Penners
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I can imagine...MdB said:
- Thread starter Zebra
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Zebra
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What a good idea!!MdB said:
We replaced most of our blue pipe to move the cold water intake into a new room.
I dug a 1m deep trench as per my plumbers instructions. If your ground isn't too heavy and you don't have too far too go then you can do it with a spade as it doesn't need to be wide Technically it would have been possible to get a minidigger in, but it was cheaper & more convenient to do it myself when I needed it.
Blue water pipe is available at Been and Queued, builders merchants & building plastic suppliers but comes in big reels.
You may be able to pick up an offcut - try your local Freegle/freecycle/cheapcycle group.
I dug a 1m deep trench as per my plumbers instructions. If your ground isn't too heavy and you don't have too far too go then you can do it with a spade as it doesn't need to be wide Technically it would have been possible to get a minidigger in, but it was cheaper & more convenient to do it myself when I needed it.
Blue water pipe is available at Been and Queued, builders merchants & building plastic suppliers but comes in big reels.
You may be able to pick up an offcut - try your local Freegle/freecycle/cheapcycle group.
Penners
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Yes, when I was your age I could manage that too. During our first renovation project I remember digging a 1.6m deep trench in winter, to get down far enough to patch our sewer outlet into the main drains. I was down in the trench with my spade when a voice from above me drawled, "You'd never do that in winter where I come from, son!"AMc said:
It turned out to be a passing Alaskan ( :shock: ) who explained that, in winter, the ground was hard as concrete "back home".
So East Anglian clay isn't so bad after all!
Zebra
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I'm just posting on this thread again, to admit that you've all been right. You know how when someone says "I've got rising damp" and you all say "check for faulty guttering...." Well I've still got damp patches, in the same places as they used to be, getting wetter in the recent rain. Thought it was rising damp, but darn it, went and investigated the gutters again. One blocked and overflowing, one leaking and splashing onto an outside wall.
So I don't have rising damp, it's penetrating damp from poor rainwater goods. STILL!!!! How long will it take me to sort this problem out!! :roll:
So I don't have rising damp, it's penetrating damp from poor rainwater goods. STILL!!!! How long will it take me to sort this problem out!! :roll:
Feltwell
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Sounds like a result to me. You've found the source of the problem - often the biggest challenge - and it's relatively easy and cheap to fix.
Lime
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Well done for sorting it out Zebra.
On the odd days we have torrential rain I often don wellies, raincoat and an umbrella and go out to inspect the house, guttering, drains and downpipes.
It makes the bad weather useful.
On the odd days we have torrential rain I often don wellies, raincoat and an umbrella and go out to inspect the house, guttering, drains and downpipes.
It makes the bad weather useful.
I only wish it were so simple for us!
We have box gutters fore, aft, and in the middle of the double-pitch roof. The front and middle are accessible, but the back one is so high that it's a scaffolding job. Up till now our builders have periodically risked life and limb climbing over the back roof to get access to the gutter from above, but we've just had a very successful visit from a gutter-cleaning specialist who did the whole thing from ground level.
They use a vacuum with a very long aluminium tube to reach the gutter, and it has a mini video camera at the business end so that they can see what's up there.
When it's done, you can watch a home video of the finished result.
All very impressive, and surprisingly affordable - ours cost £75.
For anyone else with vertigo and tall buildings, it might be worth googling 'gutter cleaning services' to find someone in the vicinity.
We have box gutters fore, aft, and in the middle of the double-pitch roof. The front and middle are accessible, but the back one is so high that it's a scaffolding job. Up till now our builders have periodically risked life and limb climbing over the back roof to get access to the gutter from above, but we've just had a very successful visit from a gutter-cleaning specialist who did the whole thing from ground level.
They use a vacuum with a very long aluminium tube to reach the gutter, and it has a mini video camera at the business end so that they can see what's up there.
When it's done, you can watch a home video of the finished result.
All very impressive, and surprisingly affordable - ours cost £75.
For anyone else with vertigo and tall buildings, it might be worth googling 'gutter cleaning services' to find someone in the vicinity.
Flyfisher
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Well done Zebra. I agree with Feltwell; it sounds like good news. It should be far easier to fix a guttering problem that something more inherently structural.
Zebra
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Think I've sorted this problem finally - my damp corner near my rainwater catchpit. The rainwater hole has had to be destroyed to make way for foundations for a replacement extension. It wasn't as old as I thought it was, because the bricks which formed its walls were laid with cement, not laid with lime and lined with cement as I first thought. So though there may have been a well or hole there before, this structure was probably 20th century. Anyway, half of it is now filled with concrete, and the other half has been reduced in height, allowing the external ground level to be lower than internal, and will be backfilled with something or other. The water from the french drain and gutters now go elsewhere. And I've been able to chip off the last of the cement plinth render and repoint.
The corner of the room is still damp, but it's got to dry out now! At least, I've eliminated plumbing issues, faulty guttering, penetrating rainwater splashing from hard ground surfaces, cement render, and now external ground levels. If it doesn't dry out now it must be the local dog urinal or something.
The corner of the room is still damp, but it's got to dry out now! At least, I've eliminated plumbing issues, faulty guttering, penetrating rainwater splashing from hard ground surfaces, cement render, and now external ground levels. If it doesn't dry out now it must be the local dog urinal or something.