Phase Two, it can be no surprise to hear, follows Phase One of replacing the floor at Hotchley Hill. That is, the southern section, on the side with the staircase.
This presented the little problem of access - as removing the old floor meant a 5ft hole just inside the front door. Luckily, our building has a door on the north side, too - so we spent the middle part of the day using a ladder up onto the terrace as our means of entry and egress.
The old floor was, as we knew, particularly bad in the corner where the stove used to be (and will be again!). This was partly due to the chimney letting water in for many years - and partly due to an inaccessible void between the joist, the floorboards, and the ledge in the wall. Unsurprisingly, this was full of coal dust and spiders!
Besides those notes, the day was uneventful. We cut out the old flooring, and dropped-in the new joists. We spent some time squinting at the spirit level, and made a start on boarding.
Tune-in next week!
