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It's a hard decision when renovating old buildings. The project im on at the moment has just made the decision to scrap 200 or so 3"x 10" floor joists all hand cut redgum and replace with modern LBL beams.
The only reason is that a lot of the hand made nails have rusted and snapped off so the carpenter doesnt want to use them and he's worried that his second fix nail gun wont get through the old timber.
Because this beautiful 1863 building is not heritage anything can be done.
Im the stonemason there so I've had a fair say in how its being renovated but not when its coming to the new floor.
I've had to go to the old stone pit, choose stone and pretty well hand dress the stone ready for use, especially with door arches which were damaged. All were laid with lime mortar and any cement on the building was removed and replaced with lime mortar.
I could have gone down the route of using bessar blocks and doing a cement render and doing imitation stone but in my opinion its criminal.
I know that sometime heritage gets carried away but at least it never gets lost.
At the moment these 200 x 10 foot plus floor joists are in the burn pile.........!!!!!!????
Im working on full salvage options rather tan see 150 years of history go up in smoke.
Cheers
Andy
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