor it was decided that we should remove the old timbers and replace them with engineered floor joists. Although we felt a little nostalgic about these old timbers (not really!) replacing them would make it much easier to level the main floor and provide a very solid base for the new flooring.

Let's start with the basement of our old house. There is a low basement under our living room (the south side of our stone house) but just a literal crawl space under the library and old kitchen on the north side. When we moved in we thought that the basement on the south side had a dirt floor but were surprised to find that it was actually a poured concrete floor that was covered in decades' worth of decayed wooden pallets. Because the house is rubblestone construction the basement was often wet and and we believe that previous owners would lay down wooden pallets to walk on.

The clearance between the old timbers and the dirt foundation on the north side of the house was only about 12 inches. We often wondered how someone was able to run ductwork into such a small area and would joke that some poor apprentice was tasked with the job. One of the factors we considered in having the stone house gutted was the discovery that the heating ductwork under this part of the house was corroded. When I was working from home during covid I complained endlessly about how cold the library was and now we know why. The contractor said we were heating a lot of dirt for the mice. :(

The basement on the south side of the house had about 6 feet of clearance. When we bought the house it had an ancient oil fired furnace that often failed. We had a new furnace installed with the heating company working with the ductwork that was already in place. When our furnace stopped working two years ago the repairmen could barely stand in this place. (Although we refer to this as the basement we can only use it as a mechanical room for the furnace, hot water tank, water pressure tank and freezers. It is too damp to use for storage.) As the floorboards were being removed for the renovation we could see what a maze of ductwork had been installed when heating was first installed in the house, probably from the 1950s. The heating contractor now has a wide open space to work with so the new ductwork will be laid out in a more efficient manner.

As the walls were being gutted we had a chance to learn more about the construction of the house. Many posts still had bark on them.

The joists and timbers all have old hand made iron nails.

The joists that supported the second floor were old growth cedar. Many of the joists had been spliced together. Some had sections shaved off of them which is a mystery. The photo above shows the joists that supported the smallest bedroom upstairs which had the most wobbly floor. Why someone cut aways slices from the top of the joists is a mystery!

The demolition of the interior of the house took about 15 days with a crew of 3 people. They used chainsaws to cut the timbers into manageable chunks for removal.

The house looks so different with the floors and walls removed.

This north section of the house needed to have dirt removed to allow for about 18 inches of clearance under the new floor. The workers used shovels and buckets to move the dirt onto a conveyor so it could be loaded onto a utility trailer outside. This area will have insulation installed under the flooring along with new ductwork for the furnace and a new air conditioning unit. This will make a significant difference in heating in the winter.

This is a view of the south side of the house completely gutted. The windows are going to be replaced and we are going to have a new stone fireplace constructed to replace the red brick that I have always disliked.

A view towards the north side of the house.

The water lines and propane lines are still in place as is the furnace. The workers are happily calling out suggestions to us for possible uses of this space. Make it a sound studio!! This should be a party venue! This would be a great workshop!! Let's put in a dance floor!