It's all about the base.......

So today ( now yesterday) I spent my lunchtime talking alpacas, but more importantly talking foundations with the regions premier structural engineer (and alpaca buff) Mr B.

For those who have been following progress ( and thank you for hanging in there so far) you'll know that the house is totally off grid at present, but it also has a few structural issues! 

Now, I guess one of the luxuries of being an architect when looking at old buildings is that you can see the potential and know that anything is possible and/or repairable, however, the downside is that architects are known for being rubbish with money and budgets ..so enthusiam has to be curbed by the bank balance! 

When we first visited the house back in July there where quite a few visible structural defects, like open cracks in the basement wall that you could see daylight through, and piles of stones on the floor  where the dry stone walling foundations  had just fallen away, but when I looked further under the structural framing i also found bits of joist that had just turned to powder! Now I'm no beetle expert, (nb although I do have a collection of some rare 7" from the Fab Four handed down from my late mum)  but these definatly weren't holes from woodworm, (or Liverpudlians (sp?) )but given it was only the joist ends that had been nibbled it was likely to be death watch Beetle. These critters are so named because of their late night penchant for nibbling damp ends of oak beams in church structures and you hear them munching at night time.   Now these bad boys like to bury deep inside the timber and nibble on the heartwood, and over a period of years turning it to dust whilst the outside remains in tact, save a few entry and after time exit holes.  So these needed some work! I drilled a couple of core samples in the basement to make sure the whole house wasn't supported on dust and it seemed that inside we were ok!

Also the drystone plinth which is almost 2 metres wide in places, had been subjected to some good old freeze thaw action causing the stones to come loose, move, and in the case of big barn go on holiday by looks of things.  

Luckily for me Mr b practically agreed with my diagnosis and offered some, as usual, practical advice and design guidance including 'it's better not to let it fall down'...... (Sorry Mr b taken out of context for a cheap laugh).

So Megan Trainor is quite right in her words of wisdom (ask your kids if youre radio 4 listener) and yes it is all about the bass / base.........