House renovation and garage build

[Craikeybaby]

Got the lawn mower swapped at Screwfix - when I got the new one it was obvious that the original one had been opened and part assembled before getting to me - probably bought and returned by someone else but got the new one set up and the grass trimmed - my first experience using a petrol mower, much better than the crappy electric thing we had before!

My other project for the week was to finish building the woodstore that I designed a while back:

Woodstore by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

It doesn't look the best, and could do with a few more planks on the sides, but didn't have time to add those as there was 1m^3 of recently chopped ash on the drive when I got back from work - and it had just started raining! I ferried it through the house to the veranda and Jen stacked it on the woodstore (which was a job I was actually looking forward to ). Hopefully this will keep use going over the winter:

Woodstore with logs by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

Now that the weather has turned a bit cooler we're going to fire up with wood burner in the next few days.

A few small jobs are happening tomorrow - BT are coming to move the master socket and the electricity board are coming to fit PME. I'm not sure either of these are essential, but it is better to get them done now rather than wait until we need them done.

Then just a few tip runs and some more de-glueing in the front room to do at the weekend!

[Craikeybaby]

The living room is about ready for plastering, the remaining glue from the wallpaper has been removed (and a lot of the silicon sealant around the window that was sticking to the wallpaper better than the wall). We just need to get a few bits of skirting board refitted and sort out what to do about the central heating pipes going up one side of the chimney - I'll upload a photo later to get the PH opinion!

The new BT master socket is in, so we can change to fibre broadband if needed - although the BT engineer said that I'd be better off staying with Virgin! I've just got to remove the old phone wiring, the electricians had left me with a blanking plate, but it isn't the right one, it is way too small, so need to get back onto them.

The main job for this week is to do some tidying and child proofing of the house as Jen has invited a load of her friends and their kids to spend the weekend with us, so last night I had to put the old curtains back up in the front room, as that will be used as a spare bedroom at the weekend.

[Craikeybaby]

I've taken a picture of the boxwork for the pipes going up the side of the chimney, unfortunately it only shows one of the microbore pipes - there are 2, for the central heating. There used to the 5 but the 3 unused ones have been removed.


Central heating pipes going up the chimney by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

The remaining pipes need to run up the wall here, but I'm trying to think of a way to make them a bit less obtrusive, I think the options are:

Glossed wood or plasterboard then painted as per the walls
Just over the pipes or cover from the pipes to the back wall (as in the picture)

Do PH have any suggestions on which would be best, or any other alternatives?

We are also starting to think about the doors again - we have had 4 doors stripped and 2 of them waxed:

Restored doors by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

Unfortunately the hardboard that was nailed to them and repositioned doorhandles mean they are full of holes, so really need to be filled and painted. Then we realised that the handles we had chosen weren't really suitable for the doors and that both the doors and frames had been patched over the years, so it was all a bit of a mess and we just ignored it for a while.

I've got a lead for somewhere that should be able to supply us with the original knobs/keeps etc and hopefully a new door to replace to thin-glassed one for the front room, so I will be following that up before getting the carpenter round to sort out getting them hung. I feel it is a slight cop-out getting someone in to do it, but with the doors and frames already being bodged it won't be quite so straight foreward and I don't want to make more of a mess.

[Craikeybaby]

There hasn't been much progress this week, mainly due to our guests over the weekend - although the house is looking tidier than it has for a long time!

The carpenter came round on Monday to tidy up the skirting around the fireplace and box in the central heating pipes going up the chimney breast before we get the front room plastered. While he was there he fitted the 4 doors that we had dipped alst year, so after 6 months living in the house we have some doors! (Albeit unpainted and without handles.)

The bedrooms doors are going to need shaved a bit at the bottom, as the new carpet is quite a bit thicker than the old carpet, so the doors are a bit sticky. The kitchen door makes the room feel a lot smaller, we are going to need to rearrange the kitchen a bit, as the door opens up to the clearest bit of worktop.

The plan for this weekend had been to get the front room plastered, but the plaster has delayed a week, so I will get a few smaller jobs done. I think we are going to have a lot of work to do to get the room done by Xmas, because in addition to the delay I've just found out I have business trips to Japan and Germany (as well as a trip to New York for my birthday), but it is good to have a target!

