Jerry's renovation blog

[Jerry_Atrick]

OK.. to be clear (pardon the pun), it wasn't the pooper drain... It was the kitchen and washing machine drain (they run into one).. And, since we realised that is a problem area, we are careful to strain food waste through a sieve and empty and them wipe as much grease from the pans/plates as possible before they go in the dish washer.  One canb't get everything, and of course, crap from outside gets  into the drains. 

 

The plan today is to empty the dining room and seal it to commence the next stage of taking bloody bitumen pain(t) off the elm floor boards. Of which the next bit of work is pulling all the carpet staple out before I get the sander out.  All grippers and carpet are removed. 

 

I am up to round 4 for scaffolders to even come and quote to put the stuff up for roof repairs. I have threatened the builder if these chaps baulk, I will be getting a leaning tower of scaffold, a couple of roof ladders and we will have to make do. Useless doing anything with the plaster while the roof leaks and keeps damaging the stuff.

 

By the end of the following week, those Elm floors will be ready to oil. 

 

 

 

 

[old man emu]

11 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

grippers and carpet

I've heard of Grippers and Kneelers (Masons and Catholics) but never grippers and carpet. Does "carpet" refer to Muslims?

[Jerry_Atrick]

[old man emu]

Looks like an Ikea flat-pack for an Indian fakir's bed.

https://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-05/how-does-bed-nails-really-feel/

[Jerry_Atrick]

Welcome to this week's instalment of the "poor man's reno blog".

 

This week, there has been some movement... All of those grippers are up, as are the carpet staples - major PITA (Pain In The Artesian basin). Alas, I have a rather large workstation at home and was booted out of the temporary home-office abode, and back into the dining room, so sanding the floors was off the agenda.

 

I don't know if I mentioned the quote for the plumbing. We have had two... replace and seat pipes in the walls (many are exposed), new rads, and one bloke is including a zoning system. The boiler is in good nic and doesn't need replacing. One bloke wants £40K and the other who includes the zoning wants £45K -both are plus 20% VAT. So that is between £48K (and we reuse good copper piping) and £54K. That is Brexit in action as all the European tradies have gone home and the Brits see a big house and they think the owners a minted. After that quote, I can't afford mint Listerine.

 

I have found a builder who is prepared to do the necessary structural work on the roof at a reasonable price; he has managed to find a scaffolder who at least turned up to quote. I have not had the final quotes yet.

 

I have developed a sudden interest in DIY, which doesn't come natural to me.

 

In the garden, I have done more chain-sawing and chopping; Went to start the ride on mower, but the battery wasn't up to the task. And my 15-metre outdoor extension lead decided to die, so getting a charger on it has been a no-go. The garden, though, is starting to look kempt, except for a bit where all the cuttings are... and the two apple trees I am slowly taking down.

 

Next weekend, the table is coming out of the dining room and the floor is getting sanded.

 

I have taken a lot of videos, but I have no idea how to use video editing software, yet (I joke that when it comes to art, I am autistic, not artistic). I will try and do a youtube course on the video editing software I have and get something on YT and link it here.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

48 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I will try and do a youtube course on the video editing software

Might be more useful to do some diy courses?

 

Have you considered unbolting the ride-on battery and bringing it indoors to recharge?

Necessity being the mother of invention.

 

I sympathise your shock at the quotes for fixing heating.

 

It would be cheaper to relocate to a warmer clime where you wouldn't need it!

Edited February 19, 2023 by nomadpete

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Might be more useful to do some diy courses?

Forgot to mention that I have been looking at a few vids from SkillBuilder...  https://www.youtube.com/@SkillBuilder and a couple of others.

 

5 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Have you considered unbolting the ride-on battery and bringing it indoors to recharge?

Necessity being the mother of invention.

Have done it before.. It is a worse PITA than forking out for a new extension cable. The extension cable as been on its way out for a while. Yesterday, it gave up the ghost. Bludday thing...

 

6 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

It would be cheaper to relocate to a warmer clime where you wouldn't need it!

Darned right, except, it will probably meean having to fork out for fixes to the evaporative cooling system, knowing my luck...

 

 

 

 

 

[old man emu]

A failed extension lead is Karma's way of protecting your until Karma gets a better opportunity to kick you in the R's.

