Nothing that appears easy, ever is!
Discussion
Why is it that whenever I tackle another aspect of turning this cess pit into a habitable home something either falls down or the whole process goes completely tits up due to the slack arsed procession of workmen that have bodged this house over the past few decades.
This weeks debacle has been centred around the seemingly easy job of a quick bathroom re-fit. Now seeing as the bathroom had only been rebuilt in the last ten years you would imagine that it would be just a case of rip out the old suite fit a new one and onwards with the tiling etc. Nope not a chance in hell was that ever going to happen. The stud wall that was fitted to close up where the bathroom door originally existed was so far on the piss that one could only assume it had a good night out in a brothel somewhere in eastern Europe (was originally a separate toilet and bathroom). The simple task of chasing two water pipes into the plaster ended up with the two inch thick plaster residing on the floor before it had been even threatened with a hammer and chisel. This revealed more of the superb craftsmanship bestowed on this palatial dump. Big gaping holes in the wall where the original internal wall had once been. Gaping may be a tad much as they had used the technological structural marvel that is scrunched up newspaper to support such chasms. This gave way to much hilarity as I had to prop up the heavy concrete lintel with acrows to prevent in dropping on my head as the whole wall required rebuilding as it had shifted that much.
Well in for a penny in for a pound as they say, I thought it would be prudent to remove the rest of the plaster to ensure no more miracles of modern construction stayed hidden. I never knew the bathroom had an air brick until the lump of wood that was blocking it was uncovered. The wasps nest behind it was more concerning but thankfully they must have noticed how shoddily this place was build and decided to reside elsewhere. What exactly is the point in blocking up an air vent when you leave the external airbrick open? I’ll not go into the vast amount of space around the soil and drain pipes that the master craftsmen deemed suitable, suffice to say more than a few bricks were required to fill those gaps. Ran a straight edge over the remaining walls to make sure they were level enough to tile and to my immense surprise the top and bottom of the walls were plumb just a minor issue of the rest of the wall being at least an inch out in the centre. I never thought that there was a fashion for concave walls, I must have had the only myopic plasterer on the planet work on this house.
So much for an easy job eh! New floor, new walls, new plaster and I still haven’t even managed to tile it as the plaster is going to have to dry out for a while.
Oh and to cap it all off I seem to have acquired a bloody lodger in the form of a mouse. Nearly caught the little bugger yesterday as it seems to have taken some brave pills and casually wandered into the front room whilst I was watching a dvd. They can move quite fast especially when chased by a rolled up newspaper wielding lunatic. I suppose the plus side is the spider population has diminished somewhat. When I first moved in it was like the scene in the barn from Arachnophobia as the place had been empty for quite a while.
Every room has ended up similar to this one. God help me when it's time to sort the kitchen!
Plasters a bit loose
Nearly there
Still not finished
This weeks debacle has been centred around the seemingly easy job of a quick bathroom re-fit. Now seeing as the bathroom had only been rebuilt in the last ten years you would imagine that it would be just a case of rip out the old suite fit a new one and onwards with the tiling etc. Nope not a chance in hell was that ever going to happen. The stud wall that was fitted to close up where the bathroom door originally existed was so far on the piss that one could only assume it had a good night out in a brothel somewhere in eastern Europe (was originally a separate toilet and bathroom). The simple task of chasing two water pipes into the plaster ended up with the two inch thick plaster residing on the floor before it had been even threatened with a hammer and chisel. This revealed more of the superb craftsmanship bestowed on this palatial dump. Big gaping holes in the wall where the original internal wall had once been. Gaping may be a tad much as they had used the technological structural marvel that is scrunched up newspaper to support such chasms. This gave way to much hilarity as I had to prop up the heavy concrete lintel with acrows to prevent in dropping on my head as the whole wall required rebuilding as it had shifted that much.
Well in for a penny in for a pound as they say, I thought it would be prudent to remove the rest of the plaster to ensure no more miracles of modern construction stayed hidden. I never knew the bathroom had an air brick until the lump of wood that was blocking it was uncovered. The wasps nest behind it was more concerning but thankfully they must have noticed how shoddily this place was build and decided to reside elsewhere. What exactly is the point in blocking up an air vent when you leave the external airbrick open? I’ll not go into the vast amount of space around the soil and drain pipes that the master craftsmen deemed suitable, suffice to say more than a few bricks were required to fill those gaps. Ran a straight edge over the remaining walls to make sure they were level enough to tile and to my immense surprise the top and bottom of the walls were plumb just a minor issue of the rest of the wall being at least an inch out in the centre. I never thought that there was a fashion for concave walls, I must have had the only myopic plasterer on the planet work on this house.
So much for an easy job eh! New floor, new walls, new plaster and I still haven’t even managed to tile it as the plaster is going to have to dry out for a while.
Oh and to cap it all off I seem to have acquired a bloody lodger in the form of a mouse. Nearly caught the little bugger yesterday as it seems to have taken some brave pills and casually wandered into the front room whilst I was watching a dvd. They can move quite fast especially when chased by a rolled up newspaper wielding lunatic. I suppose the plus side is the spider population has diminished somewhat. When I first moved in it was like the scene in the barn from Arachnophobia as the place had been empty for quite a while.
Every room has ended up similar to this one. God help me when it's time to sort the kitchen!
Plasters a bit loose
Nearly there
Still not finished
It was originally a window and to fill the hole with a new set of french doors which would have to be custom made would have been in excess of a grand. I bought new Rationel hardwood french doors on Ebay for £130 which included the low e glass. Total price with extra materials was just a smidge over £200. So for the sake of losing a foot either side I saved £800. I spend a lot of time searching for clearance lines and trawl ebay for bargains to keep costs down.
wolf1 said:
It was originally a window and to fill the hole with a new set of french doors which would have to be custom made would have been in excess of a grand. I bought new Rationel hardwood french doors on Ebay for £130 which included the low e glass. Total price with extra materials was just a smidge over £200. So for the sake of losing a foot either side I saved £800. I spend a lot of time searching for clearance lines and trawl ebay for bargains to keep costs down.
And in ten years time someone else will be re-doing the job and asking "who the hell was the cheap git who bodged this mess up with cheap used Ebay tat and eastern European imported knock off junk????"Only joking.
andy43 said:
Now you've finished, is now a good time to mention Fensa?
No need to have anything to do with fensa when you have the works inspected by the local buildings inspector 
Had inspection done at same time as some other notifiable projects that were in the process of being completed. It just made sense to get them all signed off at the same time to save costs on separate visits. Just got to submit a buildings notice for the garage extension. 
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