The Corroded Rising Water Main

I mentioned that the water main had been found to be corroded and, as a result, the floor work had to be suspended until the water main could be fixed. The job was done today (I am most grateful to Curtis & Carder Ltd) and here are some photos of the corroded pipe.

It might have been only precautionary (and also expensive) but I am sure that, in a year or two, we would have had a massive leak in the hall; if we had continued and done the floor, that would have been most annoying and a lot more expensive!

No further comment or comment is neccessary!

Doing Things Again

There are lots of things on this house that I did myself, and I had to learn a lot on the job.  Now, two years since we moved in, I have found that in some cases there were clearly things that I did not appreciate or understand at the time, and so some things are having to be re-done.

The first of these is my back gate; it is actually an old ledged and braced back door.  This was made redundant when we re-built the extension as there was no point in having two back doors.  I had a vision of re-using it as half of my back gates, and was delighted to acquire a partner as a swap for some old glass.  Both were the same hand, so all I had to do was to change the braces on my old one and sort out the surface finish.  They came up a treat with some gloss black which matches the front door, and now provide some security by solidly blocking the way to any passing ne'er-do-well (see photos here).

However, late last year I saw that some of the paint was flaking off my old door, on what used to be the inside. Now, it is looking very sad indeed, and clearly needs attention.  Noticeably, the paint is not flaking where I replaced the braces (the slanting bits) - they were old bits of bare floor board and are still looking good with their coats of primer, undercoat and topcoat.  The problem is with the old ledges (the horizontal bits).  I suspect that, despite my best intentions, the door was not fully dried out when I re-painted it, so at some stage soon I shall have to strip that side and start again.  I really didn't want to have to do things like this again.

Another similar example was sort of my fault where I was misled by the term "transit primer" which was the only finish available on the new bits of soil pipe which I bought (see here).  I happily applied black Hammerite on the top before we installed them, and 18 months later I saw it was all flaking.  So this time, up a ladder, I have removed all the old paint and this grotty primer using a wire brush and Stanley knife; then I coated them with red oxide before adding more black Hammerite.  Hopefully this lot will last longer!

Then there's my kitchen worktop. We bought a new kitchen from W----s, and chose an interesting bamboo worktop (see photos at this entry) which requires occasional recoating.  There's nothing in the literature to warn about any possible problems but 'Er Indoors has recently demonstrated the corrosive properties of caustic soda.  She did not realize that some had been splashed onto the worktop near the sink; we only noticed these spots when wiping the worktop and seeing spots appear before our eyes, as the water from the cloth sank into the wood and darkened it!  I have tried sanding and re-applying the coating but the problem is still there.  Now all I can do is to find a way of neutralizing the alkali (with some acid, I guess) and then re-apply the coating after sanding the whole lot.  Another waste of time.

Now there are some more doors: the specially-made (i.e. expensive) 2 inch thick pine front door replaced an older, rotting one, also in pine.  I paid extra for kiln-dried wood but even so it has warped and at some times of the year becomes difficult to open; I have not been able to use the mortise lock since March.  In the same way, the cheaper internal door to the loo in the rebuilt extension has warped - at least that only cost £50; bl---dy W----s!  Finally, the external door in the rebuilt extension is rejecting its paint and starting to look mottles and streaky.  I can only presume that the undercoat did not like the stuff that T----- P's supplier had covered it with, but what do I use now to fix it?

On their own, none of these are going to cause me huge grief, but taken together, when I still have plenty of work to do, I really could do without this additional workload.  What really gets me is that one of my deliberate philosophies in doing this rebuild was that I expect to be here for 10, 20 or more years, so I wanted to spend that bit more and get things right first time; I did NOT want to be in exactly this position in that time, and certainly did not expect it in such a short timescale.

The Saga of the Water Meter

In almost every decision on restoring this house, I deliberately tended to adopt the long term solution.  After all, we expect to be living here for a fair while, so the more expensive long term solutions were always worth considering as we would derive the benefit.  One such was the sheepswool loft insulation (see this page); this was quite expensive but it allows the ceilings to breathe, and is so much nicer to work with than the glass stuff which irritates.  Another has been the acrylic secondary glazing (see this page), which has made the house so much more comfortable, and in any case will have paid for itself in two years or less.  Other investments are purely financial, based on the expectation that we will still own the house in ten or more years' time; one such item was the water meter.  We had one in our rented house in 2010, and the experience was that, with just two of us living there, the meter had saved us about £150 per year.  So it was a no-brainer to have one fitted here and, quite naturally, I wanted it done early in the restoration.

