Yzzy

Thank you.. will do. The upstairs bathroom hasn't been plumbed in yet, that January's job!

OK so we plumbed in the new loo downstairs and it works, no leaks etc... BUT.... When we flush it, every now and then it will almost fill the bowl to the top and then take it's time to empty. Sometimes when it empties it goes too far and almost all the water leaves... sometimes making a glop glop glop noise as it saunters off. I think it is the old stink pipe blocked, my builder thinks it's an excavation job to find a block under ground but I've plunged the life out of it and no detritus ever comes up just clean water so I'm still thinking it's the stink pipe... which we haven't renewed yet. Need to add, the reason I think it's the stink pipe blocked is the glop glop noise reminds me of when you pour liquid from a carton / bottle and don't leave an air gap the liquid glop glops in the bottle trying to find a clear path out... ??

Hello everyone!!!!! MERRY DECEMBER to you all. We have 5 weeks to move in to the house! Yikes.... no more money to pay rent on this house so it's a mad panic to get at least the boys' rooms done, bathroom and kitchen... I have a problem with the new loo downstairs so will find the place to post about it.

Ignore this... found what i needed lol!

Yay... the conservatory / Morning room has been re built... roof going on today, doors and windows in.... old toilet block has been rebuilt, doors and windows in, roof going on today. SO HAPPY.... it's looking more like the old girl again but without the crumbling bricks.... will try and get on to update with photos...

Good advice but sadly I'm not as good sawing with my bum.... Needed my eyes and hands outside the window. Ha ha... What I should have done is wait until the tall ladder wasn't being used and do it from outside but you know... I'm a get it done now person.

Hey.... Today I feel amazing. Having a day off from the house as yesterday myself and my builder shifted 200 breeze blocks, 1 tonne of sand and a tonne of cement from the front to the back of the house and BOY do my muscles feel a bit zingy today. Mentally though I would like to be there progressing. I'm researching lead filters for the water mains as the cost of digging it all up and replacing and the stress is too much for now. I'm hoping I can get something. Yesterday I had the task of cutting a Budlea davidii out of an upstairs window sil ... best way to get to it was from inside, so I squeezed myself and a saw out of the tiny Edwardian Sash window and with awkward difficulty I cut the damn bush out. THEN I GOT STUCK!!!! It was hard enough to squeeze out but once out the girls had hoiked themselves over the frame and that was that.... You ain't getting back in unless you rip us off or grease yourself up like a swimmer! My builder thought it was the funniest thing ever as I shouted "Oh shit, I'm stuck in the window. My bloody boobs!!!" Anyway, with some squishing and squooshing akin to a baker kneading dough and a lot of strange noises I freed myself and am here to tell the tale!! NOW I know why cat's have whiskers. I will grow some post haste!

Thank you SO much @Hecateh !!!!! That was just what I needed.... Xx

Just re read this thread to get my spirits up.. Good grief this is stressful!!! Well behind schedule and the bloody house keeps showing us new things to fix. Like rotting floor beams, cracked Victorian sewer pipes and now.... LEAD water pips from the meter to the house! Apparently we have to organise / pay someone to dig a trench from the edge of our property to where the pipe enters the house, lay out the blue new pipe and call the water company to come and inspect it, then a 15 day wait for them to get permission to dig up the pavement to fix their bit. Free of charge as it's lead. "Make sure the trench is the right depth " she said.... I forgot to ask what that is!! Anyway, builders will know... Dear oh dear... what a pallava! EDITED: Your pipe should be blue medium density polyethylene (mdpe) and laid in a trenchat a depth of at least 750mm and no more than 1,350mm. The pipe should be laid on and protected from stones by sand or fine material, or installed in a suitable duct. The private service pipe should be at least 25mm diameter.

No they were well rotten but according to G "not an issue" ... well they were a bloody issue. Should have seen how easy the lot was to drag down! Got all my money back and an apology. Then he asked if he could carry on and work for me. Anyway, page closed on that one, a room lost but never mind I have an amazing new crew on board now so onwards and upwards.

