Partyraum Part 2

Since the last post on Operation Partyraum, I did a lot of donkey work with spade, shovel and wheelbarrow. Not to mention sledge and crowbar. The reason for this donkey work is that, underneath the mouldy OSB boards and the plastic sheet, there was a huge volume of sand/gravel, clay - and concrete.

It was difficult to figure out what kind of a system the existing floor was laid out in. Sandra told me that she remembers where the cows stood, what direction they were facing and where the calves were. This corresponded (more or less) to the concrete that was still there and to a concrete trough that went down deep into the ground (you can see it in the picture on the left). Like for the rest of the concrete, I used an angle grinder with a diamond blade to cut the concrete at the wall, so I could belt away at it with a sledge, without worrying about cracks.

I ordered a 7 cubic metre container from Hilger. Their policy is to give three days for free and then charge something like €4 a day after that. Obviously, you have to pay for the actual debris itself as well (even though you probably end up buying it back off them later as gravel).

The container arrived early on Monday (27th July) and I spent most of Monday evening filling it up as much I could. It was actually about three quarters full on Monday evening. Tuesday, I was too busy to get anything substantial done, so I had to finish it on Wednesday evening.

By the time they came and picked it up today (Thursday), it was full to the point of overflowing. I got all the concrete floor into it, lots of broken bricks (which were under the thin concrete on the right hand side) and a huge volume of the kind of sand/gravel mix that you find under concrete or bricks. There is also an old sink from Harting 10 that I broke up to get rid of. This all counts as 'Bauschütt' so I could probably have gotten rid of it bit by bit (for free) in Hohenpolding. Down there, they only allow you to drop off 100l a go though and they are only open on Thursdays and Saturdays. Seven cubic metres at 200l a week would take way too long.

Once I had the debris out of the way, it was time to decide where the finished concrete floor should actually go. The obvious way to go about this was to take the level of the bottom of the door (which cannot be changed) and project that level around the room. What is normally done is to go up a metre from whatever finished floor level you want and project that height around the walls. This is called a 'Meterriss'.

You can do this the hard way, with a normal level, or builder's line. Or you can do this the easy way with a laser. All you do is set up the tripod (the laser itself is self-levelling) and slowly turn the handle to raise the laser line up to exactly hit the metre mark (above the bottom of the door). That is exactly one metre above finished floor level. The laser projects 360° around the room. I used a bit of laminate floorboard about 15cm long into which I had cut a slot with a circular saw. With a can of spray paint, I sprayed short lines 'onto' the laser line all around the room. In about five minutes, it was done.

The next job was to get rid of the ridiculous, pointless step that was in the room. I don't know how many people stumbled over this in the past - and it means you can't really arrange things in the room as you might like. I had already gotten rid of the concrete from this step and a layer of bricks as well.

The 1m line that I drew around the room showed that I needed to go substantially deeper and getting rid of the step was the way to go. It was all compacted subsoil with broken roof tiles and bricks, so it was easy enough to shift with a spade and a shovel.

I now have one step less but one huge heap of clay, which I have to get rid of. If nobody takes it, Hilger will take it in a container. It can stay there now for a few weeks though. I've enough done.

Operation Partyraum

You may or may not know that the so-called 'Partyraum' has a serious problem. The problem is damp and mould. In 2009 a sheet of plastic was put down on top of (on one side) old concrete where there used to be cows and (on the other side) directly on the clay. OSB sheets were put on top of the plastic, using lats to level them. The lats were supported underneath by old timber beams (i.e. underneath the plastic, in a sand/gravel mix). Obviously, this is a recipe for disaster. Disaster happened over 2013/2014/2015 but was only really discovered in 2015. Between the OSB and the plastic underneath there was immense fungal spread. Going in to the room you would be hit with a wall of dank mould smell.  In the photo above you can see the dry rot that completely ate away the timber.

I decided to prioritise this as it seemed like it could be a health hazard as well as being generally a 'mouldy' situation. To get going, Yvonne cleared it out, leaving only the OSB boards. I demolished the bar and got rid of the OSB boards, the plastic sheets and the mould. I decided that the best outcome would be to have a completely level concrete floor, professionally done following all the rules of the trade. This meant removing not only the existing concrete, but also all organic layers - right down to the subsoil. This wasn't all that easy at all. There were cables and water pipes criss-crossing in the sand/gravel waiting to cause emergencies. I used an angle grinder with a diamond blade to cut a deep slice into the concrete all around the room. This way I could belt away with a sledge, without worrying that tiles would be falling off the walls upstairs.

The current status is that there are huge heaps of concrete, bricks, sand, gravel and general dirt piled up in the room. A container will be arriving on Monday, which I intend to fill as soon as possible. I have a feeling that seven cubic metres will not be enough. If it isn't, the rest of the debris will have to wait until the end of August. I will also have to fix up the electricity (all those cables will need to go into proper casings and should be arranged properly) and the water (the pipes will need to be sunk deeper).