Bungelow/bunglelow? Staying sane/get support BLOG:15 years empty-quick garage needed.

lexa34

Hello,

Hmmm... my bf is lucky on one hand as he is getting a "cheap home" as relation going to give him at cheap price it but draw back is that needs to be bought up to a standard where he can live in it ASAP as apparently has compulsory purchase order started by the council!!! YIKES. Currently no water but power... heaven help us. There are some savings for buying some items but this could provide interest

So, my brother and he have started. One has engineering degree and is cleverish officer worker, one sort of experienced learnt by experience after labouring/helping out for a few years on friends big building projects/diy etc...

All SORTS of joys have been literally unearthed rotten joists/ no or rotten floor boards leaking roof/ over ground garden etc..as you can imagine( all need dealing with) and already I am bracing my self for some stressful/ weeks/ months. Hopefully any mistakes people will learn from if there are any (yeah right!!) and advice sought from this marvellous forum to be gentled fed into the unasking blokes that are in my life.

I am just worried place will fall down and I will loose them both but he he hehhhh hee... (she laughs nervously).

ANYWAY this post is to ask for some advice on how/ where to get a metal or wooden garage to a) visable tell neighbours something is afoot finally and b) provide a dry space for putting the bits of furniture in house, then car after bath. Should it be be metal or wooden 9one looks nicer other cheaper-wooden) is all I can tell. There is room for one by the way and least I can hide in there if I get dragged over there...Where is the best /quickest/ cheapest for reasonable quality place to get one?

Also, is there a book on how to get quick, professional cheap help in anywhere??/ Ooh, and how to put in a loo.

AAARrrgghh.
Thanks if you have read this far.

Doozergirl

Sounds like fun. :eek:

I think a garage is going to be the last thing on your minds unless you have limitless funds. Even then, adding to what you have will come later. Furniture and ideas of interior decor have to come later. Storing furniture in a garage is not a good idea - it will end up mouldy very quickly.

If you are not sure exactly what is wrong with the property then I strongly recommend that you have a full building survey carried out. It will cost you but at least you will have some idea of what will need doing.

Houses deteriorate quickly without the heat of being inhabited - I don't envy you at all after 15 years! I just hope you realise what you've gotten yourselves into!

I'd just rip out everything right back to the bare bones, start with the damp and timber guy and work up from there. Know that this will take months of your time and years off your life!

maninthestreet

Isn't this all rather pointless - the council are going to force you to sell it to them???

lexa34

Doozergirl-brilliant name!!

Thanks for the replys. Just keep seeing Nick Knowles having more presenting work in SE London...bless him.

Anyway...think you are right about the garage-more important, useful things to spend the money on. I think that was just me trying to see a solution to a problem that wasn't so important but one that I could suggest a solution to in my current un-knowledgeable, useless state!!

The ceilings in the areas to be worked in came down yesterday and it is the internal brick non supporting walls today in the half of the bungalow that needs joists and flooring put in today. Curious, in the 30's they put the ceilings and the floors in then the walls. I wonder if that is the same today. Anyway...

As long as someone is living there then they can't sell it so that is why they are trying to get the basics in; then once installed as it were, even just in the few ok rooms then the council will be powerless as it is no longer inhabited. This is what the research seems to say anyhow.

They have decided that the best thing to do is strip back and start from there in the areas that they can. I really want a full building survey done and need to start trying to find someone tomorrow to do one. Where does a person start!! Here I guess and local builders merchants for finding a builder that isn't too un-knowledgeable who has miraculously had a cancellation of work... well at least get on someones waiting list. They have been going to Wickes and B&Q and surely better to find local builders merchants for cheaper?? But will take ADVICE on this!

Least now all they are doing is replacing like for like rather than talking about what sounded like homemade, improvised formwork which was extra concerning. I am going to go over this afternoon to have a nose at what has been happening. Dread in stomach...

I guess I am on the edge of the details and decisions of what is going on currently and have even much less knowledge than them so may be worrying unnecessarily. Hopefully. Dust is every where, talk of hippos bags over skips and the discovery of a desiccated rat is very enticing. Asbestos talk is freaking me a bit though! None of them are massive risk takers though so I am hoping they are being sensible while getting as much done but not going too far outside what needs external, paid professionals.

Here is hoping and guess I will find out this afternoon.

Best wishes to all!
Happy bank holiday Monday- patron saint of extreme DIY day.

lawrie28

is the compulsory purchase order because it is derelict and dangerous? if so then doing it up may stop it. if the CPO is because the council want to buy the property to use the land to build something else on it, then you are wasting your time. I'd call the council first.

I would then get in some kind of surveyor to give you an idea of the wok that needs doing. It could be cheaper to demolish and start again from what you describe.

If you need something dry and secure, then I would go for a container. ebay suggests about £900 to buy, but then you need delivery etc. Advantage with this is it is vandal proof (well, with a good lock) and youcan sell it on again at the end, without losing too much money. You could also rent one, but dead money.

ormus

a company here in the NW advertises a concrete garage supplied and fitted for 1000 quid. on your base.
you can probably double that price for london area.

Doozergirl

Skips, not hippo bags!! :eek:

lexa34

Can't knock it down as semi detached so stuck there! Also, cos of this reason HOPEFULLY the council don't want to build on it but I do know they are stepping up action on un-lived in property ( fair enough). Anyhow, will be calling them tomorrow.

Just gathering info on local skip hire. Could you just use hippo bags to put stuff in then move to skip or is that excessive and wasteful and perhaps wheel barrow will do?

Thanks so much everyone for your comment so far- hope this isn't TOO slapstick it makes experienced among you shake your head at such cluelessness but ask me about clothes, shoes, products, glitter, kittens, training, food, literature, skills or sustainable energy and I am your woman(she types pathetically trying to rack her brain for things she does know about in embarrassed manner hating people who refer to themselves in the third person and who use too many exclaimation marks)!

lexa34

Also looking at hire of flat bed truck for day for moving stuff rather than being timber for flooring delivered.