Our Little Durham Restoration Project...
Discussion
Soon? Ha ha ha. Three years later the scars have just about healed, and I feel I can finally write about that thing that happened. It's almost finished now too! I was going to update this aaaaaages ago, but I got so far behind I decided I'd just do it all when I was finished. I wasn't expecting it to take this long though!
Anyway, I'm going to sort out all the pictures now and tell you all about the thing that happened....
Anyway, I'm going to sort out all the pictures now and tell you all about the thing that happened....
paulrockliffe said:
Soon? Ha ha ha. Three years later the scars have just about healed, and I feel I can finally write about that thing that happened. It's almost finished now too! I was going to update this aaaaaages ago, but I got so far behind I decided I'd just do it all when I was finished. I wasn't expecting it to take this long though!
Anyway, I'm going to sort out all the pictures now and tell you all about the thing that happened....
Hope you’re ok! Anyway, I'm going to sort out all the pictures now and tell you all about the thing that happened....
I'm OK, I'm probably exaggerating, it was quite traumatic for a while, but lessons were learned etc etc.
I've downloaded 5Gb of photos from Google Photos and resized them all some I'm good to go......
So, where were we? The dormer was built and we had a big window-shaped hole in the roof going on. This state of affairs persisted for a while, a lot longer than it should have, but no one broke in and it did come in handy when I was locked out of the house and my then 4 year old suggested I go up the scaffold and climb in.
I can't remember if I shared the plans or not, but the dormer is big because it's balancing a big extension on the other side of the roof. Essentially the next job is to build an even bigger dormer that extends over the entire rear extension. This is dangerously close to moving from DIY to proper building and it's on top of the house. What could possibly go wrong........?
I've downloaded 5Gb of photos from Google Photos and resized them all some I'm good to go......
So, where were we? The dormer was built and we had a big window-shaped hole in the roof going on. This state of affairs persisted for a while, a lot longer than it should have, but no one broke in and it did come in handy when I was locked out of the house and my then 4 year old suggested I go up the scaffold and climb in.
I can't remember if I shared the plans or not, but the dormer is big because it's balancing a big extension on the other side of the roof. Essentially the next job is to build an even bigger dormer that extends over the entire rear extension. This is dangerously close to moving from DIY to proper building and it's on top of the house. What could possibly go wrong........?
First up, some of Travis Perkins' finest delivery skills were brought to bear:
I now have an agreement that I ask for John whenever I need something dropping off, he's the man when it comes to getting stuff in tight spaces. Actually, he's the man when it comes to operating the HIAB thingy at all given the plethora of overhead cables that surround me.
Many blind eyes were turned....
I now have an agreement that I ask for John whenever I need something dropping off, he's the man when it comes to getting stuff in tight spaces. Actually, he's the man when it comes to operating the HIAB thingy at all given the plethora of overhead cables that surround me.
Many blind eyes were turned....
Next up, all sorts of unnecessary complication.
The bathroom ceiling had an angled section at one side, the plaster was always a bit damp, didn't really know why. Anyway, the problem with this was that the ceiling was not supported into the walls, but onto the roof and the roof was in the way of the walls going upwards, so my plan to not make a mess in the house fell apart at this stage and I ended up taping myself in the bathroom:
And making a right f
king mess!
Dear God!
My wife and the kids were packed off for the weekend and I was having to shower in amongst all that. At least I could get celan before leaving the room and the tape actually kept all the dust in, so that was amazing really!
The ceiling was pretty solid, so it took me all day to get it down. Luckily it was completely uninsulated, so the mess was 'minimal' LOL. No wonder it was always so cold in there! Oh and the wet bit of the ceiling, I guess interstitial condensation, the wall plate was something like 3" x 18" pitch pine and completely soaking. The odd thing is the room really didn't need the extra 12" of ceiling height, so why it was done that way I'll never know.
Solid nights sleep then wonder about how on earth all that rubbish was going out the house without ruining everything......
The bathroom ceiling had an angled section at one side, the plaster was always a bit damp, didn't really know why. Anyway, the problem with this was that the ceiling was not supported into the walls, but onto the roof and the roof was in the way of the walls going upwards, so my plan to not make a mess in the house fell apart at this stage and I ended up taping myself in the bathroom:
And making a right f
king mess!Dear God!
My wife and the kids were packed off for the weekend and I was having to shower in amongst all that. At least I could get celan before leaving the room and the tape actually kept all the dust in, so that was amazing really!
