We didn’t know precisely what we’d find under the carpet and even though past experience together with peeling back one corner gave us a fair idea we decided to suspend judgement until we got down to the concrete.
Not much of a surprise. Under the carpet was a fine deposit of filth, and under that a good-quality cushioned underlay, followed by another fine deposit of filth. Next there was the original builder’s flooring–9″ square vinyl compound tiles stuck to the concrete with 30-year old bituminous adhesive. So far, so good.
Then we got to the concrete, which is a powdery self-levelling layer on top of a hard, pretty standard mix screed. It’s all in good, dry condition but over the years there’s been some damage, poorly repaired, including the installation of a new front door where a great hole had been made in the floor and filled with some strange and unsuitable compound.
Graham did the diagnosis and survey job and came to the conclusion that all he’d need was some special hole-filling concrete mix to repair the damage so, off we went to B&Q once more. There’d been a slight snowfall in the small hours that’d settled, but by the time we were ready to go, at about 11:45, it had all thawed and run away and the sun was busy drying it off. No driving problem, then.
Hall floor before starting
The carpet is to be removed from the bottom of the steps, into the cloakroom (to the left, out of picture) and forward to the brass joining strip where the ceramic kitchen floor tiles stop.
So, off to B&Q in Neath and then back home for lunch and siesta.
I woke to find the workman hard at it, the carpet gone and a start made on the removal of the vinyl compound tiles. By this time all real daylight had gone so I had to resort to flash.
Stripping off the old tiles
As I write, the cloakroom floor is completely stripped, along with all but a few strips of the hallway. Graham wants to work until the whole floor is exposed so that he can fill the holes, allowing him to start tomorrow with a clean, ready to boogie floor.
At this rate there will be much cork in evidence by end of play tomorrow.
Me, I’m back to being tea boy and general holder of things person. In the movie industry they name us ‘gophers’. I prefer the term ‘temporarily unemployed poet’.
