Think again

Mrs S and I were in France before Chris and I were due to go over to work on the floor in the upstairs bedroom and I took the opportunity to reassess the job. I lifted a few tiles in one area to check that they were indeed laid on sand and to see just how deep the sand was.

It was then I realised that, if the job was going to be done at all, we would need to re-lay the whole floor in order to even out the ridges in the sand. If we didn’t do that, the cracks would soon reappear. I also became concerned about the weight of sand we would need to use, fearful that the ceiling of the downstairs bedroom might collapse under it.

I dug out some of the sand where I had lifted the tiles. It varied in depth from two inches to four inches, and was laid straight on top of rough sawn planks that had gaps between them of anything up to an inch. How on earth could we stop the sand falling through the gaps? Come to that, how had the original builders done so?

It was becoming more and more clear that the original plan would have to be scrapped and that we would need a major rethink. Despite the cost, I phoned Chris for a discussion and Plan B was developed.

This was how it looked after I had cleared a corner.