Revord-breaking rainfall and building damage

[Dinksio]

Has anyone else’s building suffered from the excessive rain in 2023 and consequent damage to the fabric of their building?

We are on a spring supply so I keep rainfall data from my gauge. It’s been a ridiculously wet year. Our spring - partially groundwater fed - is overflowing at source.

We have lived in our 18th century Yorkshire stone cottage for 8 years. The stone our cottage is constructed from is Rough Rock, a coarse sandstone quarried behind the house. It’s a beautiful and strong stone …when dry!

However, damp is an issue in this house, for various “classic” reasons, including leaky roof, ground level problems, badly installed patio door with unknown problem lintel, and inappropriate cement pointing.

I wanted to nudge an old thread, originally posted by “a twig” which is a simple guide to a checklist for addressing damp and encapsulates the challenges and priorities.

Here it is:
https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/threads/ive-just-bought-an-old-house-and-its-damp-help.17689/

I’ve addressed what I can when funds and life situation allows, including line repointing of front wall. Roof is to be done this year.

However the rain this year - often driven into the two walls with inappropriate cement pointing facing prevailing winds - has been relentless here in Yorkshire and has caused more problems of ingress and internal damp.

It’s challenging to watch your beloved building failing because of your inability to sort it out as soon as desired. I worry that significant delay in resolving these issues and continual rainfall will damage my house irreparably. Water in walls - not good. Gypsum plaster and cement pointing preventing escape - not good. Lack of limitless funds - not good. Two small children and wife reluctant to do significant work whilst children are so little- not good. Live with the problem - not good for mental health.

How does one assess/devide when something needs addressing ASAP or when it can wait?

I am just not sure how folks reconcile themselves to living in a building that is rather sick and having to dejay remedies.

Any tips very welcome!

Thank you.

 

[Mrs McG]

Take heart. What feels like significant delays to you is roughly last week to your 18th C home and if you’ve got roof repairs planned that’s a big step. I have no doubt that you’ll get some great practical tips from the knowledgable people who post here.

I have a problem at the back of my cottage with rainwater. I got the the leaky / missing guttering replaced with functional and bigger guttering, but even then the single down pipe to the soakaway would get blocked by thatch debris so It couldn’t cope with the sudden volume of water. You can see from the photo how much hard work that one down pipe does for all the roofing at the back of the cottage and I have a great video of it overflowing but can’t post videos here so here’s a screenshot.

When I could afford it I then had the paving sloped slightly away from the back wall of the cottage and I now clear out thatch debris from the gutter weekly. All in all, a few hundred pounds for a solution that works for now, until I can afford a second down pipe and soakaway which is the long term answer.

 

[a twig]

Completely agree with Mrs McG, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good and take solace in the fact that despite decades of poor management your property has already survived >200 years, so in the scale of things an extra year or two now is unlikely to move the dial much further.

A cheap holding measure can limit future damage and give you time and space to resolve.

Making a clear structured and prioritised plan is always good but it can lead to paralysis, for e.g. you have identified something expensive that may be causing 50% of your damp issues, and you are so focussed on saving and planning for those, you neglect the three or four simple 5% issues which you could potentially tick off more easily.

A small example here, we have a shed full of “stuff” and the timber at the back is failing, the correct course of action will be to strip and replace the cladding but that requires a dry period in summer, so to get us through the winter I simply stapled and battened some left over breathable roofing membrane over the outside of the back wall.

Not perfect and the membrane will start to rot and fail in a few months, but it has kept the inside of the shed 90% dry through the winter, and on the rare gaps between rain, the timber is able to dry out. So for ~£50 it gives me a holding position until I can fix it properly.

We did the last 18 months of our restoration with a newborn child, and it is doable, we were meticulous with dust management, sealed off working areas from clean areas, avoided noisy operations during nap time etc.

One final thing, don’t eat the elephant whole! To take an example of high external ground levels, rather than trying to hire ground workers to do the whole site in one hit and considerable cost, you’d be amazed what just getting out there on your own with a mattock, spade and wheelbarrow for an hour or two every week can achieve, and you’ll feel much better mentally because you are doing “something”.

Likewise repointing, get a few tubs of premixed mortar delivered so you have them on hand and then when ever you find yourself with an unexpected free afternoon or morning you can just get out there, rake out a couple of square metres and whack the new mortar in. Get a few of those done and before you know it you’ve done an entire wall.

 

[Mrs McG]

don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good

My old boss had a brilliant way of saying this … “Never let the pursuit of perfection stop you from achieving the perfectly acceptable”

 

[Dinksio]

Take heart. What feels like significant delays to you is roughly last week to your 18th C home and if you’ve got roof repairs planned that’s a big step. I have no doubt that you’ll get some great practical tips from the knowledgable people who post here.