[Craikeybaby]

As the plasterer cancelled, I had a quiet weekend all I had to do was strip the hardboard off a couple of doors. I felt a bit bad, as Jen's granddad had obviously spent a lot of time boarding the doors up.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the doors back to the original 1930’s style. Doors may need to take a back seat for a while, as after the plastering has been done painting will be the main job.

[Craikeybaby]

The plasterer took a bit longer than expected to plaster the front room, but I got back from a business trip yesterday to find it done. Hopefully it will be dry enough to start painting at the weekend.

Plasterboarding the ceiling, I helped with this and it wasn't as hard as I was expecting, so i may do this myself in the garage:

Plaster boarding the ceiling by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

Plastering done:

Front room plastered by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

We're getting the doors back from being dipped tomorrow, so now just need to find a last door to replace the 70's glass one in the front room, and get some period door furniture then we can get them hung.

The next few weeks are going to be quite busy, if we want to get the room done by Xmas.

[Craikeybaby]

Had a busy day today, but didn't get as far as we wanted.

We got the doors back in the week and collected a second set of test door furniture, a reproduction of what would have been fitted in the '30s.


Test door furniture 2 by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

We don't really need the locks on all doors, but can't seem to find them without. Also not too sure about the knob colour, as we have silver hinges. The doors will be painted white.

The plan for today was to undercoat the skirting boards, but we soon realised that before we could sand them we'd need to remove the carpet, underlay and carpet grippers, which meant a trip to the dump. By the time we'd done that I was looking forward to trying out my new sander, but Jen decided she would be using the power tools today, so I had the pleasure of doing the tricky bits by hand. There were a few bits where the plasterer had plastered the skirting boards too, so it all took a while. As a distraction whilst sanding the window frame I was watching the guys resurfacing our road burning each others boots with flame throwers. In the end they only got half the road done and we didn't get any painting done - but all the preparation has been done ready to start tomorrow.

[Craikeybaby]

Also, a couple of tips if you're doing a similar project in the future:

Trousers with padded knees are great when you're working at floor level all day.

If you're going to be doing a lot of sanding, try not to do it when all your doors have been removed - dust gets everywhere.

[Craikeybaby]

Skirting boards primed, hopefully we can get them glossed in the week.

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks! We're checking the local reclamation places to try and find a matching door. We've got at least another 18 months to go, but once the front room is done we won't be doing anything inside the house until next summer.

[Craikeybaby]

We've managed to get a coat of gloss on the woodwork in the front room, it looks like it will be fine with just the one coat, so we are back on schedule and will be starting to paint the walls and ceiling at the weekend.

I'm slightly concerned about two patches, either side of the fireplace where the plaster hasn't dried yet. Even the corners which don't get any natural light have dried, so I'm concerned this could be damp from something else, leaking down the chimney maybe? Is there anything I can do now that they fireplace has been tidied up and the wall plastered? Or is it just a case of painting and hoping it will be OK?


Damp? by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks guys, will leave it a bit longer, then try applying some gentle heat to start drying it out.

[Craikeybaby]

That's what we did in the other rooms, but the missus was adamant that we would be better off doing it this way, so we will see how it turns out.

Edited by Craikeybaby on Friday 27th December 14:13

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks for the heads up on the reclamation place, we've also got a good one near us - Coventry Demolition, which is where we sourced the latches from. We've spied a few similar doors where we wee there the other week, but both thought each other had the measurements, so we will need to go back.

Not much progress made today, other than a few blasts with the hair dryer on the damp patches of plaster, which seemed to do the job. We've fired up the wood burner this evening to see if that will help, plus it's bloody cold in the house with no doors! We got a few other odd jobs done, and the MIL came round to put lining paper on the boxed section on the chimney breast - not 100% successful, but we'll see how it looks tomorrow. Then my folks came round to tell me what a great event I'd missed at the NEC Classic.

If the chimney breast is still a problem tomorrow we're going to mist coat the rest of the room and then make a feature of the chimney breast at a later date - maybe Jen has planned this all along...

