8.00pm tonight on BBC2

[Anonymous]

I doubt it.....
These programmes while they can be informative, the ol producer will be in the background wanting more gore and blood to get the ratings up.
Look at Grand Designs and the wording "I fear they have left it to late and the weather is closing in" bit
Scary............

 

[Anonymous]

My area of work - sort of, but I don't actually get paid for it! Although I do seem to spend most of my time on it, one way or another.

Possibly you may visit the V and A exhibition of 30 years of SAVE opened today.

I'm involved with SAVE.



http://www.savebritainsheritage.org

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Evelyn,

Conservation officers can stipulate the use of certain materials and techniques within a listed building consent.

They can also visit properties and stop inappropriate work.

They also have a duty to ensure that work is undertaken in accordance with what has been listed in the listed building consent.

I believe that not enough effort and time is spent on the policing of the system and enforcement.

Did you read about the South African policeman who now works in the UK who has made over 300 arrests in 10 months completely outstripping the UK average which I believe is well be low 40. What makes him so different.

Sometimes there is a need to look at how you work and what you do with your time to improve your efficiency.

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

I bet the unions are not happy with him;-)

 

[Anonymous]

If you are new to the listed building scenario then please do go on the SPAB home owners course, you will learn a great deal, and then just live in the house for a year whilst you carry on learning from books and this site, before you do anything to it.

If you want to, you will be amazed at how much you will learn in that time, and once you have understood the processes and principles you will save yourself costly mistakes and avoid irreversible damage to the building. You will find that some CO's are better than others, some builders are cowboys and some are not, but not necessarily interested in conservation and therefore will still recommend the wrong things. You need time to catch up.

I recommend you find yourself a surveyor who is a specialist in sympathetic conservation of similar types of buildings (again, if you ring SPAB and ask them they will recommend suitable surveyors in your area, the general surveyor down the road will not necessarily be right). Once you've moved in, pay the surveyor to give the place a really good check and write a report, detailing works to consider, methods of tackling them, and a time scale of urgency.

Softly, softly, catchy monkey!

Sue
PS And yes, Evelyn does know an awful lot about conservation and preservation of historic buildings, both ruins and not quite deteriorated that far buildings.

 

[Anonymous]

I have only seen plaster and render around stone like that.
I reckon I shall go on that lime course see how it is done, if it's done at all.

 

[Anonymous]

There are many days when I'm glad we don't have a TV, this is another of them. I'd have hated it by the sounds of it.

Sadly, unless you are Marianne Suhr, it would seem that doing it right is not sexy. TV programmes about people with too much money and little sense seem to be considered sexy at present.

The thing I fear most about this spate of TV programmes is the fact that they alert people to the potential of getting their hands on something precious to make a buck or modernise. All in all I think the historic buildings of the UK were probably safer before the publicity.

And what are we going to do about Building Societies? Something does need to be done. They insist again and again on incorrect and unnecessary treatments to peroid houses. They are seen as figures of authority by the hapless inexperienced house owner, and so what they insist on gets done. I think this needs sorting out, but I can't think where to start!

Sue

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Jake,

you're right. They most probably wouldn't like me. But any union which exists solely to protect existing working practices these days is only storing up problems for the future.

Re-evaluating how you work, why things are done, how things can be improved is the only way forward if you are seeking to get more done in the time allocated.

If any COs are out there could they explain to me what barriers stop them, if this is the case, from being more rigourous in enforceing listed building consent and any stipulations within it once work has begun?

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

Rob - amazingly, you may be astonished to hear, I am very aware of the laws and planning policies rearding listed buildings. I spend much of my waking hours doing stuff connected with that, one way and another, and arguing on the side of the buildings. The rhetoric and the reality...It all sucks really.

I am also very very aware of the limited powers that CO's actually have. I can show you examples of horrific things done to listed buildings which after a massive fuss and enforcement action have been allowed to remain because the councillors on the committee have said they think it's all fine. They are the ones with the power, if not the expertise.

My local authority has one vastly overworked CO with a huge area to cover stuffed full of historic buildings and a WHS. She is run off her feet as it is, and has only so much time in a day.

In my county, one CO covers three local authorities. Some local authorities don't even have a CO.

