J.A.S.'s fixing the damp & swimming pool in the house thread....

JustAnotherSaver

TBH i can't see that working. You'd have to bring the pipe above ground level to take it outside & then once outside it'll be higher than the lowest point under the boards. The driveway may slope off the road, but the flooring seems fairly level.


I've had a look & if the pump i'm looking at on their website is the one i'm thinking of then it's only £13 for the day. He'd probably do me some off that too.

Here's one - would you get that water out ASAP or would you let the plumber (or whoever is fitting new sump pump) see it first so they can see what it gets like? Maybe a silly Q but still.
I'm guessing get it out ASAP as thinking about it, they'll see from the dark marker on the bricks.

I should rename this my general house repair thread

JustAnotherSaver

There really is no point lower than where it's collecting under the floorboards (i believe).
Where the drive slopes down, it slopes & then stops, at the house. This doesn't then continue sloping down at the same gradient. The rear may be slightly lower but there's not much in it as i was looking the other day. The floor under the floorboards will still be certainly lower than even the wall at the very end of the garden.

I'll just have a chat with that rental bloke. Even if he charges me full whack, i'm not to £13 when this is going to be costing me 4 figures for sure.


One thing the wife has questioned -

He said the fire, the skirting, the coving will all need to be brought out because of the plastic sheeting & then plasterboard on top (coming away from the wall).
She has questioned the need for new door frames He never mentioned it but surely that will end up being required too, which wont be cheap.

Minefield

Part of me wishes we'd just lumped for the newer build (2000) when it came back on the market, even though not in as good a location.

fluffymuffy

If it were my house...

And I've actually done a project almost the same as yours - worse even, as the floor had collapsed due to dry rot...

I would /did put the whole ground floor in a skip and install a solid floor instead. It's a permanent solution.

The one I did had a 4ft void under the floor to fill. We used a lorry load of Optiroc - http://ie.maxit-cms.com/media/80/pdfs/lwa/local-authority.pdf - which was dead easy (it acts as insulation as well as filler) - and then dpm and slab on top.

In your case you'd need your plumbing shifting above floor level first. (Put that in with the contract and let the builder deal with it.)

But you wouldn't need to do anything about your driveway. And you could cement over those airbricks - as they wouldn't be ventilating anything.

Realistically it will cost about £3500 to £4000 - get a quote from a builder. It will need Building Regulations too - the builder will sort that out on a Building Notice. (Unless you're in Scotland - in which case I have no idea). But you'd make a saving on not having to deal with the driveway.

If you are happy that you've bough the house in the right area than it would be worth sorting out properly. Especially if you're planning to stay there. It's not as much trouble as you think - just put everything upstairs (or in that solid-floor extension) and they'll be done in less than a week.

cyclonebri1

[QUOTE

Also, how much water 'needs' to disappear from below? I imagine the pump has to sit in a certain level of water, so maybe not every last drop & then bone dried out .... but to what level? As i say it's perhaps 1 course of brick high at the moment. So, 65mm-ish (without a stick to tell you for sure).[/QUOTE]

The whole point of the sump is that it is the lowest point. When working the sump will usually, (wet season), have some water in there, enough to stop the pump drawing air. By the time this happens all water should have run from the main base.

I think you need a good plumber, maybe even someone with some industrial background, rather than a gas fitter so to speak. There are plenty around.;)

JustAnotherSaver

fluffymuffy wrote: »

I would /did put the whole ground floor in a skip and install a solid floor instead. It's a permanent solution.

Would you say that is on the lines of what the chap suggested to us (fill the space with limestone chippings), or is a totally 100% SOLID floor a completely different ball game to filling with chippings (with visqueen on top he said).

He reckoned up about 4-5 bags approx to fill the underfloor space. I personally think that's quite conservative. I deal with these bags daily & although i will say now that i may well be wrong, but i would've imagined that to get up to 4 course all the way on the ground floor will require much more. 10 bags perhaps.

However ... on the topic of a solid floor...

What's the disadvantages to that? I'm fast learning that no matter what you do in the building game, there will be disadvantages. 300 years ago the airflow in a house would've been good, but naff all heating. These days they're nice & warm but they're a sweatbox.

IF (& that's a big IF) folk are right & there is a 'beck' running through, how would a solid floor impact on that?

How would a solid floor impact on the surrounding walls in the living room? I imagine it wont sort the salting & we'd still have to go the plastic sheeting & plasterboard route?

Just for the record, i'm not poo-pooing your idea. I'm just trying to think ahead as there will be consequences so to speak to anything we decide.

The one I did had a 4ft void under the floor to fill. We used a lorry load of Optiroc - http://ie.maxit-cms.com/media/80/pdfs/lwa/local-authority.pdf - which was dead easy (it acts as insulation as well as filler) - and then dpm and slab on top.

Just had a quick scan of the pdf as i'm in a bit of a rush this morning.
Is that stuff kinda like vermiculite/micafil?

In your case you'd need your plumbing shifting above floor level first. (Put that in with the contract and let the builder deal with it.)

This one stumped me & i'll go ahead & be dim...

What do you mean? I imagine you're talking about more than just the sump pump. If so then what?
And if a load of piping has to come above floor level, i'm wondering where on earth that piping would then go & how much disruption we're talking.

But you wouldn't need to do anything about your driveway. And you could cement over those airbricks - as they wouldn't be ventilating anything.

The drive is getting done regardless i'm afraid. We need it to take 2 cars & at the moment it's only taking one. Question is do we patch in with pavers, do we rip up & go for Indian flagging (personal favourite), do we include aco channeling or not etc. Whatever we do, it's going to have to take another car.

