Damp Works

[caddyman]

Ah, Mes Amis I have been away for far too long, yet again. I had hoped to write an update yesterday, but the ancient office IT declined an invitation to engage in conversation with the internet until late afternoon. This in no way justifies my long silence; I have had access to the web pretty much constantly in the meantime, but I just haven’t got around to writing.

So, where have we got up to?

We have just had a fortnight off work, during which we have had work done to the Gin Palace. We knew, when we moved in, that there were a few minor spots of damp, but over the past three years or so, these seem to have got worse, what with the wet winters and rising water table, so we bit the bullet and brought in contractors to hack off a load of plaster in the living room and inject a load of gooey stuff into the walls to provide an artificial damp course.

This has now been done, but we are leaving the top skim of plaster until the spring a) to recharge our finances and b) to be able to monitor whether or not the walls stay properly dry in the event of prolonged rain without mucking up any redecorating. Our neighbours too, are having a huge amount of building work done over the next six months, so having the bare render showing will enable us to keep an eye out for any consequent cracking in the walls arising from that work (though I have to say that the builders have been exceptionally considerate and helpful in the first couple of weeks of work so far.

In tandem with the damp proofing, we have also had a French Drain dug around the front of the house to take water away from the foundations. Hopefully, the two measures together will allow the Gin Palace to remain dry and damp-free for many years to come.

The upshot of all this is that we spent a large portion of the fortnight we were off either hiding from workmen upstairs, or cleaning and tidying the place. It’s the wrong end of the year for a spring clean, but that’s what it got.

With the work going on next door, we have additional, if temporary, easy access to the side of the conservatory that abuts number 65, so we have also sanded and re-covered the woodwork with preservative since when the building work is completed I shall have to hire someone substantially skinnier than me to get into the gap to do the work. Actually, I think there will be more space than that statement suggests, but nonetheless, it would have been silly to ignore the opportunity.

All this, plus a little desultory gardening, has filled our fortnight as has some questing on Warcaft.

It was a holiday, but not as we’d know it, Jim.

Comments

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the damp; I'm trying to fix some of the horrid stuff myself at the minute and it's proving trickier than Paul Daniels.