(I placed this under Land & Foundation, but realized it fits better here... feel free to remove it from Land & Foundation)
Hello, we have an approx. 100-year-old outbuilding (16m2) that is solidly built with plank walls, horizontal paneling, and standing on a foundation wall/sill that protrudes about 25 cm from the ground level on the outside (see image).
The sill is cast with lime mortar and smaller natural stones. Inside the building, it's basically an earthen floor. It is not a true crawl space, there is no ventilation, no floor joists.
We want to renovate, lay a floor (wood or perhaps terracotta) and therefore need to drain it, as the sill seems to have survived, but some parts of the walls at the bottom are badly damaged by moisture, and also parts where someone previously seems to have tried to make a floor (there is a linoleum mat on half-rotten beams/tongue and groove boards on part of the building's "floor"...)
I see two options - in both cases I want to dig out soil and expose the rock that I believe lies a few decimeters down. Then I'll fill in with gravel/crushed stone.
Then one can basically put a floor structure, either floating or fixed to the sill, lying on the capillary-breaking gravel, and a wooden floor on top. I won't be heating it at all, so there's probably no need to create an underlayer etc. in the floor framework.
The other option is simply to cast a slab on the gravel, and let the existing sill/foundation act as a type of edge beam (note that I have zero knowledge in these matters so I might be entirely wrong
). Then perhaps one could drill into the sill and insert rebar that goes into the slab to sort of build together better and reinforce the existing wall. On this slab, I could then lay floor terracotta to match the old style (it would seem odd with a concrete floor in this 100-year-old outbuilding).
However, I believe a wooden floor would fit best and be the simplest solution, of course. I'd prefer not to lay it on a cast slab, as it feels like there would be moisture issues with condensation in that space. Do you have any advice when it comes to installing a floor in such a space, should one screw beam shoes to the sill, and leave a gap between the new floor joists down to the gravel? Or cast columns for the support beam that holds the floor structure?
Grateful for your answers!
Hello, we have an approx. 100-year-old outbuilding (16m2) that is solidly built with plank walls, horizontal paneling, and standing on a foundation wall/sill that protrudes about 25 cm from the ground level on the outside (see image).
The sill is cast with lime mortar and smaller natural stones. Inside the building, it's basically an earthen floor. It is not a true crawl space, there is no ventilation, no floor joists.
We want to renovate, lay a floor (wood or perhaps terracotta) and therefore need to drain it, as the sill seems to have survived, but some parts of the walls at the bottom are badly damaged by moisture, and also parts where someone previously seems to have tried to make a floor (there is a linoleum mat on half-rotten beams/tongue and groove boards on part of the building's "floor"...)
I see two options - in both cases I want to dig out soil and expose the rock that I believe lies a few decimeters down. Then I'll fill in with gravel/crushed stone.
Then one can basically put a floor structure, either floating or fixed to the sill, lying on the capillary-breaking gravel, and a wooden floor on top. I won't be heating it at all, so there's probably no need to create an underlayer etc. in the floor framework.
The other option is simply to cast a slab on the gravel, and let the existing sill/foundation act as a type of edge beam (note that I have zero knowledge in these matters so I might be entirely wrong
). Then perhaps one could drill into the sill and insert rebar that goes into the slab to sort of build together better and reinforce the existing wall. On this slab, I could then lay floor terracotta to match the old style (it would seem odd with a concrete floor in this 100-year-old outbuilding).However, I believe a wooden floor would fit best and be the simplest solution, of course. I'd prefer not to lay it on a cast slab, as it feels like there would be moisture issues with condensation in that space. Do you have any advice when it comes to installing a floor in such a space, should one screw beam shoes to the sill, and leave a gap between the new floor joists down to the gravel? Or cast columns for the support beam that holds the floor structure?
Grateful for your answers!