Not at all, his and his sons company deal in BIG developments and are very well known. I asked him to tell me what to do about the structure to get it ready to live in. He said all that was needed was a new roof. I am learning a lot but I am no way experienced enough to know anything about what is and isn't safe. He has visited the site many many times as he was going to do most of the work. I trusted his professional opinion as did my husband. It was only because it looked 'wrong' that I called in someone else (actually two people but one was just for a 3rd opinion) and will now have M do the work. "he probably wanted out by the end of day-2 as the poor condition of the structure was revealed." The room was gutted weeks ago and he has seen it many times. The onus was on HIM to notice the instability of the frame and piers not me. I know nothing! Well I do now. Anyway. I f*cked up. I have learned my lesson and am now paying top dollar for a real professional not some guy that wants an 'easy' weekend project.

Thank you.... noted and I will :-)

This is just it. He said he needed £600 to get all the materials. I have asked him for £300 back but he says I can only have £170 as he needs 2 days labour and materials bought. ? I'm writing an email to him and his partner (wife) detailing everything and asking him for the other £120 or I will sue him in small claims for the full amount. Plus more for damage caused to a Victorian railing he broke with his bloody digger!

OK so I hired a builder to rip off and replace a flat roof on my conservatory / family room, I'll call him G. I have a new builder M who instantly condemned the whole structure and ripped it all down to rebuild due to it being structurally unsafe. Caused by rotting of the window frames and also where G had reversed a small digger into the building causing all the piers to crack and shift. The extension wasn't actually knitted in to the house (not sure of the correct term?) so that should have been a big sign according to M for G to STOP and not do the flat roof. I won't go into detail of the the rest of his mucking about and failings but will start from day two of his 'effort' on the flat roof. He said he was going home and I went to have a look at his work. The pier next to the house had a huge threaded bolt sticking out of it. I asked why and he said "When I pushed the boarding against the other wall on the roof, that pier pushed out by about a foot, I had to push it back as far as I could get it. It's ok though, that's not going anywhere, I'll cut the end off and it will be fine" He then left shoved a plank of 'summer house' paneling under the wood frame "That'll be safe Yz no worries!" and left the building... and I set to inspecting the rest of his work. Baring in mind he said all he had to do was come back and felt the roof this is what I found. The boarding he used was shutter ply, I had asked him to use OSB. The shutter ply got very wet over the next few days and rotted. He had bent the joist brackets behind the wall fixing plank instead of fixing them to the wall as M has said he should have done. G NAILED the brackets with thhe nails in the photo below. He only put 4 nails in each bracket. There were also 3 threaded bolts going through the wall board into the main house but they were not fixed in and easily pulled out. Anyway, I didn't like any of the work, the fact the pier was held in place by a bolt and the way everything looked wonky, huge gaps over the windows and wrong boarding made me call a new builder. M walked in and the first thing he said was the wooden window frames were rotten and he pulled a chunk out, he said NOTHING should be built on those frames as they will collapse under the weight. M then looked at all three piers and said they were all fractured and pushed to the north. I said G had reversed a mini digger into the south-west pier and he said that is what would have done it and NO WORK should have been done on those piers. He completely ripped apart how G had built the frame too pointing out so many faults it was starting to make me feel sick. He said the nails G had used to hold the joists up on the brackets were for flashing and would not have held the roof up for long at all. Meaning it would have come crashing down on us. The joists were twisted and not level, they were running the wrong way and well... the list goes on. So I sacked G and asked him to return the money I had paid him for materials. G is saying he can't refund me as he did by materials totaling £168 (8 untreated CLS, 2 shheets of shutter ply, 8 joist hangers, a couple of threaded bolts and a handful of nails!!) G also says he needs 2 days labour from the money - £130 a day (he spent 4 hours one day and 5 the next) I have said he can have £130 for labour and £170 for materials and want the rest back. I think I am being more than generous considering EVERYTHING has been demolished and rebuilt from foundations up. Some photos of G's work below.

I am actaully going to be sick.... the last month has crawled by. Money should be in bank on Friday..... and then a neighbour stood outside with us today looking at it and said "so, yo've got a loan, hope it was for £100k or more... you'll not get it livable under that" It made me feel like sh*t. The loan we have managed to get is for 50!!!! I just want it livable, not palatial..... proper downer.