Well the work on the Kitchen is well underway

Well as the title says the Kitchen demo has started. The reason for removing the ceiling is because by taking out the hideous vent that took up half the room I have weakened the Chimney vent. After removing the vent it was to late to put it back. A concrete beam had been cut so as to form the vent and that would have been needed to be replaced also then a beam would have to be put in place to secure the underside of the chimney. The option I chose was to remove the ceiling and have it all open with exposed beams. Two of the concrete cross beams will be retained and clad in timber for support for the walls and ceiling.

The pictures below show the various stages in taking down the ceiling and also the exposed beams. It's common in the UK for floors to be made from what is called Block and Beam construction. What Block and Beam is well concrete beams are put in place where a floor is to be put and between the beams what looks like breeze blocks are laid to form the floor.

The ceiling was formed using five concrete beams and between them special ceiling blocks then the ceiling was skimmed with concrete for what reason I do not know. Concrete seems a common thing to use in building here in Portugal it seems that it's the only thing they have to use. After the ceiling was built they just used concrete whereas in the UK we would use plaster. On the top of the ceiling guess what they had more concrete. A photo is included of the end of a block still to be removed from the wall that shows the way the blocks are made. This is common in Portugal and Spain for construction of houses walls and ceiling are made this way.

It took me a day to remove most of the ceiling blocks and there is just a bit now and it's all down. Then I have to look at sealing the roof so I can insulate between the rafters. And then face of the ceiling between the rafters with timber as you can see in the photo from a friends house. Well all the ceiling is now down apart for two beams that for safety sake I need help getting them down.