Digging out Floors

[Fourbarewalls]

We have just brought an old 1800 centruy barn in the Limousin Region and amoungst many of the jobs we have listed we need to dig out the old earth floors so that we may fit a new wooden floor, thus avoiding damp and allowing some air to circulate beneath the floor boards, we are also looking at installing an underffloor heating system.

If anyone out there has any usefull hints and tips on the subject, do these old barns have any king of footings, how close to the walls can we dig out, what footings are required if any are to sit against the old walls, how deep shall we dig out.

I look forward to hearing your comments on this subject

Thanks Lee

[Washy]

Our barn was about 3ft deep in dried manure and then had a beaten earth floor. It was rock hard. We used an antique plough that we found lying about in the bushes, attached it to our old jeep by a long rope and chain. A friend drove it backwards and forwards and my husband held it steady. Holding it steady was difficult, I think he started off each run with a swipe from a pick axe. Because the doorway was incomplete and quite high we were able to snake the digger bucket in to remove the debris, but we were down to the shovel and bucket for a great deal at the back. It was worth it and we gained a lot of head room as the existing beams were quite low even without the manure!

[Washy]

I forgot to say that we dug down quite a way outside as soil had been deposited for many hundreds of years. The barn is at the end of three buildings joined together, the first being a water mill. A sluice gate from the mill stream was missing and had caused the build up of soil and stones. We used the digger to dig down and went diwn as far as where the stones became larger and were much thicker. The walls here get narrower as they reach the top and the base is some 1.5 mt thick in places. While we were digging we found the very old sluice gate and have since replaced it! We made a diversion for the water which we discovered still ran around the house in times of severe rain. A couple of years later some friends came to show us an old version of the plan cadastral and said that there had always been a canal around the side of the barn, we had replaced it in the same position.

We put in a dpc and a layer of polystyrene and reinforced the concrete. As we worked we put in the pipes for toilet etc and put in small pipes to allow later access for electrics or anything else. Today, 8 years later we have just finished the tiling!!! I have lived with concrete dust for years.