Realistically it will cost about £3500 to £4000 - get a quote from a builder. It will need Building Regulations too - the builder will sort that out on a Building Notice. (Unless you're in Scotland - in which case I have no idea). But you'd make a saving on not having to deal with the driveway.

We're not in Scotland, no.
If that price was close to accurate then that's not too bad since Peter Cox quoted us just over £3k to hack off plaster & replaster (inc skirting & fitting, skip hire etc).

If you are happy that you've bough the house in the right area than it would be worth sorting out properly. Especially if you're planning to stay there. It's not as much trouble as you think - just put everything upstairs (or in that solid-floor extension) and they'll be done in less than a week.

Yes. We've said all along that when we bought our house, whichever it was to be, that we were planning on it being our only house.
I know people respond to that by saying "they all say that", but honestly, the people who know me know that i could very easily do that (aside from any possible future nightmare neighbours).
If we were going in 5-10 years then i wouldn't care. We want it done right to save us money long term. Problem is, having the money available short term.



As a side note i went to hire a pump today - £20 for the day. The chap said he'll try & save us some money by taking a look at the sump pump if we can get it out.
Then on the drive home i realised 2 problems:

1) I've no wellies & don't know anyone who does have. Well i do - my mum at size 6, my dads were size 8, i'm a size 10 :rotfl:
2) Wellies aside, just getting down there. I don't want to destroy floorboards & i'm not convinced the small hatch is enough.

JustAnotherSaver

Good news bad news...

Bad news - my knees are so goosed after operations i can't do much crouching.
Good news - i have a brother to send down there

The air bricks at the front (2 under living room window, 1 under hall window) and the side (of hall) are free (not blocked).

I have noticed tubing running from these air bricks. It looks about 2"/50cm. It doesn't appear to be perforated. It runs from the front to the rear from what i can see & from the side (hall) in to the living room.
Front air brick:

Running to th eback:



You can see the air brick at the side of the hall being clear with more piping running from there:


What the sludge looked like:



I followed the drain pipe up from the sump pump & it leads out to the air brick closest to the party wall under the living room window & out to a shared drain:


The water level was 4.5":


The extended diner has a solid concrete floor with air bricks at the rear. No idea if these are blocked or if piping leads to/from here:


So i had a dip stick to measure depth. I thought i'd scrape a bit of the crud off the sump pump. Firstly i thought i saw an on/off switch on the float, so i tapped it. The pump then kicked in to life. Not noisy like some had me believe actually. We were left with this:

Think this is the party wall:


This pipe that you spoke of leads from the base of the chimney breast. Does it make you any wiser?:


Centre of living room:








My brother tried tracing the power cord from the sump pump but it's just a sea of wires. Leads over to the hall & then back again & then up the living room to the back & then back again. It's all over. No obvious switch.

He noticed something promising though - one lead from it runs to a wall near the living room door & then disappears. It's just about the only wire he saw that does this & he said it goes upwards.
Funnily enough this is smack in line with the nearest mains socket right next to the living room door.
I wonder if it's wired into the wiring at the back of this socket so that it's then 'always on'.


Thing we need to do is somehow disconnect it & take it to the tool hire guy for cleaning.

If you can help further with the damp side of things, please post here.
If you're to help with the disconnecting of the sump, please post in the sump pump thread

Are you guys any wiser on the back of this now?

cyclonebri1

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Good news bad news...



Are you guys any wiser on the back of this now?

That's pretty good news, :T:T. You have a working system, yes probably could do with a clean.

The brickwork down there, the skeleton walls don't look bad, the damp doesn't appear to be rising as far as the bridge timber otherwise it would be worse than that.

Now, the thing you need to be careful of is the electrical safety side of things. At very least it should be wired into a fused spur, it should not be hardwired into the back of a standard socket as you then have no means of local isolation.

I seem to be finding more issues for you with each reply, but I think once the floor space dries out the situation will improve dramatically, a little electrical work isn't a big issue.

Finally, if there has been an extension added, the air bricks that were covered should have been channelled elsewhere, you may need to add additional vents if this hasn't been done.

John_Pierpoint

Could that asbestos (?) pipe leading into the chimney breast be intended to pipe the air needed for burning into some sort of fire - thus avoiding cold air whistling under the internal doors when the fire is alight?

Come to think of it, this house has survived for 75 years so with proper care should manage to carry on. How long do you think the house was left without its sump pump running? That is more irresponsible than leaving broken tiles all over the roof.

Personally I would keep the situation in a state of watchful waiting until next September to see if things dry out somewhat, though traditionally it can take two years for such a building dry out once saturated, during which time those timbers could be at risk.

Are we we sure this problem is rainwater not a broken sewer, or in your property, are they one and the same thing?

The flocculance on the boot looks a bit suspicious - what does it smell like down there?

What does next door's under floor space look like?.

JustAnotherSaver

Ugh .... bad news (i assume)....

Went to the house earlier & lifted the boards. Yes you guessed it ... the water level is back, exactly where it was (4.5inch deep).

Again, i am now assuming from this that this level is the natural level for this area (perhaps) as it seems to get to this level & then stop.

I found & checked the outside drain - clear.

This water is clearly coming from somewhere. Problem with filling it in to make it a solid floor is what then happens to that water that was passing through our house? Does it start shooting out of peoples (our?) garden?

Regards the fire - it would've, once upon a time, been a roaring fire, so i assume the piping may well have been an air feed for it. This is modern day Britain & we're now in a smoke controlled zone & the fire is now a gas one. The previous owner told us they didn't use it.

Regards it potentially being asbestos, what do we do here? Leave it undisturbed? It's been there no doubt since day dot perfectly fine.

zaax

Is the suimp pump still running? It looks like you could do with a new one. If there is a spring under the house you will be to have it piped off some where. Concreting it over will not solve the problem the water will only force is way in.