By the end of October we had cleared the main part of the house of most of its contents. We had hoped that removal of the rotting slimy carpets would reveal some ancient flooring, but all we found in most places were vinyl tiles, identical to ones I remember being state of the art in the 60s! The lounge floor carpet hid a damaged quarry tiled floor, covered in concrete in many places. Not old or beautiful enough to want to keep which was a blessing in disguise as the floor was going to have to be dug out and a new floor put in with a good solid damp proof course.
For reassurance, although
very costly, we had an Asbestos check. We were concerned that the walls were possibly Artexed in the 70s/80s when it was a common procedure. The check revealed that the walls we thought were Artexed are in fact concrete and more importantly, safe. The shed and
garage are made from Asbestos cement. The only part for real concern is above the
existing log burner. However, none is of any danger if
left as it is.
Despite the old radiators running, the house is very damp. Some bits of furniture seemed worth keeping, but however much I cleared them of mould and put in the conservatory to dry, the mould returned. The rooms were wetter on the inside than out. Forgetting a previous warning from
Will, I opened the conservatory door to let in some fresher, warmer, drier air. The
bottom of the door stayed in place while the top part opened, the glass slid
down & shattered over the floor! So the door was replaced with a large piece of polythene which did little to hold out the gales.
As the weather became
cooler, water started running down internal walls. Will had managed to fully
dry out one room using a mixture of fan heaters and
dehumidifiers so we could use this as a temporary bedroom. The other rooms were proving difficult to dry so we decided to try out
the existing lounge log burner in an effort to help dry out the house. Will did a smoke
test to check it worked and then put on 2 logs we
found in the lounge and which we hoped were dry enough to use. As he was working on drying the lounge, I worked in the lower part of the house, continuing to remove contents.
Will suddenly shouted me to bring some water. I was about to pour him a glassful but asked "How much?" “A bucketful . . . quick!” Oh! That sort of amount! I filled a bucket, took it to him and he immediately threw it at the log burner and requested more. This was repeated many times. Meanwhile the flue sounded like a steam train and the part which comes out of the back of the log burner and turns a right angle up the chimney, blew off, emitting huge flames and sparks as a rocket does on take off! The noise became deafening. I did not understand the seriousness of this until I heard Will phoning the fire service. The floor we had so patiently spent weeks trying to dry out, was now sitting under about 2 inches of water!
Original log burner - note the dust particles in the air!
Will suddenly shouted me to bring some water. I was about to pour him a glassful but asked "How much?" “A bucketful . . . quick!” Oh! That sort of amount! I filled a bucket, took it to him and he immediately threw it at the log burner and requested more. This was repeated many times. Meanwhile the flue sounded like a steam train and the part which comes out of the back of the log burner and turns a right angle up the chimney, blew off, emitting huge flames and sparks as a rocket does on take off! The noise became deafening. I did not understand the seriousness of this until I heard Will phoning the fire service. The floor we had so patiently spent weeks trying to dry out, was now sitting under about 2 inches of water!
About half an hour later, the fire subsided just as 5 firemen arrived on foot, running up the drive, carrying large containers of equipment. Having realised the context, ie. nobody’s lives at risk and a house not permanently lived in, they had decided to leave the engine about a mile away at the nearest wide point before the road becomes too narrow to drive along without taking the sides off their vehicle or dislodging century old buildings.
Due to recent cutbacks to the fire service, they had lost their narrow access vehicle 2 weeks previously. The nearest one was now situated an hour away on Anglesey which would be of little use if there was a serious house fire along our road. They hoped we had done them a favour proving that potentially lives could have been at risk. They also told us that they had passed a lady back along the road who told them she forgot to tell us not to use the log burner as the previous owners had had trouble using it and hadn’t used it for years!
The fire officers checked out the building to ensure its safety. In doing so, they tore down part of the Asbestos surrounding the flue above the burner and declared the flue faulty and the cause of the chimney fire. Having scrounged teabags sugar and biscuits from neighbours, we stood in the garden chatting for some time before the narrow access vehicle from Anglesey arrived then disappeared again when they realised they were not needed.
My visions of 5 poor firemen running for a mile wearing all their heavy gear, carrying their equipment between them, arriving exhausted up our drive was later diminished as I learned from neighbours they had seen them ‘sauntering’ along chatting, and certainly not running! I also wondered how the fire officer who remained with the fire engine occupied him/herself while the 5 at our house were having such fun.
Post fire fireplace
We were now left with a new problem - how to dispose of the remainder of the now unsafe asbestos above the fireplace!
Next Blog - Work continues and we meet the local goats
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