Pimlico Flats isn’t Joking about Banks

Things are a bit shambolic on this website right now, because I’m scrambling around trying to go on holiday, and every government organisation known to man has decided to make this week the one in which they will write to me giving me 2 weeks to reply – reasonable enough when you aren’t going on holiday for 2 weeks …………

I have a great bundle of blogs half written, all about the secrets of Housing Benefit, Deposit Schemes, Lawyers who don’t understand the Law, and Property Blogging, but they all need careful consideration, so instead I’ve decided to plagiarise. Who better to plagiarise from than new star on the Internet Jocelyn King. Earlier this year Jo appeared on the internet, and immediately registered in my conciousness as a woman who had been there and done that. If you stalk her (like I have) you will see the fresh aroma of pure experience, she doesn’t talk the marketing talk, she doesn’t walk the selling walk. She is just plain and simply a woman who makes money out of being an ethical property developer and landlord. Personally I follow every move Jo makes on the internet (aka stalking) & today I propose to steal her blog, but improve it by making it generalised.

Insert Your Variable in the field { Bank}

Dear Mr Chairman of { Bank}

I am in receipt of my voting papers and Summary Financial Statement for the year ended 4 April 2010 and despite being an extremely busy person I feel that I can not just ‘cast my vote’ without making comment on the Remuneration of the Directors.

I have studied the detail provided and it is clear from the levels of remuneration for 2009 and 2010 that there has been no acknowledgement by the Directors of the financial difficulties that the country and the banking sector are in. Whilst the Society may have contractual obligations that it is committed to from previous years when times were better, it is completely within your powers to have acted by 2010 on what was clearly a serious problem emerging in early 2008.

Whilst the Society may be one of the strongest in the sector there really is no justifiable reason why anyone on our very small and fragile planet should be worth more than £150,000 per annum remuneration. The situation is made even more distasteful and inappropriate as some of the directors are working for other companies and presumably receiving remuneration from these positions too. How can anyone give 100% to their position if they are working for other organisations too?

It is important that { Bank} Directors wake up to the real world like the rest of us have had to and accept that things are changing. I feel that I have no choice but to vote to re-elect the Board of Directors as what is the alternative? However, morally I feel it is my duty as a member to point out that I am not at all happy with the levels of remuneration or with the Directors apparent lack of acknowledgement that remuneration MUST be reduced drastically to reflect the actual work that any one person, no matter how skilled, can actually contribute.

Yours sincerely

Now if you want to see the original go to JoKing on Property, in spite of the name this is one serious babe.

Jo King

Tags: Blog
Posted in Property on July 14th, 2010 |

Be Your Own Surveyor – Flat Roofs.

Richard Greenland

Last week I introduced a new blog mini-series about what to look for when viewing property to buy. For simplicity I’ll start at the top and work down. I did pitched roofs last week, I’ll look at flat roofs this week. In subsequent weeks I’ll deal with chimneys and parapets, gutters and drains, electrics, plumbing and central heating, windows and doors, kitchens and bathrooms, walls, boundaries inc fencing and hedging, floors, damp, subsidence and foundations, and anything else you want if you just ask. There is a facility to reply to blogs although it isn’t obvious at first glance – as yet you have to click on the blog titles to see replies. I’m happy to answer questions or deal with specific issues. When I start to run low on material I might collate it all and publish as an inexpensive ebook.

Flat roofs come in two main types. Plywood/ felt flat roofs are most common in modern (from about the 1960s) houses, concrete before that. Some modern buildings can also have concrete roofs.

Plywood/ felt flat roofs are nasty, cheap and temporary. Fundamentally the materials are the same as used for garden sheds, which says it all really. They are best replaced ASAP with something more reliable and permanent if you intend to keep the building, so reckon on this in your costing. If it isn’t blistered or obviously cracked it may go for a bit longer, but they only have a lifespan of seven – ten years, particularly in a sunny location. I wrote extensively on replacing and maintaining these in my Avoiding Problems with Flat Roofs and Repairing Flat Roofs blogs. Some plywood flat roofs are covered in fibreglass (GRP) or even Roofkrete. These are much better and Roofkrete in particular should give you no problems.

