Resthof renovation - on a budget

There were two of the picture with the cat staircase - so already forgiven :)

I think cat staircase is cool.

So, I want to report again. It’s been so long that I first had to reread my own posts. Due to the new baby and a complicated birth as well as the drastic changes a baby brings (Metime has expired) nothing really happened here for a good 5 months (almost) :D
It’s been moving forward again for two months.

But for the update:

Middle purlin: finished, supported – with old oak beams from a historical building supplier

Horizontal barrier: finished – for 4,000 EUR …that was really a bargain (built up and bitumen membrane inserted)

Ceiling in between: started, new support beams and wooden floor decking are in (except for the area where the interior insulation of the gable wall needs to be raised)

Interior insulation: started, will probably be finished the week after next

Drywall partitions: when the wood prices rose so much, we decided, due to the not-so-large price difference anymore, to have the interior walls done with sand-lime bricks by the masons.

Outside service:

As announced, the middle purlin was supported through an outsourced contract by the craftsman company where my husband did his apprenticeship. They also immediately replaced the rotten sole plate and fixed two leaks in the roof area. We were very satisfied with the price/performance ratio… but you do have some advantages when you’re still on good terms with the people.

For the interior insulation, after much back and forth, we switched to another mason (my husband also knows him from the past but didn’t work there) and are now actually having a two-layer build with aerated concrete blocks and insulation wool. Except for the original architect, everyone else (different architect, two masons) preferred a two-layer build instead of Multipor. At first, I had doubts about moisture (condensation from inside) and the support beams. But I wasn’t enthusiastic about Multipor due to the lack of load-bearing capacity. We had to swallow a bitter pill; I hope we made the right decision. For this reason, additional ring beams will also be installed, which will lend some support to the static structure.

We are actually having the crooked outer wall torn down. We didn’t want the wall to get further out of alignment in the end after we finish everything down below. Extra cost around 10,000 EUR. Yay :D First, the new inner shell will be built, then the outer wall (outer shell) will be removed piece by piece and rebuilt.

Own work:

We installed the support beams for the office, partially installed the new wooden ceiling, dismantled old electrical wiring and laid Deltathene where the second shell (outer wall) will go (against moisture). Everything went fairly unspectacularly. When supporting the office floor and installing the new support beams, it was a bit fiddly but otherwise went without incident.

Schedule:

Goal by the end of February: interior insulation and interior walls finished, electrical work at least started, preferably also finished, but I expect that only in March.

Goal by the end of April: electrical work finished, windows installed, further development of the office hopefully mostly completed.

Oh yes: And since we can’t go on vacation, we got a hot pot now... maybe not so smart to throw 5k out without being finished. But I was pouty.

Photos are partly not current but older.

We were advised against using [Dammwolle] between the shells. Now I am unsure again. Old building… it makes you go gray about it. o_O

I find this is exactly what is terrible about interior insulation or renovating an old building: you ask 4 people and get 4 different answers. That might be no different sometimes with new construction, but with old buildings, future tragedies are often predicted. How do you do it? Monolithic with thick stone? I think in that case you are definitely on the safe side (although the Multipor or clay advocates would surely say otherwise). What was the specific argument against wool? We have now decided this way because the mason has carried it out like this several times already and there have been no problems so far.

Yes, the horror scenarios,... Ask two people and you get 4 opinions. We were told that with our wall construction (limestone-sandstone quarry) it is difficult to estimate whether condensation will occur in the wall - and then the insulation would get soaked and you would notice the damage so late that you could almost only tear it down. We were advised to apply the stone tightly to the old wall with insulation plaster.

That also sounds very reasonable. Then you surely choose a stone that can absorb water well and release it again? That would then be similar to the Multipor method.

I have actually already considered whether we should do a test drilling after x years and see how it looks behind it. Although in the worst case, that would of course be a horror scenario. I actually don’t see a big difference regarding condensation water in our construction, except for the support beams – it is old field-burnt brick, which of course cannot be compared to today's clinker, but still, then a ventilated air layer, wool (80mm), aerated concrete (240 cm). But now I’m just being optimistic... actually ;)

Btw: are there pictures of your old building?