Attic remodelation advices.

hi Larry,
Yes wall despite it's thickness as a hollow space between the two walls if we can call it, as far as i could find out in mid 1800's there were three schools of construction back here: the stonemason school that dominates in the interior highlands where climate is much more harsh and stone is available in quantity. The Adobe Masters, mosltly a mix of 2500years of roman, barbaric an dislamic construction methods coupled with local resources (and later during the reconquest when muslims where expelled from my country received german, italian and spanish major influences and in less degree from french and british), as well as concepts and methods gathered from our empire. and the last school was same as the one presently in majority in the USA, the master carpenters and wood craftsman that emigrated since 1800 to the states, and while i found out some old wood palaces and aristocratic housing they account probably for 0,5% of the total multi century housing in my country.

Strangelly, despite the abundance of wood specially pine, eucaliptus and oak (walnut and other species being not viable), we are plagued with the pine bug and our pine is of less and lower qulity each year, and all wood housing being made is priced on average 4 to 10x more per square meter in comparison to common masonry housing.


As for electrical i am considering as much as possible keeping the wiring running under or occulted by wood trimming. Of course the amount of outlets and location of all is and must be considered taking attention to layout of furniture an dappliances. I will devoet most of my work in two main areas: master bedroom/office and kitchen/diining room,, remaining rooms will be for visitors and are not priority for the present moment.

Materials ordered and paid. not bad in term of prices, but had to check each item before ordering in person...too much china made trash in the markets...never trusted anything they made, and when i see chinese drywall costing 1/5 of "pladur" brand...well ...china made....surelly takes a lot in composition except gypsum...

Just a correction. I was called on my cell by my supplier and we had a bit of a discussion in site due to i refuse to accept the load of material, i paid for material i hoped was the oen i picked not trash made in china, and if people wish to die using china made crap i don't and all material was returned and money back to my pocket. i don't like being fooled and prefer paying extra for safe material than get one day cancer by having unsafe chinese made stuff in my home. It delays me a week or so, but without problem as it compensates.

Good evening to all, first images of partially demolition and some of them as demanded by interest in how we build here, old way that is.



Found out ,ost of teh wood was attacked by thermites, Pine from Riga, Common Pine all eaten....all wood except roof to burn, and need to desinfest house if i want to put wood in it

Wow Alex you got your work cut out for you. That hole left behind is going to take a lot of fill before you can throw a slab in there. Pity about the wooden floors. Watching with great interest.

Looks like you got some good help getting stuck in there.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

Sorry about delay in repling. House being gutted as much as i can, yesterday was carnival holliday and from sunset to sundown hard work with wife. today after 7h work still managed 2 hours to finish removing hallway tiles...found out some hundreds more under a pile of trash outside the house .

Yes i found out house was made in 3 phases: front of house is younger as they respected the standards by the time of 40cm between floor undersurface and soil., the mid section is almost a decade older as free space is not equal, being almost half, and kitchen is once again made off standards with space being inconstant, either 20 to 45cm in some spaces.

Total fill of house will require at the most 10m3 of debris, and aditional and just for safe side 2 to 3m3 of concrete.

Considering that if i had to pay to others do the demolition, and knowing that paying hourly i already saved 800 euros for 16h labour.

I will post estimates and costs as they keep being accounted, and as soon as i finish up with wife final layout a SU beta design you know women always getting new ideas.

Still have to see how will i aplly drywall on the walls without compromising stability for the years to come, since Adobe and plaster walls are abnormal in behaviour.

Fot the moment i was estimating 4500 euros to be spent in materials+1000 in labour. Saved 1000 in labour and cut materials to 1450 euros by getting goods best prices after searching the web, all same brands.

Sorry no updates, a small 300km trip south to spend weekend in my wife parents flat in Lisbon, wasted a morning checking tiles, and exorbitant prices, but cleaning up some design lines.

I post a basic image with dimensions of land and of what is.

in red is no construction possible
gray already built
yellow is green area.

Sorry weather has been bad and a lot work in shop for schools and county book fair demanded a lot of hours and limited me to saturday and roughly 2h each day in the house but a lot work done.

Filling of space left after removing wood of floors was filled with the usual method, 50%earth, 40% smahed bricks and rocks, 10%sand and gravel, in this order.

Alone for much of the heavy work i found out that some limitations in the county zoning and layout are not apliable to this building. As so i am not only filling gaps but also isolating and aplied already some cement (weber.rev tradition).

Still struggling on door and windows new placement, and correction of the ceilings in the kitchen and hallway.

Budget for first stage was 2500 euros (removing and filling floors) i cut manpower and saved 2400 euros. Labour is expensive and why pay if i could do it even if i took a bit more...

Concrete is being made in site as costs can be cut by 70% if i choose making it instead of ordering it.

Sunday was R&R with wife and nieces on the beach for soem coffee

Alex looks like there is something wrong with your attachments. Cannot see them. ANychance a mod can take a look it might just be something small.