First Flooring in Great Hall

The first section of hardwood flooring has gone down in the Great Hall, so a definite moment for celebration.

first "new" flooring in the Great Hall (photo taken yesterday evening)

The "new" flooring is 2 3⁄8-inch wide x ¾-inch deep oak-strip flooring. Not quite the monumental 4-inch wide x 1-inch deep oak planks of the original floor, but the closest I could get using reclaimed materials. I have heard many horror stories of new oak floors warping a few months after being laid, as the timber dries out in-situ. Modern oak is never properly dried and even kiln-dried timber will warp. 

Thankfully, this will not be the fate of the new Great Hall floor as it had a previous life in Culzean House at 36 Renfield Street in Glasgow. Culzean House was built in 1924 and the flooring was removed during a 21st century refit to create modern high-end office accommodation.

Culzean House, 36 Renfield Street, Glasgow

I checked throught my emails to see when exactly I bought the flooring. This was on the 29th November 2013 (!!!!), when I obtained 200 square metres for around £20 a square metre from Hargreaves Flooring near Falkirk. They say you should acclimatise flooring for up to 10 days in the location it is going to be laid. I clearly wasn't going to take any chances and the flooring has now been acclimatising for over 10 years. :-)

I had originally intended this flooring for the dining room and the drawing room (each 68 square metres) but the difficulty of sourcing separate 4" wide oak flooring for the Great Hall (91 square metres) became apparent and just using what you have in stock makes a lot of sense.

Gregor suggested planing the top off the boards in advance before laying them, as otherwise they would need considerable sanding in-situ. There are layers of carpet backing and glue on many of the boards. This is definitely the right decision to minimise effort, although the boards will still require a light final sand in-situ. Using a floor sander is heavy and stressful work, and the sandpaper often just rips, and an uneven surface can result if particular areas need heavy sanding.

We are laying the reclaimed flooring on a plywood subfloor. The tongues of reclaimed T&G flooring are often missing, and the plywood lends support to stop the boards slipping down between the joists.

Gregor initally thought the wood might be beech. I had a bit of a diva strop of "...but I bought oak". However, after planing Gregor did declare the wood to be oak. Interestigly enough, Gregor spotted three different types of flooring in the batch (different mouldings and stamps visible from the underside), but on the facing side these should be indistinguishable.

We are planning to oil/wax the floor - basically doing as little as possible to show off the beauty of the wood and, of course, to protect it. I am somewhat concerned that the wood is too light as it is and may need a stain, but Gregor believes that the wax will darken it down. Anyhow, experimentation lies ahead.

Over 20 years ago (surely not!) I helped some friends build a new oak floor in their living room. It still looks amazing, and if anything has improved with age - and miraculously, try as I might, I cannot even see any dints. Naturally, I asked a few days ago what oil/wax product was used, and they found this in their paint cupboard:

possible product for oiling/waxing the floor

And miracle of miracles, my friends have never needed to apply another coat! Anyhow, I will update the blog with flooring progress.

The Scaffolding Descends

There has been a forest of scaffolding in the Great Hall at Balintore Castle for the longest time, as we have been rebuilding the ceiling, the high walls, installing windows, plastering and painting. The scaffolding had three floors, which gives you some indication of the height of the room.

Anyhow, a fornight ago the scaffolding came down and for the first time we saw properly what the restored room looks like. The beautifully designed Victorian interior is back and the reveal lifted all the crew's hearts.

The hall has grown thanksfully. For some reason it shrank during the restoration process, but assuredly all living rooms would shrink when crammed with scaffolding. The recent agrandisement is not universally received: Gregor thinks the room has shrunk yet again.  :-)

There was a single corner of the room which had not been scaffolded originally, so a smaller scaffold tower was constructed to enable access. You can see the three levels here. 

The room also became much brighter, with the light-occluding scaffolding boards removed, and I don't think I would hestiate to say it is actually a very light room - the very reverse of the common conception of a dark Victorian parlour.

There is still lots of finishing woodwork to be added e.g. skirting boards, door architraves and oak-flooring. We are all tremulous with impatience for the completion of the room.

Gavins Tapestry Pole Finials

In the Great Hall of Balintore Castle, which we are currently restoring, there are some surviving cast iron tapestry poles with accompanying finials i.e. shaped ornamental end-pieces. However, perhaps 70% of these are now missing, and we had to find a way to source them.

The poles themselves are easy just 5/8" cast iron rods.  I despaired about reproducing the metal finials, until I discovered they were actually turned wood. :-) 

I chatted to my builders about how we might replicate these, when Gavin took it on his own back to buy a lathe off eBay. 

Last Monday he had his first go on a lathe since woodwork at school. By Monday lunchtime he had produced these:

You can see the original Balintore finial, newly painted grey, on the right hand side. It has to be said that the initial consistency of the finial product was not the greatest. All the turning is being performed freehand.

The finials and tapestry poles were originally painted more of a dove grey, although only limited areas of the original paint survive on the now-rusty rods. We had a grey metal primer in stock which was good enough for the job.

By the end of Monday, Gavin had produced these:

On Wednesday production was in full flow as Gavin cracked sharpening the chisels and I bought him a large set of new ones off Amazon.

The product is now much more consistent, and the just-turned finials have that classic WWII bomb shape.

I love when that "How on earth are we going to do this?" problem turns into a "Let's have a go." solution.

Storm Éowyn

Naturally I scheduled my Burns Night celebration at Balintore Castle slap bang in the middle of storm Éowyn on the evening of the 24th January. Thankfully, most guests did make it. Angus was not as badly hit as the Central Belt of Scotland, and I only had a couple of pull-outs due to the weather.

So while conditions were undeniably windy and snowy, it has been worse, so I was surprised that Éowyn took out one of the huge Sycamores lining the east drive. I can only surmise that these trees are the same age as the castle (165 years) so it is extremely sad. This is the first one to be lost. 

These Sycamores survived almost total ring-barking by rabbits during a previous snowy winter. As no grass was visible for months, the rabbits had to live off bark. A small inner core of the tree was rotten, possibly as a result of the ring-barking, and this looked to be the point of failure.

With my positive hat on, the tree will supply much needed firewood for Balintore for perhaps a whole year.

Some friends stayed on after the Burns Supper, so I took them for some walks in the vicinity. During one walk at dusk, my friend Thom got his right foot stuck in a snare and got brought down. He had no idea what was happening to him and he was panicking. My other friend Aislinn, with great presence of mind, ordered him to stop struggling, found that the snare had tightened around his ankle, and managed to loosen it off. I am putting Aislinn forward for the George Cross!

In fact, we were discussing the Order of the Thistle and the Order of the Garter, and I mentioned these were the highest order you could get. However, on checking online, these only come third, and are trumped by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross, It is only proper that courage should be put ahead of privilege and aristocracy! :-)

My group of four friend and myself realised that we represent the British Isles perfectly. The group had someone from Eire (Aislinn), Northern Island, England (Thom), Wales and Scotland (me)!

fallen Sycamore

rotten core of fallen Sycamore

snow from storm Éowyn

snow from storm Éowyn