The Watergate affair

Right, let me run this past you and see if you spot anything odd. The roofers’ estimate said they would thoroughly check over the entire roof. They came back this morning and said that the water was coming in because there was a big hole in a “watergate” in the angle of the roof (I thought they were called gulleys, but that shows how much I know) and that it was obvious really - you couldn’t miss it.

So why did they miss it?

What else have they missed?

Apres moi le deluge!

Splosh Glug Splish

So I spoke too soon.
Heavy rain this morning resulted in an indoor swimming pool in the unused room above the kitchen and an ornamental water feature in the kitchen. Trying to load the dishwasher while getting rained on is not the best start to anyone’s day.
Of course it’s Easter Monday, so the roofers are not around. They are supposed to turn up tomorrow. I don’t feel any particular urge to be polite to them. On a slightly more positive note, the other two areas that were re-roofed appear to be watertight.

Drying out

Roofing work is complete apart from a Velux window to be fitted to the back kitchen. I’d foolishly assumed that a window would be fitted to the new roof in the same place as it was in the old one. Of course not!

Slab laying was suspended yesterday. The folk working on the paving got upset by the roofers habit of throwing unwanted building materials off the scaffolding without looking down first. Health and safety? What’s that all about then?

The heating engineer called to arrange delivery of materials next Thursday with a view to starting the work the following Monday. Architectural salvage are interested in the old cast radiators. We’re not.

Raindrops keep falling

Intermittent showers in the rooms above the bar. It seems that the roofers underestimated the number of slates needed and have gone home leaving two rows of slates missing.

Flagstones and asbestos

The builders are back to re-lay the flagstones which were taken up to mend the drains. The previous layout was a mixture of flagstones, tar, concrete and anything else previous builders had by them. There aren’t enough flagstones to cover the whole area, so we’ll have to get some new (synthetic) ones and hope they don’t look too naff next to the originals.
The roofers are coming back today to replace the asbestos roof on the back kitchen and deal with some other minor problems which are too boring even to put here.
Samples of insulation from the old heating pipes were sent for analysis and apparently do not contain asbestos. This is good news as it means that the old pipes can be removed from the cellars.

A roof over our heads

The delayed roofing work got under way this week. The part of the building which contains the public bar is being re-slated and the work should be complete this week. Some other minor repairs will be done next week.
Meanwhile, the drainage work is complete and the kitchen corridor has been re-laid with new cement.

Excavations

The builders were back this week digging a trench along the kitchen corridor for the installation of a new drain which will connect with the main drain they replaced last week. Under the concrete were what looked like flagstones, but on closer examination they were some kind of manufactured stone - furnace bricks, the builders suggested. Under that was bare earth with big rocks in it, suggesting that the ground preparation wasn’t particularly thorough. Foundations? You must be kidding!
Anyway, the pipe’s laid and the guys will be back on Monday to replace the concrete.

Roofing put off until Monday. Central heating set for April. Can’t come soon enough - I am fed up having to walk down to the boiler room in the dark to turn the heating on.

Roofing (or the lack of it)

Weather is fine here, but the roofers are in Edinburgh where it’s snowing, so the work’s been delayed another couple of days.
Work continues to reinstate the woodwork in the dining room which was removed for rot treatment.
And we think there might be a small outbreak of woodworm in the breakfast room. Hopefully the insurance policy we inherited will cover this. The joys of owning a historical (hysterical?) building! Time for another coffee.