Destruction

We created a plastic wall around the destruction site--tremendously optimistic! It started well enough, but gradually the plaster worked its way into everything.

We had to remove not one but two ceilings. I thought that they had just patched the old plaster up and smoothed on a coat of that dreadful "swirl and spike" spackling compound, but no, they strapped over it and nailed up Gyproc first. Down they came, two full ceilings.

After a period of careful sorting and trucking wheelbarrows about, I started dumping it straight out the front door....


Even had the beam been properly supported, it could not have done anything much for the upper floor. This view shows the gap--about five inches--between the beam and the joists. This means that the support has derived entirely from the 24 foot joists spanning the walls of the house.

No wonder it was a bit bouncy!