Taking carpets and underlay up

GDB2222

Carpet is heavy, and it may be wet, too. So take your time cutting it into chunks that you can carry. Perhaps hire a skip, so it can just be thrown straight in?

Did you find the source of all this damp yet?

youth_leader

Thank you GDB2222 luckily it is a very thin carpet left by the vendor, but I will be cutting into small manageable strips. When the roof came off I had to cut the soaking lounge carpet up and I was a bit shaky the next day, I only had my kitchen knives at the time. 

Unfortunately I won't have time to get a skip here and away again before the men come with theirs on the Monday, so it's all going into bags in the front garden and I'll have to do many tip runs.  My friend is aghast that I'm doing this, but it is the difference between having a friendly builder and using a specific company to do a job, I suppose.

Since my last post about the floors I haven't cut a huge hole to look under as I was worried about pipes etc, my surveyor friend was going to come and help but hasn't.  I did look down the hole the damp surveyor had cut - all I could see was the big concrete base of the chimney breast. 

It seems the airbricks could be the problem, I poked a stick through them all and depth measurements vary enormously.  Some could be 'periscope' airbricks but the extension was built 20 years ago, I don't know.  I'm having them all investigated and hopefully enlarged, and a french drain around the whole of the extension. 

BikingBud

Not teaching nanny to suck eggs but please be careful when cutting, do not pull the blade towards you as if it catches and then slips to may end up with a nasty cut.

Practice cutting into smaller strips across in front of you with the blade facing away in a safe direction 

youth_leader

Thank you BikingBud already made that mistake and stabbed myself in the knee, luckily had thick jeans on. 

Pleased I've started packing, ten boxes of books today.  

badger09

Apologies if I’ve missed it, but you are going to sort out the damp source before replacing the floors? Aren’t you? 

I’ve followed your house sale & purchase journey & know it’s been unusually stressful & expensive. Hope it improves now & you can begin to enjoy your new home. 

youth_leader

The independent damp surveyor is coming again once the floors are up badger09, they do offer a twenty year guarantee so I'm fairly confident they will be diligent.  I had asked my surveyor, who previously surveyed the bungalow, to project manage the job for me.  I haven't heard from him for weeks but I know he has several million pound jobs with supply problems on the go, and am just assuming he is too busy.  Thank you for your good wishes, I was embarrassed when my friend came up from London, I am trying! 

TELLIT01

Make sure the 20 year guarantee is insurance based otherwise it will be worthless if the company goes bust.

No need to be embarrassed, it sounds like you are working very hard to resolve the problems.

youth_leader

Thank you TELLITT01 I must remember to check, I remember this being mentioned when I got the void timber guarantee on completion.  

FreeBear

Photos please so that we can see how things are going.

youth_leader

OK FreeBear, I'll give it a go, work starts on 1st August.  Cat dog and me all camping in the lounge/kitchen, have started feeling uncomfortable about using the chemical toilet outside but it is a quiet street.