Thursday 29th August

 A few pictures of the insulation that has been replaced, ready for the Renderlath lath and render to go on.  All covered with membrane, and ready to go once Rockwall have repaired their parts of the wall.  

You may recall that this is a specialist wall, required as part of the Building Warrant, as it is a long wall, next to the school and needs special safety/fire measures.  This initial work was carried out on contract on Kevin Edwards/MTS watch. Rockwall carried out the work knowing that there was no DPC on top of the brickwork, and not requesting it. They did not put stop beads, or sealant between the render and metal work, etc. etc.  

John has cut back and shaved the render as per Rockwall's instructions and inserted DPC so that they can come back and do the work correctly, as they should have done in the first place.

Renderlath lath is ready to go, and the render has been ordered and will arrive on Monday.

The drain saga has been investigated and the leak in the 'trap' has been repaired, a better solution for the rainwater exit pipe has been found, but this will not be re-installed until Rockwall have carried out their work, and their mess has been cleared up.  Then appropriate gravel will be put in trench, pipes laid and supported from below so that they do not run back to the rodding pipe, and then covered over with the chips that are going around the whole of the house.  

One whole side of the house will then be complete!  

Just the rest of them to get done.........

House kitchen/front door

House master bedroom/front door

Rockwall prepared for corrections

Rockwall prepared for corrections

Rockwall prepared for corrections

no DPC

no DPC

wall and drains - pipes removed

wall and drains - pipes removed

27th August - Tuesday and todays finds are...............

Well, I am back and have taken some photos - some explanations.

Today found two more faults........ one maybe more serious than the other. 

Nail through Rubberseal roof - coming up from Rockwool wall

Always had a worry about the drains, and today there seems that this worry is confirmed..........

Kevin Edwards told us that he had asked for Building Control to look at the drains when they had been done, back in January, but told us that they were too busy to come out - now wonder if this was true!

The new drain from the en-suite bathroom to master bedroom

leaking!!!!

BUT, good things happening too

kitchen floor in process of being levelled

gas pipe for cooker in place

gas supply starting to come into house

gas pipe outside boiler room

floor levelling in second bedroom started

Rockwool wall - before, and note no DPC.......

The wall cut back for repairs and to place DPC which was missing, however, there was DPC over the new part of the wall that Kevin Edwards had built......

nibbled brickwork showing serious damage when the render was removed

DPC now placed under rain stop/drip

Sunday 11th August - tomorrow will be the last post for a bit, as I will be away until next week, can't wait to show you lots of exciting developments - I hope..... when I get back!

Behind the dust are men with machines..........

And some of the levelling has started to take place 

sitting rom

kitchen

kitchen

sitting room where wall came down

sitting room

sitting room

8th August 2013

Floors

Problems. Up. Cracks. Being filled. Preparation. Levelling.

Walls

Exterior battening up, ready for insulation, Rendalath reinforcement grids, first coat of render and then final coat.

6th August

There isn't anything to show you at the moment - the work that goes on is so lacking in visual interest, that there are no photos of it.  The interior looks much the same as the last set of photos - except that the floor levelling has blown in places, the lowest level doesn't seem to have adhered properly, but all the other layers have, so cracks have come up.  Means up-lifting in places and re-laying, before the final levelling can take place.  Meanwhile other things wait........

The boiler room (which is so small now with all its insulation), has been part plaster-boarded and is waiting its lowered ceiling to accommodate the inline fan - a cubby hole I say.

One of the electric radiators for the bathrooms has had to be returned because of chips to the enamel.  No problems with this, they are just sending one and collecting the damaged one.  Very speedy response from Rointe suppliers to do this.

We had a good visit to the K-rend people (exterior render) in Broxburn on Saturday morning, James was very helpful, and seeing the colours helped us decide that it was white that we wanted!  Didn't like the off whites, e.g. champagne, glacier, etc. So hope that will be underway shortly.  Do not hold your breath.

As I say, we will be in by Christmas.

1st August, later

Painting.........

sittingroom through to kitchen

kitchen window

to corner of bedroom

from bedroom through the hallways

1st August - things happening slowly, and not a lot to show

Floor levels are slowly being raised and levelled across the house.  

I have been doing some interesting shopping:  

have bought two mirrors for the bathrooms, with de-mister pads, lights, built in shaver sockets and infrared switches 

and two Rointe K series 132W electric radiators for the bathrooms as well.  

Decided against heated towel rails as they seemed very expensive and not terribly efficient.  These are small radiators with digital systems on them (you could use them with a remote control, but I don't think that is really necessary) and we will just put towel rails above them on the wall.

We have been working on the wash basin shelf in the en-suite shower room, and are using copper from the house and cleaning it up and putting it on a baseboard, which the wash basin will sit on.  Also hoping to have a copper tap made, to echo the shelf.  Have lots of ideas for decorating the bathrooms too.

Hopefully trying out some ideas when the weather is dry again and I can do some paint samples outside.  

Garage life has its limitations sometimes, when it comes to space to do stuff. Roll on the day when I can get into my studio (which is acting as a bedroom at the moment).

The first coat of paint should be going on the walls today!  I am to be roped in with cutting in.  And as it is such a low house, no teetering on ladders to reach wall-heads.

Some pics of the floors.......  need to decide on how we want them finished eventually - might just be able to seal the floors, if we like them, or cover them with something called Plasticote which gives a resin like shiny finish to the floors.

kitchen corner

kitchen side

new hallway

.....and in the cupboard

old hallway

sitting room corner

.... more sittingroom

....sittingroom as far as it goes