Welcome to part two of our 122 Main Road Fitties renovation series. Today's post reveals what was lurking under the floor and how we went about replacing and repairing the floors and walls in 122 Main Road Fitties.
As mentioned in our last blog post, when we pulled up the carpet and floorboards we found rotting joists. Not only did we find rotting joists, we found sand and tree stumps!
Now you might be thinking that finding sand was normal as the fitties was originally build overlooking the beach, however like us, you might not know why there was tree stumps under the floor!
Once we started tearing up the floorboards, it quickly became clear why there were rotting tree stumps under the floor—the house was actually built on them! We suspect that when the chalet was originally constructed, the builders chose to stick with the beach theme by using local trees and any other materials they could find for the foundation and floor joists. This is evident in the floor joists, which were made from sleepers, wood, and even old window frames.
After coming to terms with the fact that the floor was constructed from tree stumps and window frames, we noticed that the floor was sloping towards one corner. This was because the tree trunks in that corner had rotted so badly they had turned to dust.
Discovering rot in the floor prompted us to inspect the walls, which led to another surprise—more rot!
Knowing that the walls were also affected, we had to devise a plan not only to create a new floor but also to prevent the walls from continuing to rot and potentially collapsing.
To find out how we did this, read the next blog post which will be available soon.
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