Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Chatting on the Plot => Topic started by: Lardman on June 10, 2023, 18:08
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The utility is flooded, :mad: water pouring down light fittings and out of the boiler power feed, I've had to turn the electricity off to the entire extension, everything on the floor and in the wall cupboards now has a soggy bottom and I'm all out of dry towels. Not sure why the rcd didn't trip in the fuse board - I'll have to look at that later - especially as I got a shock from the socket.
I've been up on the extension roof and fixed the immediate problem which was a disconnected down spout but it's going to take some time for all the electrics to dry out before I can turn the power back on and I expect the ceiling will need plastering again. Sigh.
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Oh no Lards, I’m so sorry for you, just what you don’t need I’m sure! Any ideas how the down pipe had become disconnected?
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Bad luck. That is all you need.
I hope it dries out quickly and there are not too many repairs to make in the wake of it.
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The downspout not sure - could just have been thermal movement, It was only supposed to be a temporary fix when I put it up there about 10 years ago. I've not been paying much attention to the upkeep of house lately. :blush: It didn't fix the problem though and I was still getting water leaking in, all be it not pouring in like before.
I've torn the ceiling down and there a about half a dozen rips in the roofing felt where it was coming in. At least now I can get buckets under them, I've disconnected the soggy electrical stuff from the kitchen circuits so I can put the kettle on and make the much needed coffee I was on my way to do when I found the leak.
I did try the gorilla tape I have over them but it wont stick whilst things are wet, despite it's claims. I might have to get some of that self adhesive flashing tape instead.
Hopefully no damage to the boiler but I won't be able to tell until I power it back up, which I'm not doing until it's dried out fully. The rest of the damage is all cosmetic and fixable, just annoying as I'd much rather not at the moment and knowing me I won't bother, ceiling are overrated anyway.
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Sorry to hear this, Lardy. :(
It never rains but it pours ! (Someone had to say it :wub: )
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It never rains but it pours ! (Someone had to say it :wub: )
I am reminded of a Travis song.... I supposed at least now I can put some insulation up there, added bonus that it will use some of the kingspan I have after failing to get round to putting it under the floor.
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So feel for you. I know well what flooding can do, not only to the house, but also to your state of mind. Before we moved here, and just after I retired, one early morning we were flooded for a third time to about 4" throughout the ground floor due to the water surface drain outside going into a nearby dyke that wasn't maintained so it backed up.
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This was at least 'clean' water and I managed to take action before there was too much damage. So far this morning the only casualty is the led light bulb, not surprising as it was submerged in the water caught in the fitting. I've taped over the rips - not sure if it rodent damage or if they'd been caught by other trades as there used to be a lot of pipework up there.
I've also been able to see down into the eves and things are even worse down there, the sarking appears to stop short by about a 8 inches so any water on it would have just poured into the cavity. The room is tiled floor to ceiling so I wouldn't have noticed any damp.
That will require a little more of a substantial fix. I should really address why the water was there in the first place though :nowink: as it's not supposed to be and certainly not in that volume.
edit : Boiler is fine - thankfully as that was the major concern in terms of hassle and cost. I've also been on the roof and swept a bin bag full of moss off the tiles.
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Stay safe - so sorry to hear the travails, but glad to hear the boiler at least still works!
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Sorry to hear your news. Hopefully you can do some repairs yourself. I have to rely on others. Just paid the plumber £95 this morning. He has had to drill through the side wall and put a new overflow pipe from the cold water tank. Lucky for me the tank didn't overflow all this time. Mrs Bouquet
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£95 isn't that bad Mrs B, probably minimum charge of an hour and working on ladders when you're getting on a bit isn't fun. If I was having to pay a tradesman to fix the mess though I'd be far more displeased about events. I'll fix anything me - well, half fix it :nowink: but it looks like I got off very lightly all things considered.
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£95 isn't that bad Mrs B, probably minimum charge of an hour and working on ladders when you're getting on a bit isn't fun. If I was having to pay a tradesman to fix the mess though I'd be far more displeased about events. I'll fix anything me - well, half fix it :nowink: but it looks like I got off very lightly all things considered.
Can you not get it all fixed via your insurance? You could get someone it to do it all & maybe fix the decorating up as well, after all it must have ‘wrecked’ lots?
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Can you not get it all fixed via your insurance? You could get someone it to do it all & maybe fix the decorating up as well, after all it must have ‘wrecked’ lots?
I have never had an insurance claim pay out - home or car, they always find a way to squirm out of it.
Monetarily, the damage is likely to be less than my excess. It's just frustrating as I only seem to be spending my time fixing things to get back to where I was rather than making any progress. I'd love to be at the stage where I just slap paint on the walls every couple of years.
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Oh that’s a b%gger then, when we first moved in & we’re decorating etc, the temperature suddenly dropped overnight & the boiler clicked on to compensate, unfortunately an upstairs radiator was off the wall, & the valve must have got knocked whilst I was painting (well that’s what hubby said, it was bound to be my fault, the insurance paid out & we got a complete new carpet for the through lounge, which was good as it needed replacing but we were going to divide the room anyway
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There really is nothing worse than smelly wet wool carpets, it's even worse than wet dog. This was originally a shower room so it's also tiles on the floor making cleanup a lot easier. I gave myself a stern talking to yesterday and just cracked on with it. Everything's done inside now apart from the plastering and I think I'll wait until we've had another storm to check things before I seal it up.
I took the opportunity to sort some other bits on the to-do list, moved the lights , removed a useless outside light fitting, installed a new ring main so I now don't need to run an extension cable from the hallway to use the washing machine for the first time in since 2007, roof insulation installed and everything denailed ready for the plasterboard. All using up stuff I had bought for other jobs I hadn't got round to doing. The roof work will have to wait until I have fetched my scaffolding tower from the bungalow.
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Well done, keep going, you'll be pleased you did it in the end. Paul also has a habit of starting jobs, getting materials in to do them, getting 'nearly' there and then not completing them. So frustrating.
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I've been sidetracked so stuff will have to wait now.
This was what greeted me at ML's old bungalow. Someone (not me) had turned the mains water back on and it must have been running for months and had flooded the entire house. :mad:
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Oh no Lards I bet you despair, so sorry more has been added to your troubles. Surely that’s an insurance job ?
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It's been unoccupied for 18 months no insurance, all the rooms are like that and they were all carpeted the whole property was about half an inch deep. Clean up will start tomorrow as I can't leave it in that state, but the repairs and disposal of the water damaged stuff will have to be managed by the estate.