The ceiling was pretty solid, so it took me all day to get it down. Luckily it was completely uninsulated, so the mess was 'minimal' LOL. No wonder it was always so cold in there! Oh and the wet bit of the ceiling, I guess interstitial condensation, the wall plate was something like 3" x 18" pitch pine and completely soaking. The odd thing is the room really didn't need the extra 12" of ceiling height, so why it was done that way I'll never know.
Solid nights sleep then wonder about how on earth all that rubbish was going out the house without ruining everything......
It was a long time ago, but I'd be pretty sure I didn't take them in a way that makes it my fault, for a start my phone doesn't rotate anything if you hold it upside down, so I'd know if I had it upside down. It's definitely not my fault anyway, every other tool for viewing photos agrees that they should be the correct orientation. I noticed the official PH position on this is also to gaslight that it's my fault.
Currently waiting for them all to upload to imgur, man that's slow, like 1 minute per picture and there's a thousand of them. FFS
Currently waiting for them all to upload to imgur, man that's slow, like 1 minute per picture and there's a thousand of them. FFS
Anyway, they seem to be uploading in order, so I'll continue.....
Getting the rubbish out, there's a window, I made a chute:
Perfect:
Shovelled it out, most of it hit the trailer below. Genius.
When we renovated the house we removed this chimney thing in the bathroom, so this was not just floating there, I left it, it didn't look like it would fall down and priorities:
It was like I was never here, well if you don't look up anyway:
You can see what I mean about the ceiling shape a bit better in this pic. It would have been so much easier if I could have left the ceiling up at this point, but never mind, a successful weekend!
Getting the rubbish out, there's a window, I made a chute:
Perfect:
Shovelled it out, most of it hit the trailer below. Genius.
When we renovated the house we removed this chimney thing in the bathroom, so this was not just floating there, I left it, it didn't look like it would fall down and priorities:
It was like I was never here, well if you don't look up anyway:
You can see what I mean about the ceiling shape a bit better in this pic. It would have been so much easier if I could have left the ceiling up at this point, but never mind, a successful weekend!
Do a test (as I did) and take a pic, turn your phone over, take another pic then post them both up.
All forums are different, the older ones like this put the pics up as you took them. It's easy for me as I have my phone in a folding case so I know when it's hanging down the phone is the right way up. If you have a phone with no case then how the heck do you know which way is up?
It's not like a camera where it's pretty obvious...
All forums are different, the older ones like this put the pics up as you took them. It's easy for me as I have my phone in a folding case so I know when it's hanging down the phone is the right way up. If you have a phone with no case then how the heck do you know which way is up?
It's not like a camera where it's pretty obvious...
Then things started to go wrong.
Unbeknownst to me, this innocent picture of my bricky's efforts contains a fatal flaw:
Knobhead Scaffolder has screwed everything up and there will be profound consequences coming my way. The dormer scaffold was supposed to be gone by now, but knobhead couldn't be bothered, so he's put up the other scaffold for the bricky and not scaffolded over the Conservatory and around the side yet, because by not taking down the stuff we don't need there's no need for the stuff we do. No this doesn't make any sense, even now.
But anyway, Knobhead is bridging over the conservatory and hasn't checked whether the levels of some stuff will allow that to happen. I can't remember what exactly, but obviously it's wrong and needs to come down.
Oh, that's how it started now I think about it, there's a mains cable crossing from the house to my workshop and Knobhead won't go near it until Northern power Grids have come and put a bit of plastic pipe over it. Knobhead isn't bothered that he needs a License from the Council to erect there, the height means it needs a bespoke design and that nothing has any protection, scafftags etc. But that mains cable that was there when he priced up the job, obviously, means he gets to go home early today.
Anyway, we have more wall at least:
And insulation:
At least the Workshop will be warm!
Unbeknownst to me, this innocent picture of my bricky's efforts contains a fatal flaw:
Knobhead Scaffolder has screwed everything up and there will be profound consequences coming my way. The dormer scaffold was supposed to be gone by now, but knobhead couldn't be bothered, so he's put up the other scaffold for the bricky and not scaffolded over the Conservatory and around the side yet, because by not taking down the stuff we don't need there's no need for the stuff we do. No this doesn't make any sense, even now.
But anyway, Knobhead is bridging over the conservatory and hasn't checked whether the levels of some stuff will allow that to happen. I can't remember what exactly, but obviously it's wrong and needs to come down.
Oh, that's how it started now I think about it, there's a mains cable crossing from the house to my workshop and Knobhead won't go near it until Northern power Grids have come and put a bit of plastic pipe over it. Knobhead isn't bothered that he needs a License from the Council to erect there, the height means it needs a bespoke design and that nothing has any protection, scafftags etc. But that mains cable that was there when he priced up the job, obviously, means he gets to go home early today.
