Damp, guttering, pointing and neighbours.

[Andrew Collins]

I live in a Victorian town house and it's got a bit of a damp problem.

Fortunately I know what was causing the worst of it and I've fixed it. But that was over a month ago and it's still damp. Now I know drying times are famously difficult to predict, nonetheless I'm trying to figure out if there is still a problem and whether there's anything more I can do about it.

Long story short. Victorian town house. Wooden guttering. Ours new. Neighbour's old. Neighbour's blocked, overflowing. Informed neighbour. No action. Waited 'til she was out and cleaned her guttering for her (she doesn't know). Overflowing stopped. Discovered her guttering totally rotten, still drips a bit, but compared to the torrent that used to happen it's *much* better.

Bricks relatively nonporous but pointing on wall shot. Obviously the pointing needs fixing and I'm intending to do this, but I'm not sure how much difference it will make. I'm pretty sure my neighbour can't afford to replace her guttering and as she's just moved in, and as she bought the house in that condition I think her insurance may not cover it?

Ultimately, if fixing the pointing doesn't work, is there anything ele I can do? If not, what can I do to get her guttering fixed? :- I'm hassling her quite a lot about it and seeing little movement.

Thanks,

Andrew Andrew Collins Change 0 to o to reply!

[meow2222]

Damp walls can take well over a month to dry, though you should have seen improvement by now. Suitable mortar for these properties is 3:1 bagged lime to sand. Lime mortar lets damp evaporate for the joints much more effectively than cement, and doesnt damage the bricks when it eventually comes off.

How to get her to fix her gutter? I dont know. I do notice when people dont do what they should, often its because they dont know how to solve the problem, or assume it will be ubercostly, so giving her supplier and price info for replacement wood gutter might work. ISTR its not particularly expensive - the wood species is critical though, the right one will last 70 years, the wrong stuff wont survive 7.

bit of info here

here, especially if you ask:

[manatbandq]

Insurance doesn't cover lack of maintenance, as we've discussed in a recent thread. She may have some comeback against the surveyor if she's just bought it recently but he will almost certainly have some arse covering clause like "I'm afraid of heights so couldn't inspect the gutters".

If her leaky gutters are still causing damage to your property then I would assume you could resort to legal action to recover the cost of repairs.

MBQ

[Weatherlawyer]

Some absurd advice snipped.

The properties need protecting now. Frost will damage both. The female is probably hoping the problem will go away. Costing relatively little to do, replacing the rotten landers for her would be the neighbouly thing to do, clear up his damp problem and relieve her stress.

She probably has an huge mess where her gutters are damaging the property too. Handled diplomatically, the problem could be alleviated and a firm friend made. The problem sounds more like an opportunity than a difficulty.

I can't see it costing much to fix. One or two hundred quid at most. The OP already has an interest in doing such work. Sounds like a win win investment.

[manatbandq]

Just what did you find absurd?

MBQ

[Stuart Noble]

Plus you get your face sat on. I think next time you're cleaning her gutter out you might probe a bit too far with a screwdriver somewhere above her front door. Women don't know there are things called gutters.

[Andrew Collins]

: : : On Nov 3, 12:34 pm, "Weatherlawyer" wrote: : > [e-mail] wrote: : >

: > > If her leaky gutters are still causing damage to your property then I would : > > assume you could resort to legal action to recover the cost of repairs. : : > Some absurd advice snipped. : : Just what did you find absurd?

Generally speaking getting all legal on people is counter-productive in the long run. At the moment I have quite a good relationship with her and her kids. If I ruin that then it could make my life a merry hell (2.5 teenagers).

I'd quite happily ship a hundred sheets in order to keep co-operation, but it wouldn't cost that little... It's not a job I can really DIY. I just don't fancy lugging what is effectively a piece of 20ft long 6x3 up a ladder on my own, or for that matter even with a mate. I'm not the greatest up ladders in the first place, and scaf tower hire is expensive.

I could replace the section that is actually causing the problem, but she'll *still* need to do the rest soon.

I think I might go up there with some bitumen paint and some silly cone sealant and see if I can bodge it well enough to last the winter. Pah... Andrew Collins Change 0 to o to reply!

[Mary Fisher]

Don't be silly.

[Brian G]

That's right, they think they are for walking in!

[Lobster]

Absolutely.

I'm just wondering how many Victorian properties there are around where the original wooden gutters haven't failed and been replaced with black uPVC ones anyway?

Maybe the purists will scream, but it doesn't sound to me like this property owner is going to be bothered about repairing/replacing wooden ones. Plastic will be a lot more easily and cheaply done.

David

[Mary Fisher]

Doesn't the neighbour suffer from damp?

Mary

[Andrew Collins]

[snip]

No go, I'm afraid. It's a conservation area and it was made quite plain to me that plastic is fine on the back of the house but on the front it has t be wood.

Andrew.

[Andrew Collins]

[snip]

Yes, but they don't really use that room much. She just hs a de-humidifier stuck in it running 24/7. I think she's hoping the problem will simply go away if she leaves it alone.

Andrew.

[Andrew Collins]

On 3 Nov 2006 03:33:25 -0800, [e-mail] wrote: [snip]

Aaah... thanks for that. I had assumed that cement was the way to go.

Have given her the details of the people that did ours. I can't remember the cost exactly but have given her an estimate.

changes over time. I would very likely have done totally the wrong thing if I hadn't read your advice and these pages.

Andrew

[Mary Fisher]

Does she realise that it's costing her a lot of money to run the de-humidifier and that the value of the house will suffer?

Rhetorical only, the lady seems blinkered :-(

Mary

[Weatherlawyer]

Get the plastic ones fitted and if anyone complains, have her say she didn't know what was going on and that she will get the installer to replace them. That should keep her going for an year or two.

IIRC and I really can't remember seeing wooden landers since I was a small boy, they are just two long laths redirecting the water and tongue and grooved into each other or something.

How do they dispose of the water? I seem to recall they just shed it off the end of the run.

That aught to be easier to repair than plastic, should it not? Could you run some plastic inside the landers?

OOH! Firefox 2 has a spell checker and correcter in it,

Nice. Just what I've always wanted. (If it works in real English that is, not the imported stuff.)

Is "neighbors" an Americanism? I can't believe they'd ditch the "..u.." but keep the "..eigh.." what would be the point of that?

[Brian Sharrock]

Yes it's a USA-ism {not American, because Canadians don't use it] but if you're wondering why some parts have been kept while othere retained: consider that 'neighbour' is itself a corruption of the original nigh-boer ... the folk in adjacent farm! 'We' seem to have ditched quite a number of parts! What is the point of that! :) Unless it's DIY word-fettleing.

[Andrew Collins]

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 11:51:22 -0000, "Mary Fisher" wrote: : : Rhetorical only, the lady seems blinkered :-(

Apparently not (thankfully). She popped round at the weekend to say that she'd finally managed to get a contractor to do the work, but he's messing her about a bit[1]. Nevertheless it should be done within the next couple of weeks.

Fingers crossed!

[1] It's the same contractor I used, but I had *no* problem with him, quite the opposite in fact. There again, I planned ahead and got my gutters fixed in summer.

Andrew Collins Change 0 to o to reply!

[Mary Fisher]

Oh, excellent! I'm genuinely pleased for you, such neighbourly problems can cause a lot of resentment.

Mary

[manatbandq]

[e-mail] wrote:: >

Weatherlayer said "Some absurd advice snipped". "Getting all legal" wasn't the part he snipped.

MBQ