Gutters, render and damp

musharoom

Martin_the_Unjust said:

When was the last time your gutters were cleaned out?

Our gutters are clear, the neighbour's gutters aren't (you can see them clearly from our loft room, and also see neighbours gutter plant growth from from ground level too).

Had a gutter specialist round today to take a look and his first thought was our damp isn't a gutter issue causing it, but it isn't helping. Our gutters are about 20 year old and very leaky all the way round the house which you can see from underneath as he showed us, but it is only one area inside we have damp so gutter man didn't think it was that as root cause. Gutter man also pointed out we don't actually have a downpipe on the front of our house unusual for our street as every house does except ours (which we never noticed before) so we rely on our neighbours downpipes either side, too! 
We have noticed it is our soil pipe/downpipe leaking at the rear of the property and also a poorly installed drainage pipe from the washing machine upstairs connecting to said soil pipe that we now think is responsible for kitchen damp and damage to exterior render. Gahhhh!!! 

So, does this sound about right for order of repairs and what we'll need to do? 

(1) replace gutter system, check fascias and soffits and fill any gaps/holes, install downpipe out front (gutter man)

(2) replace soil pipe and washing machine drainage pipe out back (plumber)

(3) remove and replace render (is this an exterior decorator job or some other?)

(4) remove interior plaster and install damp proof then replaster indoors (damp man). 
(4) move (I'm joking). 

Would it be better if we found 1 trades person/company to do the lot, or to get them done individually by multiple trades people?

Any ideas on how much this sort of work might cost? 

stuart45

musharoom said:

So, does this sound about right for order of repairs and what we'll need to do? 

(1) replace gutter system, check fascias and soffits and fill any gaps/holes, install downpipe out front (gutter man)

(2) replace soil pipe and washing machine drainage pipe out back (plumber)

(3) remove and replace render (is this an exterior decorator job or some other?)

(4) remove interior plaster and install damp proof then replaster indoors (damp man). 
(4) move (I'm joking). 

Would it be better if we found 1 trades person/company to do the lot, or to get them done individually by multiple trades people?

Any ideas on how much this sort of work might cost? 

Order sounds right to me.
Plasterer for the render.
If you don't know any tradesmen it can be easier to find a firm to do the lot, but may cost more. You could get lucky and for example find a plumber who knows a good plasterer. You don't need a load of different trades.

twopenny

That was a good guy you got there.

Personally I'd do 1 and 2 because that's going to need doing anyway. If the damp isn't too desperate I'd wait a while after to see what happens and if some of it dries out making a smaller job. Trouble is heading to winter it's not going to be warm enough outside - but it may do inside with the heating on.

Besides the time it takes to get this done it will probably be next spring anyway

You could always tell your neighbour about the work and hope it won't be noisy for them and would they like to get  the gutter man to clear out theirs while he's there with the ladders. I did this with a neighbour and surprisingly - it worked.

Not so with my current neighbour!

musharoom

twopenny said:

That was a good guy you got there.

Personally I'd do 1 and 2 because that's going to need doing anyway. If the damp isn't too desperate I'd wait a while after to see what happens and if some of it dries out making a smaller job. Trouble is heading to winter it's not going to be warm enough outside - but it may do inside with the heating on.

Besides the time it takes to get this done it will probably be next spring anyway

You could always tell your neighbour about the work and hope it won't be noisy for them and would they like to get  the gutter man to clear out theirs while he's there with the ladders. I did this with a neighbour and surprisingly - it worked.

Not so with my current neighbour!

Got a baby on the way, we started to get it looked at pre-lockdown, now it is quite pressing to get it done ASAP unfortunately as the damp is in the baby's room and there aren't many weeks left! Otherwise we probably would take the 'do the worst bits and wait to see what happens' approach.😳

I'll have a chat with the neighbours once we've booked the gutter man and got dates for that as you suggest though. Husband is insisting I speak to neighbours because "they surely won't shout at a heavily pregnant lady" 🤔

musharoom

Update:

1) Gutters fully replaced, holes plugged with mastic, fascias and soffit etc all checked, lead firewall checked and all good on our side. (Turns out gutters were so old 20+ years they don't make them that size any more that we had up; our rear downpipe was almost blocked and was about to cause another issue so was caught just in time, and we also didn't have a downpipe on the front from the gutters either and were relying on neighbours either side, only house on entire street which we could clearly see once it was pointed out)!