Anyway, we have more wall at least:
And insulation:
At least the Workshop will be warm!
At this point it's October ish, I have something like 10 days for me and my Dad to remove the roof over the bathroom and build a new one with an extra story on top before our roofer comes to cover it in slates etc and he has a week before it's due to piss down. The bricky has the rest of the blockwork under control.
But it's all contingent on Knobhead putting the Scaffold around the other two sides and putting a roof over the top. From memory the Scaffold was supposed to be finished on the Monday, but it was the following Tuesday afternoon before the roof thing was on and we could open up the roof. 14 man-days lost. Knobhead hadn't ordered the roof bits he needed, so I had to get that, what he did was appalling, half of it blew off, it pooled water when it eventually did rain and basically did nothing except delay us and turn what was already a moderately stressful situation into a complete nightmare.
Look at it. WTF.
We never did get the end scaffolded ready for the roof, so the blockwork was done from the inside and my conservatory roof is still covered in cement.
I'm not going to bore you with all the st I had fitting guttering because the scaffold was set at gutter height and how I couldn't get up there safely and all the other things that were screwed up beyond belief.
In the end Knobhead was asked to remove it and we paid a proper scaffolder to come and put up what we needed to get it finished off.
But it's all contingent on Knobhead putting the Scaffold around the other two sides and putting a roof over the top. From memory the Scaffold was supposed to be finished on the Monday, but it was the following Tuesday afternoon before the roof thing was on and we could open up the roof. 14 man-days lost. Knobhead hadn't ordered the roof bits he needed, so I had to get that, what he did was appalling, half of it blew off, it pooled water when it eventually did rain and basically did nothing except delay us and turn what was already a moderately stressful situation into a complete nightmare.
Look at it. WTF.
We never did get the end scaffolded ready for the roof, so the blockwork was done from the inside and my conservatory roof is still covered in cement.
I'm not going to bore you with all the s
t I had fitting guttering because the scaffold was set at gutter height and how I couldn't get up there safely and all the other things that were screwed up beyond belief.In the end Knobhead was asked to remove it and we paid a proper scaffolder to come and put up what we needed to get it finished off.
So now there's a mad panic on; can we get a roof built in 6 days? Will it rain? The wife and kids are sent off to Disney Land and it's just me, my Dad and the Graft.
Same approach as the dormer - build it in the roof and construct it as quickly as we can. First up, a hole in the roof:
At this point I've cut the bathroom roof rafter ends so water can get into the bathroom, but it's tiled and the gap is above the bath and shower:
The tiles are cleared from the gable wall too, so most of the roof is still in place, but the walls can go upwards. The construction is block and brick outer-leaf with a timber frame inner leaf and it will be finished with external insulation and cladding. The roof is loaded onto the timber frame, so the bricky is waiting for me to start building.
The frames just slide out of the roof and get bolted in place, to each other etc:
This wall was done with two frames, it's about 1.6m tall in total, but two frames made it easier to set the window level and get it out of the roof:
It looks sketchy, but it's fixed to the scaffold with some Official fixtures, so it's all good:
She's a beauty!
Same approach as the dormer - build it in the roof and construct it as quickly as we can. First up, a hole in the roof:
At this point I've cut the bathroom roof rafter ends so water can get into the bathroom, but it's tiled and the gap is above the bath and shower:
The tiles are cleared from the gable wall too, so most of the roof is still in place, but the walls can go upwards. The construction is block and brick outer-leaf with a timber frame inner leaf and it will be finished with external insulation and cladding. The roof is loaded onto the timber frame, so the bricky is waiting for me to start building.
The frames just slide out of the roof and get bolted in place, to each other etc:
This wall was done with two frames, it's about 1.6m tall in total, but two frames made it easier to set the window level and get it out of the roof:
It looks sketchy, but it's fixed to the scaffold with some Official fixtures, so it's all good:
She's a beauty!
This next picture is a bit dark, that's because it's gone midnight, my Dad was supposed to leave hours ago, but Knobhead has only just let us make a start and we have to have the bathroom ceiling / new floor structure in today:
We're at about the same level as the old ceiling, but you can see I've squared the ceiling back off and it's sitting a bit higher against the existing wall plate now:
The next day all the slates are in the trailer and I'm enjoying showers under the stars!
Here's some typical working conditions:
Cold. Dark. Dry. For now.
We're at about the same level as the old ceiling, but you can see I've squared the ceiling back off and it's sitting a bit higher against the existing wall plate now:
The next day all the slates are in the trailer and I'm enjoying showers under the stars!
Here's some typical working conditions:
Cold. Dark. Dry. For now.
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