Hi Folks
We got some new neighbours today, much to my daughters delight. She calls out to them in the mornings. Not much done on the house but its the run up to Christmass so we are looking forward to our first one in the house.
KBO
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Damp under the stairs
Hi Guy's
Here are a few photo's of the damp under the stairs. This area has been tanked using a concrete nib which runs the full width of the old part of the house which is below grade. This was probably doing its job until a previous owner got a company in to put a chemical damp proof course in. All this has achieve
d is to piece the tanking every 4".
This was not a problem until the wall got damp due to some gutting being removed from a neighbours house. This has been replaces and the wall has started to dry out but its still a worry. We are considering getting a tanking company in to sort this problem properly. We will keep an eye on it over the winter to see if the water starts to come in again.
Still things could be worse we are both working and we have somewhere to live.
KBO.
Here are a few photo's of the damp under the stairs. This area has been tanked using a concrete nib which runs the full width of the old part of the house which is below grade. This was probably doing its job until a previous owner got a company in to put a chemical damp proof course in. All this has achieve
d is to piece the tanking every 4".
This was not a problem until the wall got damp due to some gutting being removed from a neighbours house. This has been replaces and the wall has started to dry out but its still a worry. We are considering getting a tanking company in to sort this problem properly. We will keep an eye on it over the winter to see if the water starts to come in again.
Still things could be worse we are both working and we have somewhere to live.
KBO.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Digging Holes
Hi Folks
I built some raised beds for Karen a month ago but hadn't sorted putting them in place. I put them in place, turned over the soil to a depth of 18" but it was quite stony. So I spent the rest of the weekend sieving it. All done now so Karen's got a new bed to plant some veggies in when she decides what she wants to plant.
My wall continues to dry out so we have to air the house when we get a good day as the moisture comes into the house. This caused a problem on some of the doors which were stained but not varnished. They had started to get a layer of mould which Karen had to constantly wipe off. I spent a couple of ours rubbing them down with furniture wax. This gave them a nice rich colour and the mould has not come back job done.
I will post photo's when I can.
I built some raised beds for Karen a month ago but hadn't sorted putting them in place. I put them in place, turned over the soil to a depth of 18" but it was quite stony. So I spent the rest of the weekend sieving it. All done now so Karen's got a new bed to plant some veggies in when she decides what she wants to plant.
My wall continues to dry out so we have to air the house when we get a good day as the moisture comes into the house. This caused a problem on some of the doors which were stained but not varnished. They had started to get a layer of mould which Karen had to constantly wipe off. I spent a couple of ours rubbing them down with furniture wax. This gave them a nice rich colour and the mould has not come back job done.
I will post photo's when I can.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Our House
Hi Guy's
My wife Karen and I bought a small terraced miners cottage in Cornwall last year. We had been saving up for a few years and had watched the market race away from us until it crashed last year and suddenly we could afford to buy. After sixteen years in married quarter's it was fantastic to have a place of our own.
However being in Cornwall it still wasn't that cheap and we ended up by a bit of a fixer upper, I had to replace some broken slates and bodged repairs to the roof. I got a selection of second hand slates to do this. The roof is covered with rag slate which has been laid a bit like a dry stone wall, in that none of the slates are the same size. The guy that originally did the roof just used the first slate he picked off the stack trimmed it to size and nailed it straight to the rafters with forged iron nails. The slates were bedded on lime mortar. I have some photo's that I'll post when I can.
This work was done in a a bit of a rush because I was due to go away with work for a few months and I wanted it done before winter.
While I was away over the winter our neighbours who had bought the cottage next door engaged a builder to convert their flat roof at the back, to a pitched roof and re slate the whole roof. This guy removed all the gutters at the back of the house and removed some of the slates from the main roof. He then built the frame work for the pitched roof,felted it it and then stopped work.
We had water poring down the back of the house because the gutters had been removed and damp spreading across the wall under our stairs. I had to get a damp specialist in who adviced that the gutters were put back, I dug a french drain at the base of our rear wall to improve drainage and that I strip the plaster off the wall so that it would dry out.
The walls in our house are 2ft thick, it takes one month to dry out for every inch in thickness of wall, so our walls will take two years to dry out. Still 6 months down the road the water has stopped trickling out of the wall now and it is drying out. We didn't need this and it was preventable.
I don't blame our neighbours for this they live away and their builder was only working on site when he knew they would be around the rest of the time he wasn't there. Once I knew the cause of the damp I spoke to my neighbours and they got the guttering sorted out right away and that builder is not working for them anymore and their roof is still unfinished.
How do these guys get away with this, they can turn up ruin somebodies house and just shove off leaving the job half done in a mess for somebody else to sort out.
My wife Karen and I bought a small terraced miners cottage in Cornwall last year. We had been saving up for a few years and had watched the market race away from us until it crashed last year and suddenly we could afford to buy. After sixteen years in married quarter's it was fantastic to have a place of our own.
However being in Cornwall it still wasn't that cheap and we ended up by a bit of a fixer upper, I had to replace some broken slates and bodged repairs to the roof. I got a selection of second hand slates to do this. The roof is covered with rag slate which has been laid a bit like a dry stone wall, in that none of the slates are the same size. The guy that originally did the roof just used the first slate he picked off the stack trimmed it to size and nailed it straight to the rafters with forged iron nails. The slates were bedded on lime mortar. I have some photo's that I'll post when I can.
This work was done in a a bit of a rush because I was due to go away with work for a few months and I wanted it done before winter.
While I was away over the winter our neighbours who had bought the cottage next door engaged a builder to convert their flat roof at the back, to a pitched roof and re slate the whole roof. This guy removed all the gutters at the back of the house and removed some of the slates from the main roof. He then built the frame work for the pitched roof,felted it it and then stopped work.
We had water poring down the back of the house because the gutters had been removed and damp spreading across the wall under our stairs. I had to get a damp specialist in who adviced that the gutters were put back, I dug a french drain at the base of our rear wall to improve drainage and that I strip the plaster off the wall so that it would dry out.
The walls in our house are 2ft thick, it takes one month to dry out for every inch in thickness of wall, so our walls will take two years to dry out. Still 6 months down the road the water has stopped trickling out of the wall now and it is drying out. We didn't need this and it was preventable.
I don't blame our neighbours for this they live away and their builder was only working on site when he knew they would be around the rest of the time he wasn't there. Once I knew the cause of the damp I spoke to my neighbours and they got the guttering sorted out right away and that builder is not working for them anymore and their roof is still unfinished.
How do these guys get away with this, they can turn up ruin somebodies house and just shove off leaving the job half done in a mess for somebody else to sort out.
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