Locked Out Of Heaven

Humidity in Old Houses - part 4

If you're new here or missed the beggining of this series, you might want to see how it all began here and there or check the three solutions I found about rising damp.

Si vous débarquez sans prévenir sur cet article, peut-être voulez-vous voir comment tout a commencé: ici et là. Vous pouvez aussi lire les trois solutions contre l'humidité ascensionnelle sur lesquelles j'avais hésité.

Most of you guessed wrong about the solution I chose (my mom guessed right - granted,  she already knew). Of course, I went with the messier solution: tearing down the whole floor and installing a proper draining system.

J'ai choisi la solution la plus poussiéreuse et longue: défaire tout le sol et installer un drainage.

So the downstairs was evacuated to the "atelier" aka former garage.

L'ensemble des meubles et affaires du rez-de-chaussée a donc été stocké dans l'atelier-garage, le temps d'un été.

Then, the workers tore the floor of the house. This was not a DIY project, in case I need to mention it. Who wants to eat in my dining-room below? Isn't it cozy?

La mince dalle ciment a été éliminée au marteau-piqueur. Pour ceux qui se posent la question, je n'ai pas fait ça toute seule... J'avais embauché des ouvriers: il y a des limites!

Here you can see the trench that was made for draining. One was made in the house and one outside. Admire my patio!

Deux drains ont été posés : un à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur... Donc ma terrasse aussi a été partiellement détruite cet été-là.

A hole was made in the stone wall for the drain to evacuate water outside the house.

Un petit hérisson de gravier et un peu de polystyrène, puis il n'y avait plus qu'à couler la nouvelle dalle.

After the new slab was finished, it almost looked like a home, don't you think?

It was a very difficult summer, I admit, but my reward was when they began laying the tiles. And this is how the dining-room now looks like. I'm sorry about the light. We have terrible weather today and I just noticed I had no picture of the dining-room, vey un-bloggy of me. I might update the picture if we have fairer weather next week.

Picture taken from the same place as the one above!

Now, the good news is that the draining system is efficient.

La bonne nouvelle est que le drainage est efficace. La mauvaise? L'entreprise a fait faillite avant la fin des travaux! Heureusement le sol était posé et une partie des placo remontés... Mais toutes les finitions restent à faire!

The bad news? You won't believe it! Right after the workers finished the tiles and were half-way putting the new walls, the contractor went bankrupt. So the workers weren't paid anymore. They were nice enough to come back and put cheap baseboard (not the one I had chosen!) and to finish the drywalls  and insulation in the living-room (the ones in the dining-room/kitchen still needs to be redone with proper insulation). None of the moulding that I had envisioned was done. It was a hard blow. But still, I was just lucky that it didn't happen earlier when I had no floor at all!!! Also the money invested in the draining system was the one I had for redoing the kitchen... So the kitchen is still in its more or less original state...

I still have plenty projects for the dining-room which is far from done... Maybe you can see square of paints in different places on the walls... I'm testing colours. I'm also thinking to do something with the table and chairs! What would you do with them?

Thanks for stopping by at The Little White House while it was in such an awful state. I hope you're not too dusty!

See you soon,

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