WEEK 10 - Day 38 Removing Floorboards and Steel Delivery

The whole of the warehouse floor of Stove House 5 was removed today, allowing us to prepare to take away the floor joists and the the side walls.

The dismantling of the walls will begin with the east gable so that the scaffold team from H&E Scaffolding, Telford can insert lifting girders beneath the salt pan.

The floorboards rest on a timber beam laid over the joists, which are in fact second hand railway lines.

The floor boards have been affected by the process of drying the salt. The upper surface is very smooth, but the lower surface has had fibres drawn from the cell walls of the wood by the damp heat trapped between the floors as the salt dried over the flues.

The steel beams weigh almost 4 tons and were delivered from the Corus steel works at Scunthorpe.

They have been laid out alongside the salt pan ready to be inserted underneath for lifting the pan.
Following the lift next week the iron pan will be cleaned and prepared for a protective coat of paint.

Asbestos roof sheets were removed from above Warehouse and Stove areas 1 and 3. Stove 1 is the oldest part of the Lion Salt Works and has some difficult structural areas because it has been adapted and altered gretaly over its life. A scaffold walkway is being inserted and additional props to support the floor and roof areas.

Video for work completed on Day 21 to dismantle roof trusses has now been posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nizNmZ6RWA