Georgian renovation

[ThornhillMike]

Hi everyone!
I joined the site a little while back whilst waiting for a Georgian manor house purchase in the Isle of Man to complete (didn't want to jinx anything by posting pre-emptively!).
I have throughly enjoyed following various discussions on damp (tick), lime plastering (tick), poorly tanked basements (tick), wooden sash windows in need of TLC (tick), badly rendered exteriors (tick), Heath Robinson wiring (tick), questionable plumbing (tick) and failed box guttering (tick) - why am I taking this project on, remind me...?
Anyway, as a born optimist, I have visions of restoring this wonderfully proportioned building back to the glory of its early days (with some more modern solutions thrown in) and hope to take you all on its journey.
I guess this is just a warning that I can see myself being a constant drain to those of you that patently love your properties and have invested much time, effort, tears and joy in bringing them back to life. That you so willingly share your experiences and knowledge is a blessing I intend not to abuse (too much).
The journey begins...!
Mike

 

[RBailey]

Welcome to the madness, and joy of old houses

Cheers,
Richard B.

 

[Cubist]

Hello Mike ,
Please add my welcome to this curious and often eccentric crew, though I would probably use the 'bonkers' term. It's always good news to hear of another Cnut willing to repel the tides of entropy.

Good luck and enjoy,
Cubist (aka Steve)

 

[ThornhillMike]

First day on the job and collected five dead crows. Transpires that they had attempted to nest on the only one of our 18 (how many chimneys does a property need?) chimney pots that isn't capped and the, one assumes, multiple attempts resulted in failed nest remnants in one of the top bedroom fireplaces, plus expired birds at various locations throughout the house.

Cue immediate re-write of "urgent jobs to get done in the first few weeks" list...

 

[Stevers]

A while ago now, my son came down to breakfast one morning with "Dad there's something in my chimney". The fireplace in his bedroom was a cast iron affair, and the damper was shut. Nothing visible behind, but you could sense something was in there. Not keen on letting what I guessed would be a very sooty wood pigeon into the room for us to usher it out of a window, I fetched my chimney brush and rods, and gently started to push the brush up the chimney. Mrs Stevers sneaked outside once an appropriate number of rods had been fitted, and was surprised to see a Brown Owl (bird not Girl Guide) emerge completely unharmed, circle a couple of times to get its bearings, and disappear into some nearby trees.

Both our open pots now have stainless steel cowls with a mesh guard. Needless to say one needs to think of everything that might need doing up there whilst you have access. I got scaffolding in eighteen months ago, mainly to stick the lid back on an 'elephants foot' clay cowl that had blown off - I kid you not! I was prepared to do some plastic stone repair (NHL naturally) and to paint the bargeboard from said scaffolding. I quickly realised that all the slates along the verge needed relaying and had to have the scaffolding extended both ways (to the ends that I planned to paint from ladders) for me to do that. Still saved money over calling them back a second time.

On the subject of chimney pots I was once asked by a passer by, why we had ten chimney pots, the answer of course being that we had nine fireplaces plus one for a copper in the scullery, but eighteen fireplaces - that's quite a pile!

 

[Cubist]

Looking on the bright side, I do see some advantages to having numerous chimneys. The one though that I feel may be most beneficial, while we are all striving to reduce our energy bills, is that after supplying all those fireplaces with fuel for the coming night, you could retire to the lounge surrounded by your family - so that they can bask in your 'after-glow'.

 

[ThornhillMike]

Whole place is getting re-roofed in June and, yes, all chimney capping and cowling will get checked/done. Errant 'crow' chimney is getting capped next week. The eighteen chimneys is itself a conundrum; the house is essentially a four room by four floor cube, i.e, 16 fireplaces. The 'spare' 2 will no doubt declare their previous intentions at some point during the renovation!

 

[ThornhillMike]

A cup of tea and a stroll through the latest postings of members has given me three new approaches (and suitable products) to tackle some of my necessary work. The power of collaborative debate...!

 

[Drayton]

I hope you had a kitkat with that cup of tea - proved years ago to be essential by very experienced forum members.

Does the house catch the weather? That can affect the performance of some materials. I was hoping to eventually use the Bedec paint but then others reported it not so good if you live in the teeth of coastal gales, which I do, so maybe not.

 

[ThornhillMike]

So to perpetuate @Cubist's recent post, and to quote Von Moltke's classic "no plans survives first contact with the enemy (replace with any building woe known to us all...)", two weeks in and a chunk of ceiling in one of the first floor bedrooms now resides on the carpet. Culprit appears to be dry rot in the supporting timbers and, to be fair, this corner of the house is topped by a serious failing of the original parapet box gutters (being repaired as part of the re-roofing in June).

Fair to say my project plan has been subject to a hasty re-ordering! Better news; my roofer is capping the 'Crow' chimney next week so at least I shouldn't be recovering dead birds from the celling debris...