[facthunter]

Evaporative only works when the humidity is low. A couple of days ago we had the Hottest temperature in the entire world in the northwest.of Straylia..   Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Was it humid up there at the time? I am guessing so, as it is probably still the right time of year...

 

Maybe we should all move to Coober Pedy or start emulating their success at dealing with heat in living areas.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I was offered a poo-cleaning job at Docker River. This is a closed indigenous town in the NT but close to the WA border.

The indigenous tenants didn't know that you should not continue to use a blocked dunny, so by monday, it was overflowing.

The powers that be, mainly rich fat ladies based in Canberra, responded by producing a glossy brouchure on how to use a dunny.

Apparently you started with a ladle and a bucket.....   sorry about the image you are seeing in your head.

[Bruce Tuncks]

No, the last bit was not in the glossy brouchure...  I was returning to reality.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Docker river is close to Lasseter's grave. Reading the account ( Hells' airport ) of the trip, it was clear that he was insane, but this went undiagnosed because he was telling people stuff they wanted to hear. Not even the author of the book realized that Lasseter was insane.

[Jerry_Atrick]

OK.. it has been awfully quiet on the reno reporting front at the moment. I guess it is so depressing, that I don't want to write too much about it.

 

But, slowly, things are coming together. We are still living with the government making changes that has effectively halved my income, so I am forced to do a few things I wouldn't normally consider myself.

 

Over here, hydronic heating is known as central heating; there are no installations of the normal central heating (Blowing hot hair) that I know of. We have to get 20 of the darned radiators, but of course, the standard ones won't do; they have to be column cast-iron period ones. Well, there's no way I can afford the about £9k - £10K for that, so it is facebook marketplace. We have so far tracked down 4 of the 20 for the total sum of £400 - all brand new leftovers from other's renos. One bloke does work for a local plumbing supplier and buys their excess stock at mark down prices (apparently!), so I have asked him to keep an eye out for more.

 

But the big breaktrhough has been, we have finally secured a builder for a June start - to fix the roof, rewire the place, and while he has the floorboards, I will replumb the place. He will also do the kitchen and work on the plaster that needs fixing.

 

Below are some snippets of the work that needs to be done:

 

 

This is a photo of a printer, but that works fine. You can see behind the wall, the plaster is damp. This has been caused by one of the many roof leaks which had such shoddy repairs, they lasted only about 6 months after we moved in. It has taken us 3 years to find a builder who doesn't say, "Oh, that is a big house, I will charge you 5 times as much"...

 

 

This is the study, which we think is originally the private chapen of the rector. We are currently redecorating it. Partner working out what colour she wants. Personally egg-shell white works for me, but, women, eh?

 

 

 

This is one of the two build in book-cases/shelves that were in the study. It is fairly cheap, but we have decided we will restore/refurb it rather than rip it out and put a new one in. Mainly because the mid cupboard is a different width to the rest of it, and I can't be bothered cutting up walls.

 

This is one of the walls.. nothign much here.. those two squares on the walls appear to be where the rector would have put his candles for prayer (they fold up).

 

 

 

 

This is a curved wall; you can't see it as we have repaired most of it. There was a lot of damp plaseter here - it is a cement based plaster (bad for these old houses). That window will be replaced with a wooden sash window (it is a lot worse than it looks in the photo). The roof leaked so badly, the first day we had rain, a waterfall formed on the inside of the window - I kid you not. That was a repair jop that had to be carred out quick smart. The builder put a lead cap on the flat roof of the study (only part fo the roof that is flat).

 

 

 

A fuse box of vintage times. One of three that has to be reeplaced along with most of the wiring. During the last storms some water must have got in as one circuit sahorts now, and we have extension cords all over the place (not pictured).

 

 

Back to the informal dining room; a leak in the above bathroom is attributewd the cause of the ceiling liner peeling away, though the builder, who knows the previous owner, thinks shedid such a cheap job to sell the place, it is probably the glue just deteriorating. That all has to come off, but the plaster looks good, so sanding, undercoat/primer and paint - none of this lining crap.

 

 

This is upstairs, above the informal dining room. The very dark patch about centre top is where the brick is being exposed. We cannot get to that part of the roof without scaffolding and roof ladders. Have finally arrranged for someone.