2) Plumbing pipework repaired and replaced. (Turns out that in addition to the ground level soilpipe repairs, the installing by previous owners of a loft conversion left a lot of lacklustre plumbing from the loft room facilities, misalignment of toilet and soilpipe at the top so waste was all going uphill)! All rectified now and functional as it should be. 

4) Render and cracks cut out and repaired, stabilised and painted. (Turns out it was just painted and never stabilised by the lacklustre work again of previous owners using wrong materials).

4) Drainage trench/ echo drain installed in garden to allow surface run off to drain as that also wasn't helping where previous owners concreted right up to house wall and breached damp course. 

Despite all this, we still have damp getting in the bedroom. The render guy said straight away it is the neighbours firewall purely from where the damp is on the adjoining wall inside our house and that our side is all now tight. 

Next issue: our neighbours shout a lot and aren't friendly with each other let alone with anyone else. 

How to approach them?! What happens if they say no to getting someone in to repair their side? We have exhausted all ideas on the root cause from our side!! 

bearclaws

musharoom said:

Update:

1) Gutters fully replaced, holes plugged with mastic, fascias and soffit etc all checked, lead firewall checked and all good on our side. (Turns out gutters were so old 20+ years they don't make them that size any more that we had up; our rear downpipe was almost blocked and was about to cause another issue so was caught just in time, and we also didn't have a downpipe on the front from the gutters either and were relying on neighbours either side, only house on entire street which we could clearly see once it was pointed out)!

2) Plumbing pipework repaired and replaced. (Turns out that in addition to the ground level soilpipe repairs, the installing by previous owners of a loft conversion left a lot of lacklustre plumbing from the loft room facilities, misalignment of toilet and soilpipe at the top so waste was all going uphill)! All rectified now and functional as it should be. 

4) Render and cracks cut out and repaired, stabilised and painted. (Turns out it was just painted and never stabilised by the lacklustre work again of previous owners using wrong materials).

4) Drainage trench/ echo drain installed in garden to allow surface run off to drain as that also wasn't helping where previous owners concreted right up to house wall and breached damp course. 

Despite all this, we still have damp getting in the bedroom. The render guy said straight away it is the neighbours firewall purely from where the damp is on the adjoining wall inside our house and that our side is all now tight. 

Next issue: our neighbours shout a lot and aren't friendly with each other let alone with anyone else. 

How to approach them?! What happens if they say no to getting someone in to repair their side? We have exhausted all ideas on the root cause from our side!! 

Can I ask how much did this all come to?

sgun

musharoom said:

Update:

1) Gutters fully replaced, holes plugged with mastic, fascias and soffit etc all checked, lead firewall checked and all good on our side. (Turns out gutters were so old 20+ years they don't make them that size any more that we had up; our rear downpipe was almost blocked and was about to cause another issue so was caught just in time, and we also didn't have a downpipe on the front from the gutters either and were relying on neighbours either side, only house on entire street which we could clearly see once it was pointed out)!

2) Plumbing pipework repaired and replaced. (Turns out that in addition to the ground level soilpipe repairs, the installing by previous owners of a loft conversion left a lot of lacklustre plumbing from the loft room facilities, misalignment of toilet and soilpipe at the top so waste was all going uphill)! All rectified now and functional as it should be. 

4) Render and cracks cut out and repaired, stabilised and painted. (Turns out it was just painted and never stabilised by the lacklustre work again of previous owners using wrong materials).

4) Drainage trench/ echo drain installed in garden to allow surface run off to drain as that also wasn't helping where previous owners concreted right up to house wall and breached damp course. 

Despite all this, we still have damp getting in the bedroom. The render guy said straight away it is the neighbours firewall purely from where the damp is on the adjoining wall inside our house and that our side is all now tight. 

Next issue: our neighbours shout a lot and aren't friendly with each other let alone with anyone else. 

How to approach them?! What happens if they say no to getting someone in to repair their side? We have exhausted all ideas on the root cause from our side!! 

Well done on getting all that done so quickly. At least you'll have piece of mind from your side. Honestly, the best way is to just go and knock, tell them your house is damp (point out its the babies room), show them what you have had done and offer to pay for their side to be repaired. Annoying, but I doubt that they would be bothered if it isn't affecting them. It doesn't matter if they get arsey with you, you aren't going to be friends anyway. If they refuse keep pressing them!