Owning your own home

Cheers. I have my fingers crossed it all works out for you - maybe our kids will go to school together!

Decided to tidy up the internal wires. I was going to sleeve them in white heat shrink and run them along the frame. But decided instead just to shorten them way down and mount the wireless button directly on the inside of the frame.

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I can feel a warm patch in the kitchen floor - I’m guessing this means some kind of hot water pipe leak?

Our place was badly renovated in the mid 70s.
There are a couple of places where the central heating pipes are in only a thin screed. Routinely warm underfoot.

Any leak you think you might have could be verified by checking the header tank.
(If you have an old style non-Combi system).

Checked if the boiler is losing pressure ?

Loads of places in my house where the central heating pipes are close to the surface and seemingly uninsulated and you can feel warm patches.

There are a couple of places where the central heating pipes are in only a thin screed. Routinely warm underfoot.

It's obviously a hypocaust dating back to Roman times.

Cheers all! No pressure loss, so hopefully just pipes close to surface 🙂

Normally marked by the spot the cat or dog sleeps.

Ohhh I got one for ya.
I use a smart home button which has a doorbell function when coupled with its hub.
Button (but cheaper elsewhere)
Hub

My brass button - wireless hack uses the Teknet ones. Two units that plug into mains sockets. Each can be set to flashing light/sound/both.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Wireless-Doorbell-Waterproof-Batteries/dp/B071ZJ63N1

Also available in black

I may do that, I have a portable one that allow me to move every couple years until now.

Peeled back wallpaper in new place to find this.

Fairly sure the mould is from historic damp as the wall feels dry. It is an external wall and the outside is bone dry too.

I've sprayed it with a bleach solution and will scrape the mould off before getting someone in to skim it.

Is there anything else I should be doing for due diligence? Maybe borrow a damp meter to be sure?

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Looks like that was from condensation rather than penetrating.

Managed to complete and move on Wed's. How the fuck we fitted all the stuff in our old house I have no idea. New place is pretty much twice the size but by no means empty...

Chatting to some locals on a walk through the village and it turns out that Lando Norris off of F1 was born and lived in this house as a small child... CSB.

Congratulations!

I know that feeling, we moved from a one bed flat to a 4 bed house with double garage and we have filled it out nicely. 10 years in the flat has left us cramped..

Leaky roof woes.

I’ve had some work done over the last few months. Skylights put in and a small extension. We’re currently trying to trace a leak which happens during very heavy rain only at certain wind directions.

The chap who put the skylights in is fucking impossible to pin down and the builders who did the extension think the roofer needs to come back (I agree) as we saw evidence of damp in the sarking/plasterboard when the extension was done.

It’s been pishing down so the leak is in full flow and I’ve been up on the roof taking a look as well as blasting a hose pipe but I can’t replicate the leak with a hose even after an hour.

What I did notice was some crazy big spacing in the slates which I assume the roofer has created when doing the roof lights. Those aren’t good right?

However the leak is nowhere near those slates it’s actually at the bottom right of the roof near the ladder in the below photo. All slates are legit around the right most skylight and I’ve blasted it with a hose at ever angle so I’m stuck for ideas...

The side where the ladder is looks kinda complicated - looks like there’s a valley that runs in to something and a boiler flue (or down pipe?) and the flashing doesn’t look great. Lots of potential culprits anyway.

Thanks. Yeah there’s a down pipe yeah from a small apex roof but that’s the new roof and new flashing. Flashing is into old stonework so it’s a bit wobbly but it’s solid / sealed from what I can see.

What about the seal around the downpipe? It looks quite close to stonework wall which can make sealing the base of it tricky(er)

I wonder if they should have rendered over that stone wall to give water a clear run down, but then how much is actually going to travel down there?

Have you tried singularly aiming the hose at the new roof so that it runs off on to the old roof?

Good shout on the down pipe and I haven’t aimed a hose at the new roof yet.

The reason I suspect the older roof is that there was evidence of damp where the new valley is when we had the extension done. So I assumed that was the issue. I still think the gaps in the slates aren’t right too...

You'd be surprised at how fucked up a tile / slate covering can be and yet the roof still keeps the water out. It's at the borders, edges and stuff passing through it where shit easily goes wrong.

If there are sections of concern you could try selectively covering them with a tarp and see if it helps, might be able to rule some things out that way.

Good luck!

Thanks man! This has been ongoing for months and we are stuck between a builder saying it’s the roofer and a roofer who is “too busy” and then no one else is interested in it as it’s not really a defined job.

I’ll get back up with a hose and report back.

Yeah sounds like a ballache :/

Cant tell from the picture but is the flashing raised a bit on the tiles? It could be the the flow from the old roof is a lot and cant get away quick enough or put a baffle at the end of the short downpipe

Extend the downpour straight into the gutter off the old roof