Sometimes it is more effort to drill a hole ... in Victorian properties in Scotland ... not sure whether it goes further afield ... there was a practice of installing 'deafening' or 'deadening'. Strips of wood are nailed to the joists at approximately mid height and thin boards are laid between the joists with their ends resting on the strips at each side. The boards are then covered with a very 'rough' lime mortar. I believe the purpose of this practice was to reduce noise transfer. It makes the drilling of holes at mid joist height a much more involved process when this material needs to be cleared away before piercing the joists.
Hello GB.Kayak,
I found out about `Deafening` about 27 years ago when my Business partner and I went up to Edinburgh to carry out installation of a very large `Domestic` Heating system containing approximately 50 Radiators - build the Boiler from parts in the Basement - a complete re-plumb including 6 Bathrooms and 4 x 450 litre Hot Water Cylinders in a very large House that had been bought by a very good Friend of ours.
Although it was just a Big Family Home there was nothing `Domestic` about the Heating or Plumbing in that House !
I had previously visited Edinburgh / the House and spent a Week measuring up and making notes, sketches and taking photographs and some videos to get enough information to design the Heating and Plumbing systems and place Material Orders when I went back Home.
Because the Floorboards were `irreplaceable` - 12" wide x 1" thick highly polished Oak it had been agreed that although We were `good at taking up Floorboards` - a `Joiner` / Furniture Quality Carpenter was going to be engaged to take up all the Boards that we would require and on my `Survey visit` I identified most of the pipe runs and sections of Floorboards that we needed lifting.
I describe the above about the Floorboards because it meant that I had never been able to lift a Board during the Week that I was at the House - all I `knew` was that there should be plenty of room under the Floors as some of the Joists were 15" on the Ground and First Floors and were 12" on the Second Floor.
From my brief description of the Heating & Plumbing systems You might be able to imagine the `Hundreds of Metres` of Copper pipe to be installed.
Can You imagine my `Shock` when we arrived to start work on Day 1 and found the `Deafening` that You described under every Floorboard / between every Joist - level with the top of every Joist !
We then had to create Pipe runs through the `Deafening` - although we had Labourers on the job and we found that channels could be `grooved` through the material using wood battening and a hammer the `Deafening` added a lot of money to the Labour of the job.
We also needed a lot more Floorboards taken up by the `Furniture Maker Carpenter` to enable these channels to be created.
As We were doing the work / working away from Home as a favour for our good Friend we did not lose any money on the job - although we were working on `Mates Rates` and staying at his Family`s Home - He paid for the Labourers to create our Pipe channels.
However if we were working on a Quote basis for a Client / Building Contractor we would have had a large wage bill for extra Labour to create the pipework channels in the `Deafening`.
That was the biggest `surprise` that I have ever had on any Job and it was a very Big Job regarding the pipework runs !
Sorry that this message became so Long winded.
Regards,
Chris
Not sure numpty is the word I'd use, maybe just inexperienced and possibly being hassled to do a job they've not encountered before!
