Tuesday 2 May 2023

Restoration.


This is my son's house. He is mid restoration. 

It's a lovely classic Victorian house on four floors with a very pretty terrace garden behind. The road is very centrally situated. The beach is a 10 min leisurely walk away, and the trains to Victoria just 5 mins away. 

It's one of the few roads around where most houses are still lived-in as 'family homes'. It's not too small, making it only fit for a couple (like our house), nor is it too big making it more suitable to be split into flats, as are so many of the bigger houses in the area. It's a four bedroom, four floor house, making it perfect for the average 2.2 children families.


Kimbo has been working on the house for several years, and has installed some truly wonderful features. The new main bathroom is spectacular, and the bespoke fittings he's installed are all top notch.

BUT (and if I had a bigger font, it would be an even bigger BUT), the house has had one enduring problem; a water leak. I cannot tell you how many tradesmen have tried to find, and fix, the leak. He recently had a highly trusted local roofer to do some extensive work. There was scaffolding to reach to the top, and he'd imagined all was now water-tight.

BUT yesterday he told me that there is still some water coming-in from somewhere, and he'll have to have the workers back again, although now there is no longer any scaffolding in place they'll have to scramble through that small window in the roof. Finding the exact spot is a nightmare. 

Water is funny stuff. It'll find its way into your home through the tiniest hidden crack. 

Finding that crack is akin to needles in haystacks.

 

30 comments:

  1. My brother had a similar leak problem in a top floor apartment he was renting while on a contract job. The leak site was a window in a sheer wall, no verandas or any other method by which tradesmen could access the windows of his apartment, nor the ones in the next few floors down all of which had the same leak. I don't know if or how it ever got fixed, but a year after he left the apartment was put up for sale. I suspect shoddy installation of windows by builders, but we'll never know.
    I hope the leak in Kimbo's home can be found and fixed. Have the entire wall checked from roof and guttering all the way to the ground if necessary.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He has had just about everything imaginable done from top to bottom. It's a real mystery. It's cost him a fortune too.

      Delete
  2. Not being an expert but my daughter's house had the same problem. It becomes expensive having scaffolding on terraced houses, the problem could belong to the houses on either side for instance. Chimneys are a culprit of course, flashing not secure. Last time, the offending dampness in the attic area was plaster boarded over and the guttering renewed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As far as I understand, his builders have covered all possibilities, yet it still comes in. I fear that part of the roof and a Velux window might need attention. It never ends.

      Delete
    2. The velux window does sound like the culprit...been there....

      Delete
  3. I hope he lets you inside one day to take some photos.
    We know all about leaks too. A broken tile took three visits and three storms till it was fixed and even now we watch when it rains to see if there are any more drips

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd like to take some photos of his new bathroom, it's quite something!

      Delete
  4. Oh, how very frustrating for him. Is the leak in a location to cause much damage to the house structure?
    Our Victorian Church appears to be fairly watertight (we think) apart from a small leak at the base of the big stained glass window. Luckily it only seems to dribble through onto the stone mullions so we are hoping that it is not damaging anything vulnerable.
    I hope Kimbo can get his leak sorted.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like you could use a tube of silicone. Wonderful stuff; I solved a whole outdoor larder roof problem with just one tube.

      Delete
    2. Apparently silicone is not good for the lead cames so we shall be trying out some leaded window cement in the joints to see if that stops it.

      Delete
    3. I know the stuff you mean, you spread it on all over then rub it off; hoping that all the little cracks get filled with the black 'cement'. Easier to work with than silicone too.

      Delete
  5. Kimbo is lucky that he has managed to get roofers to actually do something...even if it hasn't worked! We have a leak that drips down behind my TV watching chair whenever there is persistent rain. Several builders have come and " looked" but never to return with a quote.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Such small leaks are infuriating. The actual problem is probably tiny, but it's finding it that's the real problem.

      Delete
  6. PS It is a very attractive house. Will he re-instate the missing window?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, there are now some very nice bespoke wardrobes behind it.

      Delete
  7. How about a water diviner?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a magic wand; do you think that would work?

      Delete
  8. A lovely looking house. Such an annoying shame about the leak. I know the feeling because we have been suffering from a similar mysterious leak through the last few months. It defies logic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it's a nice house. If only he could find that blo*dy leak.

      Delete
  9. Sounds like a great house, but for that one issue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a nice house, in a nice road, with nice neighbours. What more could you want!

      Delete
  10. The trouble with things like water leaks is that they become almost an obsession don't they? Hope somebody finds it soon - is it better to do the search on a wet day I wonder - or is it a 'plumbing' leak?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We think it's definitely a rain water problem. There must be some tiny hole that's laughing behind its hand.

      Delete
  11. Kimbo's home is beautiful! Roof leaks are terrible. Velux skylights can be difficult to install as my neighbor just replaced a few and the roofer had to come back three times due to leaks. (According to my neighbor, Velux flashing must be done exactly as recommended by the manufacturer; otherwise they leak.) My chimney had a leak and it took 3 builders to determine that the chimney needed additional height and adding 3 rows of additional bricks at the top solved the problem. It is frustrating to have these problems...why can't things be done right the first time?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have a huge chimney in France, and even though we have a 'primitive' cap over it, the rain always comes in. Part of the delight of doing things in traditional ways.

      Delete
  12. Water leaks. Ugh. How exasperating. A leak can do a great deal of damage to new work! I'm curious though. You said it was a four story four bedroom house. I see two windows in the front. Where are the additional two stories? How is the house laid out? Is it taller at the back? I was looking closely at the picture and see what might be a dormer on the roof, which might indicate that there's more to this place than the picture shows. It's a gorgeous place though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The lower ground floor is below the front window, you can just see a metal grill that gives some light. It gives onto the garden at the back. The top floor is where that dormer window is, there are two rooms; a bedroom and bathroom. It's a very 'up-n-down' house; very typical of its age.

      Delete
  13. Love Kimbo's house. Can remember looking at something similar when house hunting before we married in the 60's. In those days no-one wanted to buy them because of all the problems, water leaks being just the tip of the iceberg in many cases. Very few of them had been updated since Victorian times. Nowadays they are much sought after.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's true, they don't stay on the market for very long these days.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...