I have a problem at the back of my cottage with rainwater. I got the the leaky / missing guttering replaced with functional and bigger guttering, but even then the single down pipe to the soakaway would get blocked by thatch debris so It couldn’t cope with the sudden volume of water. You can see from the photo how much hard work that one down pipe does for all the roofing at the back of the cottage and I have a great video of it overflowing but can’t post videos here so here’s a screenshot.

When I could afford it I then had the paving sloped slightly away from the back wall of the cottage and I now clear out thatch debris from the gutter weekly. All in all, a few hundred pounds for a solution that works for now, until I can afford a second down pipe and soakaway which is the long term answer.

View attachment 12154

View attachment 12155

That’s interesting to read. What a beautiful property you have! And thanks for your reassurance.

In some ways I think of my house as a sick patient. It’s not its fault that it’s feeling unwell. It’s been abused and neglected. Internally it was a wreck when we moved here. I needed to live in the house and educate myself fully about the external aspects before I fully understood the problems that existed there!

I take your very valid point regarding sensible and measured management of problems. It’s almost a philosophical approach as much as a pragmatic one.

 

[Dinksio]

Completely agree with Mrs McG, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good and take solace in the fact that despite decades of poor management your property has already survived >200 years, so in the scale of things an extra year or two now is unlikely to move the dial much further.

A cheap holding measure can limit future damage and give you time and space to resolve.

Making a clear structured and prioritised plan is always good but it can lead to paralysis, for e.g. you have identified something expensive that may be causing 50% of your damp issues, and you are so focussed on saving and planning for those, you neglect the three or four simple 5% issues which you could potentially tick off more easily.

A small example here, we have a shed full of “stuff” and the timber at the back is failing, the correct course of action will be to strip and replace the cladding but that requires a dry period in summer, so to get us through the winter I simply stapled and battened some left over breathable roofing membrane over the outside of the back wall.

Not perfect and the membrane will start to rot and fail in a few months, but it has kept the inside of the shed 90% dry through the winter, and on the rare gaps between rain, the timber is able to dry out. So for ~£50 it gives me a holding position until I can fix it properly.

We did the last 18 months of our restoration with a newborn child, and it is doable, we were meticulous with dust management, sealed off working areas from clean areas, avoided noisy operations during nap time etc.

One final thing, don’t eat the elephant whole! To take an example of high external ground levels, rather than trying to hire ground workers to do the whole site in one hit and considerable cost, you’d be amazed what just getting out there on your own with a mattock, spade and wheelbarrow for an hour or two every week can achieve, and you’ll feel much better mentally because you are doing “something”.

Likewise repointing, get a few tubs of premixed mortar delivered so you have them on hand and then when ever you find yourself with an unexpected free afternoon or morning you can just get out there, rake out a couple of square metres and whack the new mortar in. Get a few of those done and before you know it you’ve done an entire wall.

Thank you, a twig!

I have used lime mortar previously to repoint our old coal shed and to repoint flagstones and make good domevwonky garden steps, so I’m happy using this and mixing my own. I found a brilliant supplier called Womersleys here in Yorkshire. They do premixed bags of coarse NHL 3.5 that I add careful amounts of pigment to to get the right colour. I also know the precise mix of specific sands and lime that the

Completely agree with Mrs McG, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good and take solace in the fact that despite decades of poor management your property has already survived >200 years, so in the scale of things an extra year or two now is unlikely to move the dial much further.

A cheap holding measure can limit future damage and give you time and space to resolve.

Making a clear structured and prioritised plan is always good but it can lead to paralysis, for e.g. you have identified something expensive that may be causing 50% of your damp issues, and you are so focussed on saving and planning for those, you neglect the three or four simple 5% issues which you could potentially tick off more easily.

A small example here, we have a shed full of “stuff” and the timber at the back is failing, the correct course of action will be to strip and replace the cladding but that requires a dry period in summer, so to get us through the winter I simply stapled and battened some left over breathable roofing membrane over the outside of the back wall.

Not perfect and the membrane will start to rot and fail in a few months, but it has kept the inside of the shed 90% dry through the winter, and on the rare gaps between rain, the timber is able to dry out. So for ~£50 it gives me a holding position until I can fix it properly.

We did the last 18 months of our restoration with a newborn child, and it is doable, we were meticulous with dust management, sealed off working areas from clean areas, avoided noisy operations during nap time etc.

One final thing, don’t eat the elephant whole! To take an example of high external ground levels, rather than trying to hire ground workers to do the whole site in one hit and considerable cost, you’d be amazed what just getting out there on your own with a mattock, spade and wheelbarrow for an hour or two every week can achieve, and you’ll feel much better mentally because you are doing “something”.

