Restoration in Herefordshire

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This is what we started with. These are Victorian oak blocks of good quality - just very grubby, layered with dirt ingrained polish - usually referred to as 'patina' by antique dealers - and all loose on their hotmelt bitumen bed. The base beneath this block floor is a soft very friable lime and sand screed. It had lost some of its integrity in places, reverting to little more than loose sand. The damp proof membrane had been provided by the hot-melt bitumen which was also the adhesive. We picked up the floor two rows at a time, vacuumed out loose material which we replaced with deeper hot-melt bitumen, then refitted the blocks after cleaning each one back to bare wood. Because the blocks had shrunk and moved around, our refitting closed the gaps between them. As a result we had to make blocks from similar old timber to compensate for the losses and that we could not re-use the cut blocks at the borders.

This is the hallway off the main hall. Under the carpet is the remains of a quarry tiled floor.

The hallway dug out before the fitting of a joisted sub-floor

The long hallway after fitting of the extended floor. No skirtings or decorations as yet.

The same corner as shown at the top of this page, but now restored.