More Utility Room

Good progress this week too on the house's newest room, the Utility Room. With the boys unable to tile indoors on the Friday due to the non-drying self levelling compound, they brave the chill weather and get the 2nd 'coat' of torch-on tar felt laid on the Utility Room roof. Inside, the floor gets its layer of screed. Dad channels Maurice the Midnight Joker (who laid the floors indoors) to mix his own screed 'dry-mix', rake it flat then level and smooth down with the float, producing a decent surface (not bad for a beginner; Sparks proclaims in one of his "that is acceptable" builder phrases "Grand Cake, Nora!"). This screed layer will get a coat of self levelling compound to seal it and will then be tiled with the same floor tiles as are in the house. It looks amazingly different from the water containment 'tank' we first saw. It is now a room with a nice floor, plastered walls and a good high (and watertight) roof. The tar-felt needs wrangling into 'hems' at the edges but that will wait till next week.

Deefs

Midnight Joker

We are so impressed by 804 Pete and his work rate, that you'd know that anyone he recommended and vouched for would be as good. Even so, Maurice impressed us. He was the guy we used, on Pete's say so, for laying our floors. He's actually a plasterer mainly (which will be useful in the future) but can do most things. A big 6 foot 3 or so Sligo man with a soft heavily accented voice, he is a real laugh, full of banter and joking.

With the floors all painstakingly prepared and readied for Friday, Dad and Sparks barrow in first some concrete which Maurice levels loosely, then treads down with his feet. They then change to the screed (sand mix, no stones) which is thumped down with a 16 foot long plank, carefully levelled and then smoothed down with a couple of floats. He works carefully but reasonably fast, finishing first the kitchen, then the living room, and finally the dining room, finally smoothing them selves into the front door corner, leaving each floor mirror smooth. It takes from 10 am to about 3pm and we are all very pleased with it. At that point, no-one can now go into the house, so we lock the doors and head away, but the boys fancy gathering up all the scrap we've offered them before they go, so there's some fun and games with the mini digger and the lorry, loading the old diesel tank, some railway lines and some bits of cattle feeder which Pete had found in the brambles he cleared.

We love these guys
Deefer