Progress is going to slow down this week as I'm off to Japan for a business trip (and the Tokyo motorshow) then New York for my 30th. Hopefully we'll be able to have a final push to get it done before Xmas when we're back. Failing that I'll have a load of time off and Jen's contract finishes at Xmas, so she'll have some free time too.

[Craikeybaby]

Jen has found somewhere online that do reproduction doors in the style we already have, so that could be another option for us. Annoyingly it turns out the neighbour had a spare door in her garage, but was running out of space, so moved it outside, obviously it is all warped now.

Yesterday was more preparing the walls for painting, tidying around the sockets etc, while the two patches by the chimney are drying out, hopefully Jen and her Mum are able to make some progress while I'm away on business. The wet patches are looking drier after gentle warming with the hair dryer and having the wood burner fired up over the weekend. It will be interesting to see if they get wetter again when it rains.

Even though we weren't able to make much progress in the front room we got a few other little jobs sorted, extra sealant around the shower screen where it was leaking, caulked the metal trim where the tiling stops in the bathroom, chose curtains/curtain poles and removed the old internal phone wiring made redundant when BT moved the master socket (I'll wait until the weather is niced to move the wiring down the front of the house). Reading it like that I feel less bad about the lack of progress.

[Craikeybaby]

Another no progress update.

While I was away Jen didn't get a chance to do any painting, as she had to have an operation just before I went, so hasn't been able to go to the gym or drive, so decorating was out of the question.

Our deadline of getting the lounge finished for Christmas is probably out of the window now.

The damp looking patches in the plaster next to the chimney are still there. Is there a good way to test if it is actual damp?

[Craikeybaby]

I've just got back from my other trip and the damp patch still looks the same. I'm going to borrow a multimeter from work and measure the resistance on the damp looking part and the dry looking part to see if there is a difference.

In other news some of the felt roofing has blown off the shed/garage, highlighting the need to get the contents into the house and the garage pulled down and replaced.

[Craikeybaby]

Where has the last fortnight gone? It certainly hasn't been spent working on the house, we're only just easing back into it today, as I'm still getting over an Xmas bout of man-flu.

We've got a pretty daunting to do list to go through before we go back to work next Friday, the main job is to get the front room painted, although due to the damp patches either side of the fireplace we're not too sure if we should start or not.

8 weeks on from the plastering the patches are still there, they haven't changed is size or shape, even with all the rain we have had over the last few weeks. But I have just used a multimeter to determine that the dark patches conduct electricity, whereas the rest of the wall does not. So I'm guessing that it is damp - now what to do about it?

We have already tried the hair drier trick mentioned earlier in the thread and have had the wood burner on quite a bit, so there has been plenty of heat in the room. Jen had said that she is going to start painting today, so it may just end up getting painted and worried about if it does cause a problem further down the line. With it just being the chimney breast I guess we could paint/paper a different colour to make a feature of it.

With the felt having been ripped off the garage roof earlier in the month there's a small leak, although not as bad as I feared. It seems to only be one place, so I've got a bucket under it and it is motivating me to get the current job list done, so I can start on the garage.

With all the rain yesterday we had an issue with the drain by the back door overflowing. I was able to unblock it myself, but it did raise the question of where is the inspection chamber? Or at least, where should the inspection chamber be? I'll have a word with the neighbours next time I see them, to see if they have one.

Edited by Craikeybaby on Friday 27th December 14:24

[Craikeybaby]

Lynch91 said:

When we had damp marks on one of the chimney breasts in our house we needed a new chimney pot as it had cracked and the cement around it had fallen out over time. We also needed to have the led flashing redone. Seems to have worked.

Thanks, were the damp marks just at the bottom like these? And did they get worse when/after it had rained? When the guys fitted the liner for the stove they said the chimney was fine.

I started another thread and the suggestion there is that it could be related to condensation on the flue, which sounds plausible to me as it doesn't appear to be getting worse with heavy rain, which I'd expect if there was water leaking in from outside.

[Craikeybaby]

At last there has been some progress at 119! We've started painting in the front room, although we're leaving the chimney breast for now. We have a few things we need to sort out before the carpet goes down, but we really need most of the walls painted first.