I had identified that the mains supply for the house had a stop cock under a plastic cover in the pavement; there were two stop cocks inside the house; the main one was in the hall and fed a flexible (washing machine quality?) pipe which went to the bathroom above and had supplied the cold tank (which had already been removed to the garden!).  The other supply went to the old extension, and I had had the plumber fit a new internal tap so that we could properly attach a hose for the plastering and floor laying.  When that was working I had the plumber feed the other supply through to the kitchen so that it was ready there, but out of the way of planned work.

So, early in 2011 I made an application to Thames Water for a meter.  They sent out a workman (actually a contractor) who looked at everything and asked me if I wanted an internal or external meter.  I said "external if possible", not wanting to have a meter getting in the way of the kitchen floor and plaster work about to be tackled.  Little did I know.  A crew was sent without delay, and they very speedily fitted a meter under the pavement.  OK so far!

There was an amusing small glitch later in the year - when doing the extension we found that the water supply in the old extension actually carried on under the brick wall separating our back gardens and fed our neighbour's outside tap.  This would not normally be a concern, but in fact it had been used as the sole supply for the construction of a £3 million building at the back; this was an arrangement which preceded the sale of next door, and when they purchased it, the builders had an obligation to pay his water bill for a period.  As it happens, the construction had been completed about two months before I asked for the meter, which was fortuitous.  My neighbour admitted that he had been puzzled that his water bill was completely normal!

Having moved in (July 2011), I had a very low bill the next month, followed in February 2012 by a quite reasonable one of £91 for a six month period.  You can imagine my consternation when in August 2012 I received my second six month bill for £274.  Now, the house next door (not our other half but a separate cottage) had been rented out from February 2012, having been empty for over a year; it was not difficult to do a quick bit of detective work and spot that there was no other water main cover in the pavement for 15 metres, and so clearly they had fitted the meter to a shared supply. D'oh!

I can write this now in the cool light of reflection of the last five months.  That time was regularly punctuated with me telephoning Thames Water and getting not much satisfaction.  It took a considerable amount of persistence to resolve this issue, and their first level help desk staff became predictable in their complete lack of ability to achieve anything.   Their typical response was to say that someone would call in 6 working days but nothing happened.  One really stupid thing that someone did was to rescind all their bills back to when the meter was fitted (although the meter readings WERE valid and acceptable to me for almost a year), and then send out a bill for the standard rate for April 2011 to April 2013, so that I owed them £789, payable at once!

If you have the same sort of issue, my top tip is that at the first excuse you say the magic words "I want to escalate this issue".  Once I had been passed on to the "Escalation Department" I had much better service and progress was made, ultimately successfully.  Sadly for me that did not happen until I had wasted nine weeks and many phone calls in trying.  A second top tip is to keep a good record of your phone calls; it really gets the attention of the Manager in the "Escalation Department" when you can name the idiot who failed to do what he promised four months ago, and when you give a string of names and dates they quickly realize that you do indeed have a point.  The other thing to remember is that it is (usually) not the fault of the person to whom you are speaking, but one of their colleagues, so a plaintive sob story with a hint of desperation gets a far better response than shouting at the poor unfortunate one who was unlucky enough to get your call.

The result for me was that in order to have a meter it had to be internal.  Of course, this would have been much easier if it had been done before installing our new kitchen (June 2011), so there was a bit of an issue as to where to put it.  The only sensible place was under the sink, and Thames Water said that their installer needed six inches "all the way around" to fit the meter.  Now, it is natural to fit pipes within two inches of the wall and floor, isn't it?  This is what my plumber had done, and they wanted me to sort out the pipes before they would send someone to fit the meter.  I rather griped at that generous use of space which would have used the entire space underneath my sink for just the meter, and asked if my plumber could fit the meter as well.  This did not seem to be allowable, but they sent a man to look at the possibilities; he actually brought a meter with him, which somehow I persuaded him to leave and I then paid my plumber £96 to fit it right at the back of  the sink cupboard.  Good job!  All up and running.

I have today received their latest bill and I'm £165 in credit.  They wouldn't pay my £96 but the nice young woman has used a low figure for estimating the consumption if I'd had a meter which gave valid readings.  This has (deliberately or inadvertently?) given that sum back to me, so I'll let that drop, as I am really fed up with phoning their hepdesk!

Another Ghost Story

I wrote last year (see this page) about a slightly spooky experience when I smelled perfume whilst stripping paint off a window cill.  Well, I've had another little experience which worried me for a few days.

Whilst working in our new kitchen, I had the distinct impression of someone or something in the garden going past the kitchen sash window - you know, just a movement in your peripheral vision.  The first couple of times, I ignored this as just a quirk of my eyesight but, after a few occasions on different days and times, I wondered to Jane whether I was seeing things.  She said sympathetically that I must be due to see an optician (which is probably true).  Personally, I was wondering if it was my guardian angel working overtime on keeping me safe from various near accidents whilst working on this house.

Then, a couple of days ago, I was looking out of the sash window (at the pile of logs still awaiting splitting with my Christmas present, if you want to know) when a

Drainpipes and Drains

One of the important last jobs was to sort out the cast iron drainpipe from the bathroom - the one that takes the grey water into a hopper and then via 8ft of downpipe and a shoe into the gully at the bottom.  Having lowered the ground level by about five inches beside the house, the recessed gully was now too high; I was not happy with the condition of the downpipe anyway, but since lowering the ground the earthenware had become broken and so water from the bathroom was going all over the ground.  In fact it was quite surprising to see just how much water was being used by the shower - I always thought that they were economical with water but now I wonder.

Hence I decided to gather all the necessary bits together so that I could do the whole thing in one day.  The new 2.5" downpipe and the hopper were actually a renovation of the remaining good bits of the rainwater system which was all replaced over a year ago with 3" (without hoppers).  A thorough job was done with hot air and a scraper, followed by a wire brush and then a couple of coats of black Hammerite (photo right).  All the old shoes were all past it so I had to buy one of those brand new (£££) as well as some coach screws and galvanized washers.

Although I was totally happy to respect the house and comply with all legalities by using cast iron downpipe etc, the gully trap was clearly going to be a new plastic one - and a decent quality OSMA one at that.  Colin the groundworker would never speak to me again if I had bought a W****s own brand!  I then needed an annoyingly short piece of 110mm soil pipe to connect to the main sewer at the inspection cover.  This was really annoying because I needed less than 3 feet of soil pipe but you can only buy 3 metre lengths!  I know it's not expensive (probably just a waste of £10) but just what do you do with the useless piece 2 metres long?  Anyway, I asked both Colin and Steve the plumber and was given a spare bit for nothing, which was just the right length.  The final item was some pea gravel on which to bed the new pipe and gully.

Hence, after all possible preparation, it was time to do the job.  The drainpipe was rather more securely attached to the wall than I had expected, but eventually it gave way to my persuasion (hence the bare bit below the white plastic pipe at the top of the later photo, left).  One of the pins securing the hopper resisted to the end and, sadly, the hopper flange broke leaving a bent pin still in the wall to be ground off later.  I took the drainpipe (2 sections plus a shoe) down carefully in one piece; later, I thought I would try to see if I could separate it, and the first thing I did caused it to break into four pieces!  However, it was quite gratifying to find the pre-existing ('cos they are already rusty) cracks in it, one of which extended lengthwise down the entire six foot section of pipe (see photo right).  Another old crack was 80% of the circumference of the pipe near the collar.  Yes, it was all scrap.

Then it was the turn of the gully and the pipe which was encased in concrete.  It was with a slightly heavy heart that I took my sledgehammer to the earthenware but, within a minute, I had done the deed; happily I could stop feeling guilty as there had clearly been a long-standing leak between the trap and pipe.  After that, it was pretty plain sailing to fit all the bits of the complete new system, starting with the pipe and gully, then working up the downpipe from the shoe to the hopper.  I did find that some of the drilling for the coach screws seemed to be too much for my (fairly new) drill - I think the bricks are VERY tough but perhaps the (not old) drill bits are now knackered as well. Finally I cemented the new soil pipe in the old hole under the frame of the inspection cover, ensuring that the pipe had a very slight fall on it.

Here's a photo of the finished job (compare to the one at the top):

Emboldened by this success, I decided to tackle the new inspection cover (at the back of the extension) which is mounted on some 230mm pipe about 18" high.  This had been left uncut when Colin fitted it so that I could choose the ground level later.  I cut this down to size by sawing about 15" off it, so now I have a trip hazard but at least the level is right, about 3" above the hardcore.  However, since I want to sort the ground fairly soon, it shouldn't be a problem for long.

The next thing to sort will be the pathway alongside the house, between the house and the elevated garden.  I want to make it like a sort of Devon lane instead of how it was during the excavations (right)!  Having lowered the ground level I am loath to refit a path right up to the house again (as if!) and would like to keep the extra four or five inches of wall as breathing space - it definitely all helps.  I have found some heavy duty iron gratings (27" x 9" x 2") at £15 each (which sounds expensive until you find out what old church gratings cost, if you can find them).  If I can work out how to support these (they are probably about 15-20kg each) then I will fit them beside the house wall, and the path surface will then be 9 inches away from the wall.  The path surface will be either concrete or paving slabs or self compacting gravel as successfully used on the drive (or a mixture of all these in different places).  I also need path edging near to the garden wall as I want to have a narrow flower bed at the base of the garden wall.  Plenty of time for that this summer...

Meanwhile, 'Er indoors has just used the newly installed washing machine for the first time.  Happiness indeed!

A Loo and a Washing Machine

Well, the plumbers have been, and most efficient they have been too.  In about four hours the two of them fitted the new loo, the corner basin with tap and outlet, the tap and outlet in the utility sink, and the washing machine supply and outlet.  Apart from the lack of electricity for the washing machine, we are all ready to go once the sealant sets, so I'll probably have an initiation ceremony tomorrow when I'll fix the worktop and base unit properly.

I have spent a fair bit of time on odd jobs in preparation for this event.  Once the floors were laid and grouted (see this page from January) I had to do tiling behind the loo and basin, assemble the base unit, cut the worktop and fit the steel sink in it, and then fit and paint the skirting board that goes behind the sink unit (as this will be visible beside the washing machine).  I know that professionals do this sort of thing much faster than me, but it still seems to me that there is no real reason why I should pay someone for a job that I can do - and I can feel proud of the achievements afterwards!

I would post some photos of the utility and loo in the extension but, like our main bathroom, they are so small that it is almost impossible to get a decent and meaningful photo.  It's all black (worktop), white (all tiles, sanitary ware and the base unit) or stainless steel (the sink), so please use your imagination!

I now need to finish the plastering so that the electrician can come and do his second fix.  I didn't properly appreciate the time required for the lime plastering (I have no excuse after all the other work done here) and really I should have started it before doing the floor if I wanted to finish earlier.  Never mind, where's the hurry?  I guess the electrics will get done in about ten days time, and I've plenty to keep me busy whilst the plaster goes off.  For instance, today I stripped and painted a 6ft cast iron downpipe and a hopper which will be a job to fit in place of the ones for the bathroom grey water outlet.  The fitted ones are in danger of falling off the wall and, as we've lowered the ground level, they are too short.

Warm, Snug and Cosy

It's been quite a mild winter here so far, with only one really bitter spell, but this last week we have had some persistent 70mph winds - but it's good to be able to say that this house is warm, snug and cosy. The theory of how to eliminate dampness has been amply demonstrated already in our first winter in the house, and we are experiencing the results.

The logic is quite simple really: ingress of water equals dampness, and dampness equals chilly and clammy cold which freezes your fingertips, shivers your spine and generally makes you tired and miserable. By tackling every cause of dampness, from the chimneys on top of the roof down to the ground outside which was higher than the floor levels, we have eliminated the cause of this misery. Now, the expensively heated air in the house isn't being consumed by the latent heat of vaporization (*** see below) of the water in the floors and walls but instead it hangs about and warms us. The radiators are on at a pretty constant setting of about 19 deg C, and if it's a bit chilly indoors we either light a fire or put a jumper on (or both!).

To be honest this drying out has happened sooner than I expected. I knew that I had to sort all the causes of water ingress in whatever form, but I anticipated that the house structure with damp 18 inch thick walls would have taken more than one summer to dry properly. However, they say that 2011 was one of the warmest on record because we had a warm spring and and a warm autumn - the summer wasn't bad but there was no risk of sunstroke here. The result was that the outside air temperature was pretty good for a very long period - just what is required to dry something thoroughly.

Before Christmas I put in some effort to sort out wood to burn, from the copious supply of old rafters, battens and floorboards etc. This effort was largely wasted as we only lit fires on about three days over Christmas! Talking of Christmas, I have mentioned already my two really useful presents: a log splitter and a moisture content meter. The former is still awaiting its first use, as anything I split now can't be used until next winter at the earliest, but the latter has already shown that some bits of wood I thought were dry enough were in fact far too damp - burning damp wood gives poor fires and can damage the stove and the flue. By the same token, the various chemicals used in modern paint and wood preservatives can also damage your fire and, more importantly, yourself. All the wood I mention above is really old and was never treated with anything!

Back to heating and dampness, we made a major step forward with the extension this week: apart from starting the decoration, we have had the first fix plumbing done. Since the house boiler is already working, and the system included supply pipes for the extension, the new radiators have been installed and commissioned. So the extension has heat (what a difference!!) and the remnants of damp plastering are now drying as well (then I can finish the decoration). The floor is next...


*** Water doesn't just turn into water vapour as it warms up (one calorie being the amount of heat required to warm one cc of water by one degree Celsius) - it needs significant extra heat to cause it to become a gas. This is called the latent heat of vaporization. Put it another way, if you warm up water, some of the calories will be used to vaporize it and so will not increase the temperature of anything! So a wet wall requires a lot of heat to dry it, but once dry it will warm up with less heat.

Suddenly, we're nearly finished

The Scent of the Past?

I had my first slightly spooky experience in the house this week. I was stripping the thick layers of paint on the window cill in the main bedroom with my heat gun and favourite scraper.  The window was open and suddenly there was a really strong smell of perfume, as though someone wearing half a bottle had walked past the first floor window.  Then it happened again and it seemed that the smell was actually coming from the paint!  Was I really disturbing the accumulated smell of perfume bottles set on the window cill by the spinsters (first Miss Coleman and then Miss Dealey) who lived here from 1925 until 1984?  I'd just love to know what perfume they wore!

Nearly Finished

It seems strange after so many months work to realise that we are mere days from being able to move in.  Of course, it won't be finished then, just liveable, but moving in will be a great step forward, of course.  Many jobs have been prioritised on the basis of whether they assist the moving-in day, so refurbishment of the sash windows, for instance, has taken a back seat, as has the rebuild of the Victorian "service wing" (as the conservation officer calls it), which has a roof still covered in green tarpaulin and a brick wall in danger of collapse.

The last two weeks have seen huge leaps forward, with many tasks coming good in quick succession; I reckon that 14 different tradesmen have worked in the house in that fortnight. After the driveway (see last week's entry), we have seen the delivery and installation of two new windows, the fitting of the kitchen units, delivery and fitting of the kitchen appliances, installation of the gas boiler, installation of the lounge fireplace and mantel, and the fitting of the bathroom units, not to mention the rest (almost) of the second fix electrics and plumbing.  In that time I myself have tiled and grouted the bathroom (mostly), grouted half the kitchen floor, repaired mortar around the soil pipe, and sanded/painted doors, skirting boards etc, not to mention continuous tidying up!

The one failure was the installation of the new cill for the kitchen window. First, Chris dropped and broke the newly cast cill, then he broke his own foot in a small motor bike accident.  Hopefully, we can muster enough muscle to fit the new cill in a few days, as it lets the draught in under the newly installed window (left) which at least is already a huge improvement on the old galvanised steel door and windows (right).

 The kitchen looks wonderful; the two excellent fitters worked hard and most skilfully, although it did take them from Monday until Friday morning to turn the packs (left) into the finished article (right).  It looks even better with the range installed (below).

I like our new decorative arch on the fireplace in the lounge; this is how it has progressed from horrible (as bought) to great with an intermediate step this week:

My list of tasks is still quite large - it includes making a wardrobe (before we can lay carpets), as well as lots of decorating and tiling.  So, we're on course to move in early in July (and this is June 24th!); then we can start on the service wing, for which we are putting in the necessary applications very soon.

Finally, I was much amused by the fact that our new range has a dog chain.  Honestly.  Apparently it is to ensure that the range does not fall forward when the heavy doors are all opened.  Presumably this has happened to someone and I feel sorry for them.  I guess that someone then at the major range manufacturer has decreed that, to avoid a similar event, a chain should be attached at the back of the range.  However, commonsense has been lost along the way: this range does not have heavy cast iron doors, but rather its doors are light, similar to an oven, and the chain is totally redundant!  Another stupidity done in the name of Health and Safety!

It's getting stressful

I suppose it had to get stressful somewhen, and in many ways I have done well to avoid the stress for seven months.  However, we plan to move in by July 8th (and this is June 11th), there is still so much to do in four weeks, and the stress is now getting to me.  I've just been let down by a contractor who was going to clear the front garden for the driveway, so I'm overcoming the stress of that by doing it myself and saving the money.  I've written before about people who have tight project plans which cause them extra stress as well as costing them extra money, and it was my deliberate policy to try to avoid a similar situation. So much for that idea!

The photo (left) shows some electrical switches and sockets.  Not just any switches and sockets, but OUR switches and sockets, which are all now live!  On Friday I had the pleasure of plugging my electrical tools into the proper socket - away with the long extension leads, just plug it in!  It is surprising how tidying up the loose wires coming out from every wall makes the whole place seem so much more completed.

Also, the kitchen has arrived (photo right).  Looking at the huge pile of boxes, I am really glad that I am not fitting it all myself. 

I'd like to think that all remaining work is organised with contractors planned to come along and do their bit at the right moment, but I know that life is not like that.  Every time that I have had even two contractors at the same time, it has been quite a strain with their conflicting requirements, but over the next two weeks I expect to have seven different contractors working, so I anticipate some severe conflict.  The other work to be done is completion of the second fix plumbing and electrics, installation of a newly made window cill, fitting the kitchen sash window, fitting the lounge fire, doing the driveway (with a dropped kerb) and (significantly) fitting the entire kitchen.  Additionally, I have to do certain tasks myself such as grouting the kitchen floor, painting the kitchen walls and finishing the bathroom tiling; then, before moving in, I also have to finish the decorating upstairs and make a wardrobe for the main bedroom, plus then get a couple of carpets fitted.  There is also a slight worry about whether we actually have space for everything, and so I'm wondering if I should buy a large shed or even a big tent!

A week without plastering

This has been quite a varied week.  Firstly, I spent a long time getting rid of over 200 ten litre plastic tubs, which were the containers for the lime mortar and plaster.  These have gone back to Mike Wye in Devon together with six pallets and about 130 lids (see photo left).  It's good that these items will get re-used, but getting them sufficiently clean was really quite tedious.  I even got a small refund and a thank-you for doing such a good job on the tubs, but I'm not looking forward to doing the rest in a few weeks time.

I forgot to mention the experience of the postman recently.  Whilst Adam the joiner was fitting the new front door, which was catching on the floor; the only way that he could open the door when he was inside was to lift gently on the letter hole and pull.  On one occasion, by coincidence, when the postman was actually about two milliseconds from putting a letter through the hole, a hand appeared on cue as if to take the letter...!  Shades of the Addams Family?

A really "fun" job today was re-instating the soil pipe to match the new position of the toilet in the bathroom.  I had previously removed the old pipe through the wall, although this necessitated wrecking the existing branch piece (see photo right) in order to get the wall pipe out.  Chris and Shane had then removed the old branch, plus the entire upper section of the soil pipe (complete, in one piece!).  Since the 100-year old joints in the cast iron pipes were done with caulking and lead, this was not an easy job, but they achieved it and saved me having to buy four sections of new pipe at over £77 each.  Then, this week I went in person to collect the new branch and right angle bend (cast iron, of course); this both saved a rather high delivery charge and enabled me to return some surplus bits (from the roof gutters) for credit.  Whilst I was doing this, the plumber's mate was drilling a new 110mm hole through the Cotswold stone wall; to my surprise, this was successful - he must have a really good drill bit.  Finally on Saturday, Chris and Shane fitted all the new pieces and re-fitted the old upper section which I had re-painted on Thursday.  I just need to fill the hole in the wall, and paint the untouched lower portion to match.  Most satisfying to see a job almost finished, although I must confess that the photo (left) shows a slight kink that I didn't notice before!  Can you spot the old hole in the wall?

