Cider Press

We discovered a cider press left by the previous owner’s grandfather and made by him from a solid lump of granite!

Heavy

As we have decided that the building to the left of the house will be a guest suite it was time to empty it out and put down the concrete floor.

I’ll put the link to the video on our youtube channel and blog post here when I get around to editing this week. Lots of deliberation and inch by inch movement as we moved out the Cider press using leavers and a winch. That was just the beginning.

It’s quite the task digging out a floor. Part of the floor is literally bedrock tough old granite. Very difficult to break and the other half is hard compacted soil with lots of lumps of slightly less tough granite but a hard stone to break none the less.

We set about it and took two and a half long days to clear a 12ft square space (approx). Many, many, barrows of earth later we got down to our 4-inch level with an inch of concrete to pour over two high spots by the doorway. There will be a small step up into the room but we can easily add ramps for access if we need to.

We have planned the bathroom as a wet room for maximum space and ease of use with a saniflow system. We’ve installed one before and found them to be a great solution for difficult to plumb areas where you can not access mains drains or fit a full 4-inch sewage pipe.

The aim is for wastewater from this room to drain out via the back of the house, all the way along to the barn, and then connect with the main house sewage 4-inch pipe down into the tank. We are looking to pump the wastewater 30ft and the saniflow is rated up to 300ft. As long as loo roll only is kept to a reasonable amount per flush all should go swimmingly???

Before we started the floor we removed many barrows of earth from the front of the room to reveal the wall and keep it dry in winter. This was probably old spoil from the well when it was first dug out. The previous owners had planted a beautiful lilac tree but unfortunately, this was now making its way inside the room so the lilac and its roots had to go. The roots were so deep into the garden wall. We had to knock it down and rebuild the drystone wall. We’re thankful that we stopped the roots penetrating the room any further.

The old concrete water meter cover has been repurposed as an incinerator for knotweed roots and cuttings. A mighty fine job it does too.