Jerry's renovation blog

[willedoo]

1 minute ago, old man emu said:

Was he James' cousin?

Yes, his snotty nosed cousin.

[Marty_d]

From Europe. 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

We have had problems with rising damp, which is called "salt damp" out here. Once, when I was young and silly ( I'm old and silly now ), we had friends who had an old european-accent guy go around the house with a roll of lead. He made a hole in the wall and unrolled the lead as he filled the hole at the back and opened it at the front. ( he used mortar in the backfill job) .

I have since seen plastic sheet used, much cheaper and a smaller hole required.

Good luck and best wishes for your big job.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Things are starting to move - slowly. Today a plasterer turned up to start removing damp-damaged plaster - the failed bits will be replaced with lime plaster..

 

We also have a skip but I am still waiting for the scaffolding to turn up...

 

Note in the third photo the cracj extending in a zigzag up from the ar.,. Needed some tough resin of some sort with metal fasteners...

 

 

 

 

[old man emu]

Looks like the builders of your place left no stone unturned.

 

It's good to hear that you finally managed to get at least one tradesman to start work.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes; Scaffolding hopefully going up in the next couple of weeks as the builder becomes available full time. 

 

Kitchens from our kitchen supplier going up by 10% on the 17th, so partner is charged with betting her act together and ordering it by next week... 

 

Oh what fun we will be having... not.

 

[facthunter]

jerry , Rising damp is caused by osmosis. The water carries some salts which  when the water evaporates,  the residue draws more water up by osmotic pressure. That situation progresses unless you can change things. An Impervious barrier above ground level and some surface barrier water repellent on the outside walls where no wall cavity exists is the sort of repair you need.  What you do on the inside won't change the  process much but just cover up the problem for a while at best.  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Agree, Nev.. An old trick here when selling is to paint the interior walls with an oil based paint to repell the stain for a bit.

 

We are getting a specialist engineer for the damp; One of the problems is that these old buildings are designed to breathe, which lime plaster does well, apparently,. but they have, though the ages, skimmed over with gyprick and cement based plasters, which have held the moisture in. Thankfully, it is not throughout the place, but where the plaster has (ans is still being) taken off, we will replace with lime plaster all the way. Not cheap,  but they also reckon it will solve a lot of the damp problems.

 

Also, apparently, because of the vegetation and verandah, the engineer on his first visit (to give a quote) believes in winter, a lot of moisture is being trapped and simply absorbed by what has been a cheap render. So, the render will be coming off for the damp proof coursing, and a repellent or something - tbh vision of £'s exiting my bank account caused a bit of a brain fog.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Your kind of 'reno' is on a whole different level from renovating modern buildings. Both financially and technologically.

 

And with a durability horizon of centuries rather than decades.

 

Not a process that I could handle!

Edited July 7, 2023 by nomadpete
checking spellchecker

[Jerry_Atrick]

To be honest, when we were looking at this I said to my partner, this is a lot more work thena the smallholding. She didn't believe me. Like you, I am not sure I can handle it.. and while my partner is inifinitely more practical than me, her aptitude towards it means she is even less able to handle it.

 

But, oddly enough, I relish a challenge..

 

By September,  this place will be in good enough nick to sell for a profit, even in a tumbling market.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

I would have thought that those walls made of randomly shaped stones would have made cutting a slot for a damp course  near impossible. 

 

1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

By September,  this place will be in good enough nick to sell for a profit,

Is that a hint that the Prodigal will be returning to the land of his birth?

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. And yes...

 

But, it is not dependent on sellign this ol' place. [edit] in fact, I don't want to sell this place

 

I am in a YT rabbit hole looking at Aussie music.. next thread resurrection is now tomorrow.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[Jerry_Atrick]

10 hours ago, old man emu said:

I would have thought that those walls made of randomly shaped stones would have made cutting a slot for a damp course  near impossible. 

 

Is that a hint that the Prodigal will be returning to the land of his birth?

But may need to sell the house to attend this: https://events.blackthorn.io/en/2v1wtnJ7/2023-premiership-reunion-2013-4a1l2uiNjg/overview

[onetrack]

OME, I trust you're taking note, of what a REAL Reno looks like!! 

[nomadpete]

9 hours ago, onetrack said:

OME, I trust you're taking note, of what a REAL Reno looks like!! 

Did you leave a word out?

I think Jerry is doing a real OLD reno.

That's a different thing altogether.

[old man emu]

10 hours ago, onetrack said:

OME, I trust you're taking note, of what a REAL Reno looks like!! 

Jerry's reano      

 

 

OME's reno         

[facthunter]

Glad youse got it right, eventually and there's Reno where they race planes.  Nev

[old man emu]

Louis Renault, along with his brothers Marcel and Fernand, founded Société Anonyme des Moteurs Renault at Billancourt, France on 24 Dec 1898. In 1907, Renault began building aircraft engines, many of which led the way for French industry and formed the basis for many designs in other countries.

[facthunter]

Prior to about 1910 the French engineering was right up there with the best, if not the BEST, The Gnome et Rhone rotaries were something of a machining masterpiece being very light for their displacement and well balanced.  Nev

[willedoo]

Reminds me of an old aviation saying:

If it’s ugly, it’s British. If it’s weird, it’s French. If it’s ugly and weird, it’s Russian.

[nomadpete]

11 hours ago, old man emu said:

Jerry's reano      

 

 

OME's reno         

Try as I might I just can't see the rising damp in Jerry's Renno

[red750]

It's on the other side.

[nomadpete]

8 hours ago, red750 said:

It's on the other side.

Oh,

 

The inside?

[Jerry_Atrick]

The plasterer has done a bit more but has gone awol.. Partly our fault as partner and I can't quite agree on the rest. But there was stuff that we definitely agreed on, so will ping him and try and get him back.

 

In the mean time, now the summer holidays have started, the weather has turned back to grey and rainy. Guess it will stay that way for the next 6 weeks.

 

 

[old man emu]

Oh to be in England, now that summer's here!