 

 

 

 

This is cement based plaseter in the formal living room; it doesn't breathe well so in old places, allows the moisture to condense and ruin the - you guessed it - lining paper. That old rad will be replaced, and the lining paper all removed; and where we have that plaster, it will be replaced by lime plaster.  That stuff is usually used by Eastern Europeans (of which there aren't enough anymore)_.

 

 

More plasterwork (grouynd floor hall) that has to be replaced through ingestion. We had fixed the issue ourselves (flashing/felting deterioration); It is dried out and now ready to be replaced.

 

 

 

 

Damp walls in the formal living room ('scuse messy but relatively new wood burner - it is early May and for some reason it is bluddy cold so we are still using it, on account of our central heating giving up the ghost).

 

And the reason is:

 

The darker middle of the chimney and right of the wwall is damp, and everyone who looks at it is buggered if they can work out where it is coming from. There is no guttering there to leak, and the roof on that side is newly done and shows no leakage signs. But the builder will take a deeper look. The damp does go down to the ground, but I am guessing it is a roof thing.

 

That is only part of what has to be done. Kitchen needs replacement, and I have not touched the basement nor the upper floor (except for that large bit of plaster work).

 

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Rising damp works by osmosis Higher concentrations of salts in areas where evaporation has taken place help move moisture up. Nev.

[nomadpete]

Jerry I sympathise. Really.

 

But smugly grin to myself - our turnkey modern build - environment rating 7, insulated, double glazed cottage has been lovely these ten years! No rising damp, no leaking roof, no lead, no heritage list constraints.

 

Of course, none of that old world character either. A compromise that suits this old dog.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. .This is a self-infliction, so no need to sympathise.  Time challenged at the moment, so it is making things harder, but we are lucky because despite the work required, it is not a bad place at all. As usual for amateurs, we underestimated the real work required; the amount of stuff that we well hidden, even from the surveyors was crazy; we found out the boiler, which is industrial in size, has never had an oil filter installed. Why the heck get such an expensive burner not to filter it for about £30 more?

 

That is the mentality of the person we bought it from, and it shows. But, no use complaining, just have to get on with it.

[old man emu]

Shit! I thought my hovel was bad simply because of the resident rodents and dust storms. 

[pmccarthy]

Once you have moisture in a brick wall down to the ground, it can keep on wicking for several years after you fix the roof. 

[Marty_d]

7 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

Once you have moisture in a brick wall down to the ground, it can keep on wicking for several years after you fix the roof. 

Yes - I don't think that moisture is coming from the roof.   That steep pitch would get rid of water real quick,  unless it was full of holes there's nowhere for the water to sit and seep. 

[old man emu]

Would an drainage ditch around the foundations eventually allow the walls to dry out? 

 

Jerry has a drying problem that we don't really face here. If summer average temps there are in the mid to high teens, there is not as much heat to speed up drying. Also isn't Relative Humidity regularly much higher than we experience here?

[onetrack]

Don't forget you can get water leaks that run along a length of roofing, and then appear some distance away from where it's actually getting in.

I had a nail hole in some flashing that took me a long time to track down, because where the leak appeared in the ceiling, wasn't anywhere near where the nail hole actually was.

The water went in through the nail hole, then travelled down a sloping rafter for several metres before it finally dripped off the rafter.

[facthunter]

Rising damp needs a new barrier constructed to Physically impede the water. I think you can use a different Mortar and replace sections gradually. Salt is involved in rising damp. (Osmosis). Nev

[willedoo]

One problem with rising damp in older buildings in the U.K. is because of their 9" brick wall construction. 9" being a wall two bricks wide butted together with no cavity. Hence English bond with header bricks laid sideways every other course. The brick width is half the length for this reason. Those old slabs also might not have had an impermeable layer laid under them.

 

I'm not 100% sure on this one, but I think those old slaked lime mortars were also more prone to moisture than our modern mortars with cement. With some of those old walls you can scratch the mortar out with a stick. It just doesn't compare to our modern cavity brick and brick veneer construction. With solid wall construction, my favourite has always been Flemish bond.

Edited May 4, 2023 by willedoo

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

my favourite has always been Flemish bond.

Was he James' cousin?