The House Projects Thread

[dinny_g]

Biblical Rain last night... Several Leaks in our Kitchen roof...

Nothing massive - there wasn't torrents of water, just drips but several and in several different places...

[mik]

@dinny_g Well that’s annoying. Flat roof or pitched? I guess you need to get a pro to look?

We had a leak recently - a void area in the roof that has an external vent. Heavy rain with wind in one specific direction was causing water to enter the vent and go into the void… but of course it dropped water onto insulation so it didn’t necessarily come through at the same time as the rain. This caused some delay in identifying the cause…

[dinny_g]

Pitched…

There’s two distinct problems. One’s easy - broken tile. Never noticed it before as the skylight hid it from the upstairs window but the other leak is right at the top where the pitch meets the back wall.

Sounds exactly like your issue. Vents and wind direction

Yeah, pro job. Going to try the house insurance route first..

[Gavster]

1 week until my first court hearing with the neighbour, next Friday at midday

We're only scheduled for 30 mins so there are two potential outcomes of this hearing, it will either be a directions hearing, which means there'll be a full hearing next year. On the other hand, because of the way the neighbour has been responding, we are asking the judge to determine the claim summarily then and there without further hearing. We've already informed my neighbour of our approach to ensure there's no prejudice to them.

It's my first time in court so a little nervous, although I have been advised it will be utterly anticlimactic

Fingers crossed

[KiwiDave]

My dearly beloved was tinkering in our laundry just over a week ago, making lots of bangs and noise as she measured stuff while we're trying to plan renovating the laundry and bathrooms. Despite my protestations to just leave stuff as is, unbeknown to both of us, she did not. Cue last Monday me putting on a wash for a load of towels and returning a few hours later to find a pool of water across the laundry.

We mopped it up and got grumpy and thought nothing of it until about 7pm that night I went downstairs to have a nosey around and I discovered the water had come through the roof, out the light fittings and shat itself all over my drum room.

We're now on day eight of industrial driers running, including being plumbed into wall cavities. Damage is all timber work in the laundry, the whole floor (which will involve removal of the hot water cylinder) as well as all the walls being redone. The bathroom next door now has a floor that resembles Weetabix soaked in milk, the entrance way the other direction has a damaged floor and carpets. Downstairs we have an entire outdoor shed that needs relining, my drum room needs ceilings and walls and insulation (as well as sound deadening material) redoing, possible new carpets and wiring. We did however manage to escape needing to prop up the upstairs of the house as the water damage hasn't been enough to damage the beams that support it (just the cladding and boxing around them).

And the claim for the drums is sat at around 25k currently...

Unlikely to see the repairs done til Feb or March next year.

[dinny_g]

That’s an impressive amount of damage from a measuring tape…

Sorry to hear about all that Dave, especially Drum damage.

[jamcg]

Please say the damaged drums aren’t the sentimental ones that have just taken an age to get to you?

[dinny_g]

I thought that but was afraid to ask…

[DeskJockey]

That sucks.

[Ascender]

Yip... we're all thinking the same thing...

[KiwiDave]

Please say the damaged drums aren’t the sentimental ones that have just taken an age to get to you?

Thankfully not, though only by coincidence. A day earlier and the answer would have been yes It did get a drum I've been searching for for over three years - limited run in Japan only, wooden shell aged for 300yrs before being built (taiko drum shell essentially). I'd had it less than a week - last new old stock in Japan, played it once. That's currently quite a discussion point with the insurance.

[dinny_g]

Jesus thank Fuck for that.

[Gavster]

Been in court today and the judge made a declaration that my neighbours have breached their lease by refusing entry to a surveyor. It’s a massive win as it’s taken 3 years to get to this point. The big question is whether they will now allow access to a surveyor in the future and the inevitable answer is ‘no’, which means the next stage is forfeiture proceedings. How anyone can be stupid and belligerent enough to allow that and risk losing their home is totally beyond me.

[dinny_g]

Pitched…

There’s two distinct problems. One’s easy - broken tile. Never noticed it before as the skylight hid it from the upstairs window but the other leak is right at the top where the pitch meets the back wall.

Sounds exactly like your issue. Vents and wind direction

Yeah, pro job. Going to try the house insurance route first..

Update - My BIL replaced all of the broken tiles but it made... No difference. The problem is now either flashing of sealing around the skylight.

Thankfully, after 7 or 8 companies saying "Sorry mate - can't fit you in till March", we got a guy coming over next Saturday. I've used him before for roof work so I'm confident he'll sort it.

[Jobbo]

Been in court today and the judge made a declaration that my neighbours have breached their lease by refusing entry to a surveyor. It’s a massive win as it’s taken 3 years to get to this point. The big question is whether they will now allow access to a surveyor in the future and the inevitable answer is ‘no’, which means the next stage is forfeiture proceedings. How anyone can be stupid and belligerent enough to allow that and risk losing their home is totally beyond me.

Well done, but I'm sure you're right about them doing nothing. Forfeiture is really rare for residential leases but it does happen, generally in cases where people behave like this.

[Gavster]

Been in court today and the judge made a declaration that my neighbours have breached their lease by refusing entry to a surveyor. It’s a massive win as it’s taken 3 years to get to this point. The big question is whether they will now allow access to a surveyor in the future and the inevitable answer is ‘no’, which means the next stage is forfeiture proceedings. How anyone can be stupid and belligerent enough to allow that and risk losing their home is totally beyond me.

Well done, but I'm sure you're right about them doing nothing. Forfeiture is really rare for residential leases but it does happen, generally in cases where people behave like this.

Thanks Jobbo. They also requested an appeal based on their initial defence which was also dismissed, they’ll inevitably take it to a higher court but hopefully that’ll be dismissed too. The judge was incredibly fair, thorough and patient in working through their defence with them, however they were unfortunately wrong on all counts. This is what happens when people represent themselves

[Gavster]

Neighbours have been given a range of times and dates between 6th-13th Jan to allow a surveyor to access their property. It's their fourth chance to allow a surveyor in, this time supported by a court order. Their property needs a lot of work, which is why they won't allow a surveyor in, it seems they'd prefer for the building to collapse around us.

[Carlos]

I've been trying to get a roofer here all year to repair/replace the lead flashing on a big dormer at the back of the house since a second big bit came away.

I've attempted to get about 6 people here this year, one of which wanted scaffolding put up to price the job !

Things must be slowing down as the first person I asked and who originally did the roof 17 years ago turned up out of the blue, replaced or reseated all the lead for £200

[DeskJockey]

While in the loft yesterday putting away Christmas stuff I noticed that the chimney breast had some wet patches, so I think the flashing might need some attention. Time to call out a roofer, I guess.

I've also replaced the bathroom extractor fan as the Manrose one failed. New Vent-Axia is barely audible which is great. Felt a bit apprehensive messing about with the wiring as I'm not very comfortable with electrics, but taking pictures and RtFM got me sorted.

[MikeHunt]

12 months ago, part of selling our previous house meant that the survey raised some issues on the roof. The estate agent sent a roofer who visually inspected the roof and after 2 minutes of looking from the drive decided that we needed a new roof, costing circa £20 to £25k.

The 2nd quote was from a guy I know from the gym. He took a drone up onto the roof, inspected it in detail and quoted us £700 or £300 cash.

@Carlos @DeskJockey worth finding someone with a drone.