Week three sees the first major milestone in the project! Yes we were surprised and equally delighted. The chimney that sits in what was the middle of the café was fully demolished on Thursday this week. This has needed a lot of work in order to get it to where it is today. It's important to note that we are only removing the chimney from the ground floor. The chimney is still in place on the two upper floors.
How do they do this?
As you can imagine the process is not straight forward and takes a fair bit of work. The chimney may be out but there is still a lot of work to do to complete this phase. I will try and outline the process that has been completed so far:
First the chimneys were cleared of plaster to see what the builders were up against
Then the fireplace surrounds and flooring was lifted on the first floor
Suspended flooring on the ground floor was lifted to find a firm footing for props
Large holes were drilled all the way through the chimney stack at first floor level
Steel girders (known as needles) were placed through the chimney at first floor level and propped from the ground floor
Ceilings were propped around the chimney at ground floor
Chimneys were removed by hand (knocked out using various heavy instruments)
All of this was carried out under the watching brief of the site archaeologist in case there was anything of historic significance uncovered.
Still to do.
The builders now need to provide strong foundations (pads) on which four steel uprights will sit which in turn support a steel cradle upon which the remaining chimney will sit.