It's been raised at Commons Select Committeee level. Has any more money been forthcoming? No.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello Rob
Hear I go again
Many years ago when I was but a lad, working on a building site........... The many a times I were told these immortal words.
"slow down, your going to fast the lads won't like it they'll have the union on to you "
I see by what you have said that nothing has changed
(well in the police force any way)
;-)

 

[Anonymous]

I quite like Ptolo myself - Marianne is very nice of course, but...

Yes you would have hated it. The other half gave up in disgust, I felt it my duty to watch it.

Grrr.

 

[Anonymous]

Excuse me Evelyn, but what is a WHS

 

[Anonymous]

World Heritage Site. It's not really her responsibilty that one thank goodness, but its surroundings are and its actually causing mega conservation probs - but that's another story!

 

[Anonymous]

I've never seen him sadly, because I've heard he's rather nice. I've seen Marianne in magazines and papers though.

Sue

 

[Anonymous]

*** And what are we going to do about Building Societies? ... They insist again and again on incorrect and unnecessary treatments to peroid houses. They are seen as figures of authority by the hapless inexperienced house owner, and so what they insist on gets done. I think this needs sorting out.... ***

Isn't it the surveyors that make these recommendations? The lenders rely upon the expert advice of these surveyors and you can't expect them to ignore the so-called experts. You need to change the opinions of the surveyors who are calling for unnecessary works to be carried out.

Damp control, timber treatment and underpinning companies must love property booms since every survey holds out the prospect of more work. Have you noticed that just after a housing boom, home buildings insurance rates tend to rise to pay for all the new and expensive subsidence discovered by surveyors?

 

[Anonymous]

He is. And Marianne is super. Husband goes misty eyed at the thought of Marianne in her overalls up to her ears in lime...
Odd that.

I really would like to put them outside that house and ask what they think of the sandblasting and the removal of cement pointing with a grinder!

And then there is the UFH. I'm sure that many CO's will be tearing their hair out. Still, the flags were up and the floors dug out ready for the cement so it may as well have gone ahead...

Cement floors! Gerrrr!!!!

Then the lintel cracked of course above the fireplace, probably because the floors were dug up...

And those awaful DG sash windows! Oh dear!

Oh it was so dreadful!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Evelyn
You know.. it's odd that all the things in life that evey one needs i.e good NHS dentist, all the holes in the tarmac fixed properly,clearing the yobbo's from the streets, to getting rid of the neighbours from hell and so on and yet the gov wastes so much money on cr*p
A good example The swimming pool company I worked for were referbishing a 'police collage swimming pool'
Nothing wrong in that you may say,
but they flew down (in a helicopter) then in a limo with out riders etc from whitehall a civil servant of soughts (I Guess a top home office surveyor ;-) )
To lazer the top of the swimming pool tiles to see that they weren't out by a mm -/+
Then back in the limo back to the airport and back to whitehall
He only spent about half an hour to check the tile level.
I keep wondering how much that little expedition
Cost.
Thousands of £'s I reckon.
How wasteful is that!!!!! yet that money would have been better spent on.......
Well it leaves me gobsmacked!!!

 

[Anonymous]

When we bought (with hefty mortgage) our T/F 15thC place our first surveyor left hurriedly wailing, "I don't know if this is mortgageable or not. So no, its not!" We then went elsewhere and sent the SPAB paper on letting damp buildings breathe with the application, as the d*** was the main question. Mortgage company sent "our man who knows about these buildings" and we got the dosh. We need to spread the word about the 'right' way to deal with old building.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree 100%, Robert. I spent the whole programme watching that well-meaning couple thrashing about in the dark - changing their minds, changing their plans - and no apparent input or even comment from the CO.
How could they have got LBC without having submitted precise details of their proposed methods and materials?
At one point, the wife apparently changed her mind about a bricked-up doorway, and the masonry infill was removed there and then! Didn't they have to consult the CO?
The three experts appeared to decide halfway through the project that they ought to have put the couple in touch with a conservation architect - horses and stable doors spring to mind.
I think the couple were thoroughly let down by everyone who was in a position to give them good help and guidance.

 

[Anonymous]

At the top of the forum main page there is a link to RICS Surveyors with Conservation expertise.

I would suggest that anyone buying a period building engages one of them, and uses such a survey to send to the mortgage company.