Likewise repointing, get a few tubs of premixed mortar delivered so you have them on hand and then when ever you find yourself with an unexpected free afternoon or morning you can just get out there, rake out a couple of square metres and whack the new mortar in. Get a few of those done and before you know it you’ve done an entire wall.

Great advice! Repointing is doable.

Completely agree with Mrs McG, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good and take solace in the fact that despite decades of poor management your property has already survived >200 years, so in the scale of things an extra year or two now is unlikely to move the dial much further.

A cheap holding measure can limit future damage and give you time and space to resolve.

Making a clear structured and prioritised plan is always good but it can lead to paralysis, for e.g. you have identified something expensive that may be causing 50% of your damp issues, and you are so focussed on saving and planning for those, you neglect the three or four simple 5% issues which you could potentially tick off more easily.

A small example here, we have a shed full of “stuff” and the timber at the back is failing, the correct course of action will be to strip and replace the cladding but that requires a dry period in summer, so to get us through the winter I simply stapled and battened some left over breathable roofing membrane over the outside of the back wall.

Not perfect and the membrane will start to rot and fail in a few months, but it has kept the inside of the shed 90% dry through the winter, and on the rare gaps between rain, the timber is able to dry out. So for ~£50 it gives me a holding position until I can fix it properly.

We did the last 18 months of our restoration with a newborn child, and it is doable, we were meticulous with dust management, sealed off working areas from clean areas, avoided noisy operations during nap time etc.

One final thing, don’t eat the elephant whole! To take an example of high external ground levels, rather than trying to hire ground workers to do the whole site in one hit and considerable cost, you’d be amazed what just getting out there on your own with a mattock, spade and wheelbarrow for an hour or two every week can achieve, and you’ll feel much better mentally because you are doing “something”.

Likewise repointing, get a few tubs of premixed mortar delivered so you have them on hand and then when ever you find yourself with an unexpected free afternoon or morning you can just get out there, rake out a couple of square metres and whack the new mortar in. Get a few of those done and before you know it you’ve done an entire wall.

 

[Dinksio]

Thank you, a twig!

I have used lime mortar previously to repoint our old coal shed and to repoint flagstones and make good domevwonky garden steps, so I’m happy using this and mixing my own. I found a brilliant supplier called Womersleys here in Yorkshire. They do premixed bags of coarse NHL 3.5 that I add careful amounts of pigment to to get the right colour. I also know the precise mix of specific sands and lime that the

Great advice! Repointing is doable.

Sorry about my garbled replies. I am trying to respond with two pre-schoolers on my lap, so will give it up for now! Just wanted to express my gratitude to you for taking the time to respond so fulsomely!

 

[aockenden]

My approach, rip the bandaid off and launch a full frontal assault on all problems at all times until I collapse from exhaustion. I also am married with a 16-month old baby in the house. I kicked them both out for a full day last weekend so I could annihilate our living room, busting cement and gypsum off our internal walls in preparation for replastering with insulating hemp+cork+lime.

She wasn’t happy about it, nor was I. Who would be? It’s all a grueling, relentless, nasty slog when living in a place like that. But personally I’d rather take my beatings quick and up front and get them over with instead of dragging out our suffering for a decade. We’re 2 years in and the end is finally in sight for us.

Reality check: you’ve been living in this place for 8 YEARS and you haven’t picked up a shovel and sorted out your ground levels? Sry but that’s not a finance problem that’s something else.

 

[Dinksio]

My approach, rip the bandaid off and launch a full frontal assault on all problems at all times until I collapse from exhaustion. I also am married with a 16-month old baby in the house. I kicked them both out for a full day last weekend so I could annihilate our living room, busting cement and gypsum off our internal walls in preparation for replastering with insulating hemp+cork+lime.

She wasn’t happy about it, nor was I. Who would be? It’s all a grueling, relentless, nasty slog when living in a place like that. But personally I’d rather take my beatings quick and up front and get them over with instead of dragging out our suffering for a decade. We’re 2 years in and the end is finally in sight for us.

Reality check: you’ve been living in this place for 8 YEARS and you haven’t picked up a shovel and sorted out your ground levels? Sry but that’s not a finance problem that’s something else.

You are right, it’s not a finance problem, but something else: I have a long-term disability which means I have to carefully manage my health. I do what jobs I can within my limitations. It makes living in an old house more challenging, but we had myriad positive reasons to move here.

You also make assumptions about the simplicity of ground levels without any knowledge of the specific situation. Ground levels built up over 200 years because this wall was adjacent to a farm track. There is also a main foul water drain running adjacent to our wall exactly where we would need to dig. There is a manhole cover right next to our wall indicating the proximity of this drain.

For us, yes it would need to be a professional job.