Botched Victorian terrace Help

[Willsa]

The House: a 1880 red brick Victorian mid-terrace. Became mine in 2022. Charming at a first glance.

The Owner: an artsy woman with a love of DIY (brought on by a complete distrust of builders). I'll give a go to most things once or twice. Obsessed with doing things "properly". Currently eye-balls deep in house horrors.

The Problem: it has become apparent that the main problem is everything! Mostly as a result of a complete lack of maintenance plus all the possible "improvements" that could be executed in cement and concrete. So all the later additions are botched and all the period features are rotting.

The budget: of a shoestring type.

The crying: already done. Time to work.


Yeah, so I bought the house about 6 months ago. Bought without a survey of any kind. I knew it needed plenty of work, I had a similar doer-upper before, so how bad could it be? EVEN IF (and it didn't look like it) a whole new roof would be needed I had a budget for that.
Spoiler: it DOES need a new roof and that's only the beginning.

All the help along the way will be very much appreciated!! I've realised I can't rely on the local trades - they seem intent on botching things further.
I'll need some actually wise brains to pick here!

This is just a long way of saying Hi! We're going down the deep end with rot and concrete on the next post!

 

[Feltwell]

First off, welcome!

Secondly, as Douglas Adams famously wrote, "Don't Panic". It's been stood there for 140 years already and is highly unlikely to suddenly crumble under your tenure.

There *are* good tradesmen out there, though they can be hard to find and harder to pin down to do the work, but they are out there!

Good Luck! Always remember that it will all be done by Christmas, the trick being never to specify which Christmas.

 

[Willsa]

The main issues at the moment is dealing with extensive dry rot downstairs and minimising the adverse effects of concrete/cement on the building.

I've started works to eradicate the outbreaks of dry rot. Of those I have evidence of historic outbreaks (wood cracked to nothing, just the paint skin left but no active tendrils or white fluff) and very current white and happy, fluffy fungus. There is also a very clear evidence of vendors trying to conceal the outbreak, or at least not dealing with it properly.

Here are some pictures of shrooms!
Skirting, architraves, under the stairs... Note the pathetic DPC injection holes (internal walls) and the concrete render. The shrooms don't mind!

 

[Willsa]

 

[Willsa]

Here's one growing through the damp-proofing concrete:

 

[Willsa]

This membrane had fungus strands on the reverse of it - growing quite happily due to drops of condensation. Brick underneath bone dry and unaffected.

 

[Willsa]

First off, welcome!

Secondly, as Douglas Adams famously wrote, "Don't Panic". It's been stood there for 140 years already and is highly unlikely to suddenly crumble under your tenure.

There *are* good tradesmen out there, though they can be hard to find and harder to pin down to do the work, but they are out there!

Good Luck! Always remember that it will all be done by Christmas, the trick being never to specify which Christmas.

Ha, love that part about Christmas!

I'm hardier than a fungus, so the fungus will go. After my collection of shroom-pics is complete!

I think the house needed me. Cought on the cusp!

 

[Willsa]

At the moment I'm chasing the outbreak of dry rot and trying to pinpoint the affected areas.

At the moment the outbreak seems contained within the lower walls (concrete! Any lime plaster touching it is unaffected because it is powder dry! ) and all immediately adjacent timbers. The rot seems to be looking for all the Victorian wooden "plugs" within the walls that are there to attach dado, skirting, architraves etc.

 

[Willsa]

I want to save the stairs - the outbreak is coming out of the wall side and is currently affecting the bottom three steps. Not rotted through yet, the only part crumbly is the stringer.

*I plan on removing the section of the rotted stringer. Dispose.
Remove last three steps to parts and heat through with a heat gun. Use rot treatment/preservative.
The plaster around is already removed and a dehumidifier bunged under the stairs.
I'll be drying it for months whilst looking for damp issues.

Am I missing something? Would you try to save the affected parts?
I know that damp companies and the council would rip my stairs out if I let them near!

 

[Feltwell]

My inclination is to say cut out & replace all affected parts, but.......

There is an awful lot of rot talked about rot! Dry rot is not the evil beast that will eat your house in front of your eyes and murder small children that it is painted out be. In fact it's frequently misdiagnosed and is often not dry rot at all, but wet rot.

A chap called Matt Green pops up on here occasionally, he is the expert really on all matters wood decay, be it rot or insect.

This should interest you:-

https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/the-truth-about-rot

 

[Willsa]

Thank you for the video Feltwell! It does propose a No-Panic-Destruction approach which I'm leaning towards.

I've destructed a plenty but in a sort of calculated risk manner. For example, if a door architrave is partially rotted, the whole thing goes because:
* I can't see the full spread of strands without breaking off the whole architrave on both sides of the wall
* I can't easily administer treatment to the architrave and the frame due to them being surrounded by plaster
*There would be no accessible way of monitoring recurrence if I place the timbers back
*By the time I lost a chunk of wood to the rot, it becomes a real pain matching and splicing in new architrave pieces. Expensive too.

Obviously the stairs have structural risks with rot so I'm definitely not keeping any weakened parts.
I'd also have to assess the chances of keeping the area dry. I'm working on that investigative job now - I'll have loads of questions because there is some weird stuff going on here!

The only surface sign of the rot in the stairs was a slightly undulating lower stringer and the mushroom pong in the under the stairs cupboard.
On closer inspection, the wood of the stringer was all gone in dry cubes and just a few mm of surface skin left!
For the photo album:
I've found my calling!

 

[paulc]

The budget: of a shoestring type.

I've realised I can't rely on the local trades - they seem intent on botching things further.

Sounds like you have a bigger and healthier budget than me. Also severely disappointed with the quality of work from some of the trades I've had in. Decided I've had enough of crap work and will only call on "professionals" where there is a legal requirement. And even then, they will be supervised and castigated for any bodgery.

One suggestion to make - If you are stripping external walls back to bare brick, do think about insulating them. There are products that can be used that won't compromise the breathability of the walls (woodfibre & cork spring to mind).

 

[Willsa]

I'm getting a re-roof on all the elevations plus the wooden bay within the next few days - can't come soon enough! Buckets are out due to recent rain

After that the money will have to go on knocking down and rebuilding the kitchen extension which is the biggest unexpected expense.

That became apparent after removing the adjacent bomb shelter/workshop/outside toilet (shoulda done my lockdown Zoom calls from there )

I just hope the other back walls don't look the same under the cracked cement! One of the "pros" suggested insulating on top of that... Wondering if he works with cork

 

[Willsa]

I only now noticed the DPC injection holes in that photo!
Like going to a car-crash armed with plasters.

I've already had more DPC injections offered. These are apparently done wrong.

 

[Cubist]

I've already had more DPC injections offered. These are apparently done wrong.

All DPC injections are done wrong! Theres no such thing as a DPC injection done right!

 

[malcolm]

Dry rot needs 20% moisture content in wood to survive. It shouldn't continue to cause a problem if the wood is dryer than that. It's worth working out a strategy for sorting out the lack of ventilation and breathability that is causing the high moisture levels.