Building Report

Wow. The house looks very different already.

The building work started this morning or should I say the demolition work started this morning. There are two guys at it and when I popped round at lunchtime to give them a second set of keys much progress had already been made.

As you might expect there is mixed news. Upstairs the rear bedroom no longer has any ceiling or any plaster on any of the walls. Apparently the plaster wasn't "live" (a new phrase I have learned) which means it was no longer attached to the underlying wall. There is a large and rather worrying hole in one corner through which you can see outside! At some point somebody had just decided the best way to fix this problem was to plaster over it! It is difficult to know why the hole is there but obviously it is going to get filled. If it was movement in the walls then it is historic and no cause for alarm for us. There is a lot of repair work to do on all of these walls and I wasn't that impressed with the vertical crack down one wall but I am assured that this is nothing to worry about.

Here are some pictures of what it looks like now (click on any of them to enlarge, they are of reasonable quality and really show the detail). The paper like stuff stacked up on the floor is some very old fashioned loft insulation.









Once these walls have been repaired we can put plasterboard directly onto them and then skim that. This is more expensive in materials but much cheaper in labour and much much quicker in time.

Curiously the other upstairs bedroom is fine and we will be able to keep the ceiling and all of the existing plaster which is great news.

Downstairs we have discovered an old window (or door we need to hack off more plaster to discover which it is) which somebody has just taken out and filled with bricks leaving the soldier courses and wooden lintel in place. The quality of the repair is shocking even to my untrained eye and we will need to put a couple of stongboys in there to prop up the house to remove the bricks and lintel and then replace them. It is not a huge job but there will be an interesting hole in the wall while it is being done. Here is a picture of the wall showing the brickwork. Stunningly poor quality. Even with a DPC this house would have been damp.



The gas supply will be capped tomorrow morning and the water system drained so we will be able to rip out everything else. The house clearance people arrive between 9:00 and 11:00 on Wednesday so all of the clearance will need to be finished by then. It will be tight but the guys seems supremely confident that they will be ready. I'll try and get some more photos Wednesday evening.

Initial Specification

Whilst it is still my intention to project manage the work myself I am going to get a quote from a main contractor for comparative purposes.

In any event I am going to need a specification of work required so here is my first version of it. It is not particularly detailed in as much as it does not specifiy where light switches should go and what radiators to use but it is a start.

I am sure I will have missed out some major items but you've got to start somewhere.

Outside

1. Remove / repair / replace all damaged render from left flank wall as required.
2. Re-point right flank wall as required.
3. Bond “falling” bricks above the front door.
4. Clear front and back garden.
5. Paint all masonry and front door.

Inside

1. Remove current kitchen, bathroom, fitted wardrobes and cupboards, flooring (not floorboards), electrical fittings and heating / plumbing.
2. Remove all plaster from front and back rooms to ceiling
3. Remove plaster as required to all other rooms including back bedroom ceiling.
4. Repair / replace downstairs joists as required and ensure that they are not touching outside walls.
5. Repair current stair treads as required.
6. Install airbricks to provide adequate under floor ventilation.
7. Install chemical DPC to outside wall in two reception rooms.
8. Treat all wood for worm etc.
9. Install new window with lintel to new upstairs bathroom.
10. Install studwork for new upstairs bathroom and hall.
11. Install new soil pipe and waste to upstairs bathroom and connect to main drain.
12. Re-wire house including new fuse box.
13. Install new boiler and heating system.
14. Brick up windows no longer required.
15. Plaster all rooms as required.
16. Replace / repair skirting board as required.
17. Replace all windows as specified.
18. Install and fit new kitchen
19. Install and fit new upstairs bathroom
20. Sand downstairs floors if possible.
21. Re-glaze existing internal doors and re-hang.
22. Line walls if required.
23. Install insulation into the loft.
24. Paint and decorate all rooms
25. Tile kitchen and bathroom walls and floors as required.
26. Carpet stairs and bedrooms.
27. Fit laminate flooring if sanding downstairs floors is not possible.

If anyone can think of items I have doubtless forgotten please let me know.

Our first (and probably not last) mistake

The survey has arrived and whilst in most things it is as expected there is one big shock and it helps to emphasise the “amateur” in amateur property developer.

The surveyor confirmed that the house was structurally sound and that the roof had been replaced at some point. Interestingly the current roof is made from interlocking concrete whereas the original roof would have been slate. It would have been nice if the people who carried out the replacement had used slate but that would have been prohibitively expensive and we are not going to change it now.

The problem with a concrete roof is that it weighs three times as much as slate and the weight of it has put added pressure on the outside walls and pushed them out; a bit like being sat on by an elephant as opposed to a cat (there may be some differences of scale with this analogy!) Luckily the surveyor is of the opinion that any movement is historical and is no cause for concern now.

The survey goes on to say that the electrics and plumbing need complete replacement (no problem there) and mentions a handful of other items that we were aware of with brickwork, rendering and so on.

Then the bombshell hits!

The house has rising damp and does not have a damp course. This is a blow. We knew the house was damp but foolishly assumed it was because it had been empty for a long time, we didn’t even think about the possibility of no damp proof course.

In addition the survey showed that the floor sloped down from right to left as you look at the house and whilst this might not be serious it could be that due to a lack of under floor ventilation that some or all of the joists holding the floor up may have perished. It is not possible to gain access to look under the floorboards as they are covered with hardboard which is fitted in such a way that it won’t go back down again. The best case is that some may need to be repaired but the worst is that all of the downstairs floor joists will need to be replaced. This last option is unlikely as jumping up and down on the floor produces no movement so we should be ok. The problem is that we won’t really know until we lift the floorboards.

A bit of research (how did we do this before the internet) indicates that installing a DPC is not that bad in itself but it is the repairs afterwards that prove expensive (re-plastering and so on). Luckily we need to re-plaster anyway so hopefully this won’t add too much to the overall expense of the project.

We have asked a couple of damp specialist to go and have a look and provide a quote and whilst waiting for that I have asked the estate agent to ask the seller if we can take up some of the floor (hopefully this Monday) to see what is underneath. However bad it is I don’t think it will stop us wanting to complete the purchase as replacing the floors would stretch but not kill the budget. The hope is that we will know the costs of nearly all the work required by the time we complete so the budget is as accurate as possible.

We have already had window companies, electricians and plumbers round to the house to quote and should have their figures very soon. It will be interesting to see how close our estimates are.

No more surprises please!