 

[a twig]

Make sure your house insurance is up to date and then invite your local arsonist for tea?

 

[ThornhillMike]

Make sure your house insurance is up to date and then invite your local arsonist for tea?

Not entirely helpful when it's a 6,500 sq ft four storey house...

 

[Cubist]

The more I hear about your place Mike the more I think it's a pachyderm sanctuary. Must be at least one elephant in every room - hopefully they don't dance, but your latest pic may suggest otherwise. I suspect there may be a few pink ones waiting in the wings - they would be if that place were under my stewardship!

 

[ThornhillMike]

The more I hear about your place Mike the more I think it's a pachyderm sanctuary. Must be at least one elephant in every room - hopefully they don't dance, but your latest pic may suggest otherwise. I suspect there may be a few pink ones waiting in the wings - they would be if that place were under my stewardship!

I think I could possibly accept one per room, if that's the extent of it, but who knows? An interesting journey it will be.

I do wonder (worry) though what prompted the sudden collapse. The plaster cornice was very thick and heavy, so perhaps a lath eventually failed and the weight brought it down? The external walls are over a foot thick and haven't moved in nearly two hundred years, so without a sudden movement or pressure not sure what prompted the downfall.

It joins the photo album and diary journal that one day I hope to look back through and laugh at...

 

[Cubist]

I'm assuming you have started to get some heat into the place recently? If the house has been unheated for a long time theres a pretty good chance that some movement of the timbers will occur as they acclimatise to the new order of things. That or damp swollen plaster starting to contract. This old place still creaks like my knees at times but I no longer need to wear a hard hat indoors.

 

[ThornhillMike]

I'm assuming you have started to get some heat into the place recently? If the house has been unheated for a long time theres a pretty good chance that some movement of the timbers will occur as they acclimatise to the new order of things. That or damp swollen plaster starting to contract. This old place still creaks like my knees at times but I no longer need to wear a hard hat indoors.

A hard hat is now on my list! Yes, three years of no heat and no ventilation - a classic recipe for problems. The current heat and air is causing wallpaper to peel itself off the walls, so I'm guessing/hoping any 'structural' shifting is, as you say, the house having a little stretch and awakening...

 

[Stevers]

Our house had been empty for 18 months and heading into the second winter the surveyor with his little meter found that everything was thoroughly damp - and that included the internal window shutters on the sash windows. Although you could stand in the bedrooms and see the sky - this was only if you managed to line up the holes, and there was little sign of water ingress. It's a stone house and in the Autumn these can become a sponge for damp without at least some heat - think cave. After we fired up the new central heating for the first time, there was much shrinkage of previously tight fitting wainscotting, floor boards, door panels (and shutters) as the place dried out.
I should add that our recently fitted 'never off' smart Wiser heating controls (to our original system) have been a revelation for comfort at no apparent extra cost this winter. This is due to the ability for extra warmth to closely follow us around the house through the day, with the rest of the house heated on an appropriately lower setting for the time of day.

What also helps with damp here are the Passivents in bathroom and shower room that duct any moist air up through the house and onto the roof using convection. The Passivents require no electricity, and open only when they sense damp using some sort of bi-material strip - a French idea I think. They still work perfectly with no maintenance after 26 years.

 

[ThornhillMike]

Our house had been empty for 18 months and heading into the second winter the surveyor with his little meter found that everything was thoroughly damp - and that included the internal window shutters on the sash windows. Although you could stand in the bedrooms and see the sky - this was only if you managed to line up the holes, and there was little sign of water ingress. It's a stone house and in the Autumn these can become a sponge for damp without at least some heat - think cave. After we fired up the new central heating for the first time, there was much shrinkage of previously tight fitting wainscotting, floor boards, door panels (and shutters) as the place dried out.
I should add that our recently fitted 'never off' smart Wiser heating controls (to our original system) have been a revelation for comfort at no apparent extra cost this winter. This is due to the ability for extra warmth to closely follow us around the house through the day, with the rest of the house heated on an appropriately lower setting for the time of day.

What also helps with damp here are the Passivents in bathroom and shower room that duct any moist air up through the house and onto the roof using convection. The Passivents require no electricity, and open only when they sense damp using some sort of bi-material strip - a French idea I think. They still work perfectly with no maintenance after 26 years.

That resonates. Ours is Manx Stone, which is known for its 'breathability', i.e. it absorbs damp when it rains, then dries itself out afterwards - unless of course there's no effective heat source or ventilation. The back door to the house has already gone from a shoulder barge to open it to a perfectly opening door in just a few days with the heating on.

The Wiser heating sounds interesting, as do the Passivents - I'll read up on both (and keep my fingers crossed for 'Dry Rot' Tony's visit on Thursday where he tells me just how badly this is going to eat in to my contingency budget...