De-plastered, de-floored; de-natured. Is a house a house if it has not a floor and plaster?

But a house, especially an Old House, needs a foundation to rest on. And so for two weeks our stumpers diligently rebuilt the foundations.

It was a very interesting process, restumping. The wooden stumps were replaced with new concrete stumps, just under 100 of them. Old rotted beams and joists were replaced with fresh new timber. A mountain of dirt was excavated to provide additional air space between the ground and the floor.

Holes were dug into the clay and filled with water. As I understand it, the water was left to stand to see if it would leach into the dirt, as a test of soil strength. After two days the water did not move. Good, strong dirt. Well, good for the stumps, not so good for the stumpers who had to toil against the merciless clay.

It took just under two weeks, as per the initial quote, to complete the work.

A condition of the contract was the floor would be level. The Master's checked the leveling using their laser magic: it was a little off in parts. By a little I mean between 5 and 15mm. No big deal; the Master's dealt with it.


Kosmos, Master Re-Stumper:

Holes, so many holes:

This used to be the base of the fireplace in the front bedroom. A previous owner had removed the fireplace above ground, but the base was left behind. Apparently over time bricks can push up into the house and disrupt the walls and ceiling and what-not.

Well, this is why we decided to have the house re-stumped:

And this is its replacement, wonderful concrete: