Jerry's renovation blog

[nomadpete]

16 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

stuff the plumbing.

I still missed the connection with A.I. 

 

Does A.I. or data centres use 50mm drains?

 

Oops. Just noticed. There is another thread for A.I.

 

Sorry @Jerry

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by nomadpete
Warning! Thread hijack

[Jerry_Atrick]

Don#t be sorry, Pete.. It's your thread 😉

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

Good luck to you but its a venture I would never take on for the reasons I've Mentioned. All things  Degrade. Those old buildings would be Hard to Make comfortable and have Natural light and effective Heating and cooling.. It's a free world to make such choices and you are very public with it  so I comment.  There has probably been a total of about 400 posts so far.  Nev

Thanks.. 

 

It certainly is more than I bargained for + contingency + Some more. The interesting thing is the original structures - except for pointing and some of the slate roofing - are in great nic. And fixing what is deteriorated is a pure joy.  It's what they did since about the 1980's which is a pain and most commonly fails. Most of it is shoddy to the core.. What pisses me off is that the surveys didn't uncover the major stuff you would expect them to. They disclaim so much, it is pointless contesting it and would take years through the courts anyway. The next property I buy in Aus, I will get a land survey )of the type of property I am looking for), but do the building check out myself. 

 

As an example, about a year before we bought the house, a tree fell on the house. Half the room was repaired. We are in a contractual dispute with the insurer and the builder. The builder says we can;t enforce the contract as it is with the insurer. I point out he has a 25 year warranty that is transferable, the Contract (Rights of Third Party) Act specifically covers this situation, and he could end up going broke if I pursue it. And he agreed.. He would simply dissolve the company as being broke and there would be nothing for him to pay. Its £20 to start a new company and as long as he acted within the law, there is no restriction for him to take further directorships. So, I am pursuing with the insurer, who bats me off to the builder. That is a less probable course of action and the costs are prohibitive to do, which you have to find and can maybe claw back if you win. So, I have to suck it up. 

 

Because I am tackling this as it should be tackled - by using the correct materials, the house has surprisingly little damp. In fact the only known damp we have is a leak on part of the roof that wasn't fixed... The problem wasn't the leaky bit of the roof but because some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to use spray foam insulation. The same spray foam that you use to fill holes. There are two problems with that that blind Freddy could see.. One, it holds the moisture... for a loooong time.. it doesn't breathe. 2. It bonds to everything it touches.. So the rafters (rotting) and the tiles (can't remove them without breaking them). Again, the damp is caused not by the age of the building itself nor the materials that should have been used. But by idiots using the wrong materials taking the cheap way out. 

 

I have previously gone through the front cement render on the outer front wall.. put up by the builder that did the roof as part of the tree damage. A plasterer noticed and asked if we had damp in the front room, of which there was. Not long after he replaced it, no more damp there.  The last set of phitos 

 

One of the things about these old buildings is draughtiness. In this house, the floor between the ground floor and the hasement does not go all the way to the walls - there is about a 5mm gap . at some points and there is an open (grated) coal chute to the basement. We have a cover over it that can breathe so it has reduced the breeziness by about 95%, but you do feel it. In the study, which is an ex private chapel, we replaced what as at the time of listing, a grotty PVC window that was double glazed. The guidance for listed buildings is that they are to reflect their passage of time, so in theory, we could have replaced it with another cheap UPVC double glazed windows. But that was crap and we found the original windows (not frames, which were lead-lined single glazed. We applied to have them replicated into a wooden frame but with ultra-thin double glazing at quite a lot more expense that refurbing the ortiginal windows and inserting them into the wooden frame. 

 

Given listing guidance is to reflect the evolution of the property, you would have thought it, especially being an improvement entirely sympathetic with the building and the looming environmental crisis, it was a no brainer. Nope; it was asserted because the originals are still there (one thing the previous owners didn't get to sell), it was their intention to install them as is, so we had to stick with it. We appealed as far as we could without getting lawyers involved and decided not to pursue it. You could not make this stuff up. Thankfully global warming  is here as I don#t need to heat the room all day at the moment (it is 7:48 and 15 degrees c on the 25th October  - absolutely nuts; there is a second storm brewing though, and i have to get the gutters cleaned in between and try and unblock a drain). 

 

So, it is draughty but not because it cannot be fixed. BTW, that window cost me £6K; it would have been $8k to do it properly and no one would be the wiser. 

 

Re light, apparently there was a window tax from the late 1600s to around mid 1800s. Our extensions must have gone up just after that period as the windows (seen from the photos published) are quite big and we do get a lot of light. I replaced c. 20 windows. Either that, or when they were bricked in, windows were subsequently reinstalled. But you do see a lot of older buildings with bricked in windows today and I always wondered why. Apparently that is the main reason. Of course, in the older days when heating systems weren't quite as efficient, brick and lime were better at keeping the cold out than windows. 

 

The tradies thinking you;re rich and pricing accordingly; absolutely. The easiest way to find out is ask for an itemised quote - not down to the nut and bolt, either major deliverables or even just labour and materials. When they refuse, you know you;re getting shafted. On the plumbing this was the case because despite the lure of a lot of work and what I knew was easy money. only two plumbers invited quoted despite the other 15-ish (can't remember exactly how many) saying they would he happy to. When the mate of a gardner heard the cost, he said it was around right, until he heard there was no boiler replacement and we weren#t replacing all the piping. Unf, I didn#t have the tools, the experience, nor the time, and I felt being impaled from behind with every day that passed. 

 

Other tradies were the same, but builders are easier to come by. At the moment, I have a decent builder who is experienced with old building, charges normal rates and makes good progress. I have a decorator who is a retired teacher and keeps himself busy; also good rates. The sparky is a little more expensive and totally by the book (commercially), so is the most expensive. But, he is a perfectionist, which I like and does get it done (i.e. not try and fit too many clients in). 

 

Still I am all in at the moment. I won't make money on it. Hopefully I won#t lose on it, either. However, if I count the opportunity cost of what else I could have done with the money, I would have retired comfortably by now. 

 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I forgot to mention a couple of other things. 

 

The house is a lovely house,, Apart from being big (which I don't attribute to lovely), it offers a well thought out floor plan with good living space, excellent kitchen; bright (and airy ;-))

 

The village is a lovely village; everyone has their characters, but by and large it has been an inclusive village on day 1. And most have each other's backs.  There are even two kiwis in this village as well. 

 

If I was staying in the UK, I would stay until I couldn't look after it (financially or physically, whichever came first). In all honesty, as I got older, I would probably subdivide, sell off the big house, and move into the cottage. I still may do that as part of selling up ( and may need to if too many more surprises come). 

 

Re the plumbing, yep the heating is also driven off the plumbing. I find it quite good and I understand hydronic heating, as it is called in Aus is getting popular. Of course, leaks can be a pain, but the pipework seems incredibly resilient. When they pressure tested the aged plumbing, they found one leak. That was it. 

 

I guess there's plusses and minuses for everything. 

[Marty_d]

Yeah getting a building report is a lottery.

When I bought my first house I got a report as the bank required it.

The bloke came in, had a quick look around, made some comment about the house having stood for 110 years already so it'd be fine. I bought it, because it was the right price and location.

When I finally got under the place, I found that several of the footings had floor bearers sitting, untied, on half a brick.