Work started on Friday evening to repair the weak areas of the floor. The initial area tackled was the corner on the road side at the west end of the hall. The floorboards close to the wall were in a very poor state, having suffered considerable woodworm damage. The joists had also suffered where they sat on the stone ledge that runs around the inside of the building. The ledge appears to have once had a wooden wall plate on it but this has virtually disintegrated which explains the bouncy floor in places! Our carpenter, Adam Green, is cementing in concrete blocks to support the new joists in areas where the ledges have deteriorated to the extent the joists can’t sit squarely on them.
Work on the first corner was completed on Saturday afternoon and we moved on to the rear corner. With a few boards pulled up, it became apparent that a significant area of the floor would require replacing. Previous repairs had taken place in the distant past and many of the joists were propped up on blocks and stones with sections of timber balanced between them. The original timber wall plate had completely disintegrated.
While the woodwork is in a poor state, it appears to be encouragingly dry. The ends of the joists and the wall plate appear to have been victims of woodworm rather than rot! The replacement joists, kindly donated by Bond Timber, are tanalised for protection against the wicked worm!
