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Hey from Essex... xx


Yzzy

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40 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

I wonder if the "1920/yellow brick" add on at the back has interrupted this? The leaky flat roof won't help.

 

 

I think it's the library you know... I've not been in there but the wall in the old music room and that one in the kitchen both back on to the library..... FOOK knows what is waiting for me in there then!!! 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Vision Of Heaven said:

ok after some time "spinning the pink and blue balls" xD we have a video of the odd 'root' stuff in the kitchen... the only place I've seen this and I believe (hope) it is a plant and not that dry rot you showed me yesterday.... :(

 

 

 

that video of the stuff growing down the wall looks very much like tree or plant roots rather than rot. Is that the room located below the failed roof area?

 

The separate photo you posted of the skirting board is rot of some kind but it's not possible to say what type.

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The way to tell the difference between wet and dry rot is that wet rot hyphae look like plant roots, are usually brown or black, grow vertically a long way up walls on plaster and remain flexible enough that they can be pulled off as you did in the video.

 

Dry rot produces white or yellowish hyphae that are generally very brittle, and wouldn't peel off the way those did.

 

Both are signs that there is rot in the timber underneath the floor, as that's what they are feeding on.  The hyphae growing up the wall are just the fungus looking for more damp timber as food.

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58 minutes ago, Vision Of Heaven said:

 

I think it's the library you know... I've not been in there but the wall in the old music room and that one in the kitchen both back on to the library..... FOOK knows what is waiting for me in there then!!! 

 

 

 

The library is going to be a whole new chapter...

 

:ph34r:

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The only problem with this scheme is that in Britain we are not quite as barmy as the Americans seem to be. Most home-owners, and even a few enlightened surveyors, have now discovered that fungi only grow in wet conditions. The notorious "dry rot", for example, which timber treatment firms use as an excuse to spray houses with chemical fungicides, is little more than a mushroom that grows on wet wood. Remove the water that is making the timber wet - leaking gutter, raised ground level - and the mushroom shrivels up and dies. You are more likely to be harmed by the chemical treatment than the fungus.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/advice/3306698/On-the-levelToxic-mould-scare-is-a-load-of-rot.html

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11 hours ago, Onoff said:

You've changed your username???

 

Yeah, I'm kinda not feeling like this VoH house is going to happen now so changed it to my actual name lol 

 

I need to empty the house regardless so... we'll see.

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90% of downstairs done, growth in kitchen confirmed as roots from various trees growing in the masonry and not dry or wet rot. 

 

Library started yesterday but L&P ceiling is falling down in chunks so today I started on the stairs and landing!

 

 

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Just did my 'house clearance fund' accounts... £900 left!.... Still have upstairs to do which will be at least 6 of the £225 8 yard skips we have been getting.... need a miracle or a win!

 

So.... We called a local void clearance guy and he came today to give us some quotes.... all still too pricey but we came to an agreement...

 

He will drop off a load of skip bags, I will fill them on the drive, leave wood in one area, paper/books in another, metal in another (standard stuff really) and he will arrive with his 12 yard equivalent truck and vanish it all for no more than £180 !!!! Yes he is legit ;)

 

Considering the cheapest 12 yard here is £300 I am very very happy! 

 

I've got the rest of the Library to empty, 4 large double bedrooms, the ironing/sewing room, the dressing room and the bathroom to empty upstairs.... although my old bedroom is done apart from furniture so will be empty in half an hour + axe xD One of the rooms is mainly clothes, lots and lots and lots of clothes so they will all go to the clothes trade-in for 60p a kilo thank you! haha..

 

I'm thinking... hoping! That we can empty the rest of the house in 4 truck loads... so around £720 *crosses fingers*

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Risking boring you all but... All going well, upstairs is a mission and a half with all the poop but slowly slowly I am doing it.... A new client of ours (we are web developers) is a Chartered Surveyor and has offered his services gratis! So that's amazing....

A local guy with a 14 yd flat bed who offered to do loads for much less than what we were paying for an 8 yd skip looked like a good thing but then it started to snow and we've had nothing but excuses from him since so I think the hunt for cheaper trash removal is back on.

Way ahead of schedule so far... pigeon problem still there but cant do anything about that until we find funds for the roof to be fixed...

 

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6 minutes ago, Yzzy said:

A local guy with a 14 yd flat bed who offered to do loads for much less than what we were paying for an 8 yd skip

Check he has the right paperwork or you could be liable.

Or just flytip it yourself and save some cash.

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5 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Check he has the right paperwork or you could be liable.

Or just flytip it yourself and save some cash.

 

He's good luckily, and has just contacted me and we are all good to go tomorrow.... Thank goodness!!! I feel like I'm stuck , can finally get going again...

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Long time no update!

 

Question..... Do I have to have a TV license on the property in order to listen to the radio while I work? I said no as I can hear music on building sites but sine saying that I actually haven't heard any building sites playing radio music so perhaps rules are now tight! 

 

OK found the answer to above.. it's not a business so no I don't need to have a License... Phew.... I'd go mad just listening to my inner voice all day! 

 

Update is..... downstairs (apart from old Library) is now empty. We are now flitting from emptying upstairs and stripping back downstairs..

 

Downstairs vestibule, hall and stairs carpet and wallpaper free,

Old Music room carpet and wallpaper free.

Kitchen floor and walls naked and omg.... so much work needing to be done in there.

Electrician came and gave us a basic quote... as in rewiring, new sockets in rooms, new fuseboard etc... £5k 

Plumber came in, saw the mess of the upstairs and went all shy on us and said he couldn't quote anything until the whole house was skinned naked... but did say a new boiler would be £3k fitted. OUCH!!!!!!!! Really????

 

Now the floors and walls are being exposed I am HAPPY to see that actually the old Queen Victoria is actually in good order mostly.... it's still the part of the house that suffered the burst pipe a few years ago that is yuck but the property developer who we have popping in and getting things priced up seems to think it's "not that bad actually Yzzy"... which really does make me feel much better. 

 

I managed to evict all the pigeons..... FOR A WEEK!!!.... So now have added more protection to the roof (until we can afford a repair) and am waiting for the remaining 7 bastards to fly downstairs so we can let them out the door with the others...

 

The observatory is now pigeon free and proofed.... doesn't stop them all from sitting on the window ledges and complaining! 

 

Some photos... The one with the orange barrier in the windows is the observatory on top of the house, I was mid staple gunning that lot to the broken windows to stop the flappy gits getting back in! 

 

 

IMG_20180405_142524.jpg

IMG_20180322_123645.jpg

upstairs curtains gone 19th.jpg

IMG_20180407_160844.jpg

Edited by Yzzy
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6 minutes ago, Onoff said:

You've an observatory.....cool as! :)

 

'Hot as' mainly..... it gets SO hot up there! But yes it is pretty bloody awesome and the talk of the town...

 

When I was 15 I had this AMAZING idea that I would like to sleep up there.... so parents said yes, one day in May 1985 I dragged a single mattress, small bedside table, extension lead for power, small B&W Tv and radio up there and YES!!!! ... Loved it .... for about 3 weeks.... It was bloody freezing at night and as soon as the sun came up it turned in to a hot house with NO opening windows so I would literally wake up gasping and run downstairs to breath. 

Money permitting I am replacing the windows with stained glass opening windows and putting a telescope and seats up there.... currently (as you can probably tell) it is covered in pigeon poop.... and I mean at least 2 foot of poop on the floor!!! 

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