Otherwise, this week has seen me doing an array of minor jobs such as fixing the tiles at the door from the hall to the lounge, fitting the boards for the bathroom floor (photo right; I said it was a small bathroom), re-fitting and repairing various floorboards after the electrician's tender ministrations (see "Kurt the Destroyer" last December), removing more loose and damp plaster (the last?) and putting two coats of undercoat on the new front door (photo, left).  The new front door and frame look great, which is more than can be said for the surrounding render and the loose electric cable.

Progress on plastering has been zero as both were off sick all week...  I actually felt quite lonely as it was the first week that I have had in the house without contractors being present for at least four days of the week.

Finally, the week ended on a good note as I found, on the council website, that we have been granted planing permission and Listed Building consent for our proposed driveway, subject to the usual plethora of conditions.

Soil Pipes and Useless Joists

Our house has a very small bathroom: 2.1 x 1.5 metres (although it is 3 metres high!).  We usually use a shower not a bath, but feel that a house does need a bath, so we were looking at options of using part of a bedroom for a bath when inspiration struck.  Various suppliers do shower baths which are "P" shaped, so you shower standing in a decent area which is also flat; the inspiration was to discover that they also do these - wait for it - exactly 1.5 metre long.  This then fixes the design of the bathroom as there is only one way that can fit everything in.

Part of this design is that the toilet has to be moved, and this necessitates changing the branch in the soil pipe from left hand (135 degrees) to right hand (112.5 degrees), and moving the branch up a small way.  See existing arrangement, right.  So, this week, I have started by lifting the bathroom floor and removing three feet of the internal soil pipe which is four inch diameter lead pipe.  Being a foul pipe this could have been an awful job but, since the toilet has not been used for ages, it was all dry and so not too bad at all.  The wall of the bathroom was one of the really damp places in the house due to the state of the roof, and so (with the roof fixed) I was very surprised to find dampness still present in the floor.  This was doubtless related to the discovery of a 6mm hole in the side of the lead pipe!  I also found that the toilet had been moved once before as the pipe once went through a large cut-out in the second joist from the wall.  The joist is 7" x 1.75" and the cut-out is almost 6" deep (see gap in front of the pipe in photo left).  This hole had been ignored subsequently when they fitted the floorboards, which had spanned the gap and rested on the rotten end joist... 

Unfortunately, as so often happens, another job appeared whilst doing this one.  The plaster of the hall ceiling under the bathroom floor is not just lath but was actually rotten lath held up by plasterboard.  This combination was in a very bad state (due to the hole in the soil pipe) and, in the corner under the lead pipe (above) the board was not attached to the rotten joist at all!  In no time it was all down in a heap on the floor.  Standing on the few remaining bits of floorboard on joists with just space below is surprisingly disconcerting.

Back to the joists: I quite enjoy this sort of joinery.  Fortunately both joists have good wood at the ends so I have fitted a 6" doubler to each joist, attached to the originals with a copious number of 70mm screws.  In doing this I found that the second joist had predictably split in the middle where the six inch gap started, so I added a couple of screws upwards to re-attach that as well.  In the photo from underneath (see left, before I did the first joist), there is a line of light visible between my doubler and the original second joist - this is where the cut-out was.


The other job was to start removal of the old external soil/vent pipe.  This is an unexpected expense as, to install the new branch, the pipe has to be rebuilt from the ground right up to the (new) flashing in the (new) roof.  I have started by grinding off the old external toilet outlet (right) to remove the pipe in the wall, so that I can progress inside.  We will need to dismantle the old stack, order the required new bits (if we can save any?) and then re-build it all when the new outlet has been fitted.  All that is a joy for a later week! Happy days.