beam and block floor/ roof

Concrete flat roofs come in two main sub-types, which are cast concrete and beam-and-block. Flat roofs in older houses (pre 1960s) are often cast. Many were built this way in cheaper areas during or just after the war when timber was in short supply. They can be troublesome, are unsightly, and typically devalue a house by at least 10% against nearby pitched-roof comparables. Unless the area has drastically improved since it was built, the expense of replacement with a pitched roof isn’t usually worthwhile, and is impractical anyway if it’s a semi or terrace. They are much better than plywood and felt, but still need regular maintenance of the bitumen painted layer and the silver paint layer above that, which reflects back harmful sunlight. Any cracks need investigating for suspicious damp stains on the ceilings below. Also note that these roofs usually have little or no insulation, and the only way of insulating them is to attach insulation sheets to the ceilings below. A lot more trouble than rolling fibreglass into a loft!

In more modern houses concrete roofs are usually of ‘beam and block’ construction (picture) where reinforced concrete beams are laid between the walls. The beams are rebated (notched) to accommodate concrete blocks lain in between each beam. Then the surface is screeded. These present similar insulation problems to cast roofs. Maintaining waterproofing should not be an issue in modern concrete flat roofs, as the waterproof layer should be built into the roof below the screed layer and need no maintenance, provided the concrete itself does not become cracked.

All flat roofs with rainwater downpipes that run through the building, as opposed to outside, present big potential problems in case of blockages.

Rich

Tags: Blog, flat-roof, rich, roofcrete
Posted in Repair Free Rentals on June 15th, 2010 |

8 Responses to “Be Your Own Surveyor – Flat Roofs.”

David GW Bartlett says:

June 15, 2010 at 8:04 am

As ever, thanks for taking the time to educate us!

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Richard says:

June 18, 2010 at 8:19 am

Thanks David, It’s gratifying to know it’s useful.

Rich

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student scholarships says:

June 26, 2010 at 1:30 pm

This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!

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Richard says:

June 26, 2010 at 3:18 pm

You are very welcome SS. There could be a low-cost ebook in the offing eventually, with all the blogs properly collated and some extra stuff too.

BW,

Rich.

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James R says:

June 29, 2010 at 11:14 am

Richard.

I stumbled on your blog whilst researching other’s experiences of Roofkrete. The Company is now branded as Krete Ltd – Roofkrete Ltd was dissolved in 2009 leaving those who’d installed the product on the strength of their guarantee without any recourse in the event of problens – more frequent than the company likes to let on in my experience.

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Tatty Field says:

June 30, 2010 at 9:30 am

Hello,

Seems that Roofkrete was acquired because the new owner(s) were mightily impressed with the product. Especially suited to green roofs, which is the direction in which they want to expand:
“Krete Sustain Systems Ltd

The Company has been relaunched as Krete Sustain Systems ltd (Incorporating RoofKrete Waterproofing Ltd.) and to progress more quickly in the development of Green Roofs the company has partnered with Blackdown Horticultural Consultants Limited who are based in the south west of England and offer a national service … ”
http://www.krete.co.uk/who-are-we

PS: Yours is a great, great website. Simple and direct. Keep it up.

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Richard says:

July 2, 2010 at 8:58 pm

James, thanks for the feedback but I haven’t encountered any of these problems and I’ve used the product on my own properties and been very pleased with it. I did a quick Google search using [roofkrete problems] as the search terms and nothing significant came up, although curiously this blog was at number 4!

Tatty, thanks for the compliment.

BW,

Rich

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James says:

August 10, 2010 at 12:27 pm

Hi Richard.

Correct – I suspect mainly because they’re very hot on threatening legal action against anyone who says anything which isn’t positive. The next few months should see this reversed though as I personally know of at least 3 different people who’ve incurred serious property damage as a result of the product failing – and we’ll no doubt see these cases ending up in court.

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Viewing Property For Sale – What to look for.

Richard Greenland

Over the last couple of blogs I’ve written about preventing fire and flooding in rental property. Now I’m doing a short series on spotting problems when buying.

Most property investors and even some developers are so focussed on the ‘business’ side of ‘property business’ they can be surprisingly ignorant about the ‘property’ side – what it is they are actually buying – the building itself. An equivalent is a car dealer who knows nothing about the engineering or mechanics of a car. It’s perfectly possible to run a car business this way, but leaves you at the mercy of professional mechanics and assessors. In the same way, not knowing about the building leaves you at the mercy of builders and surveyors. A caveat here – a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, many of my most difficult clients are keen DIYers who look over my shoulder and question every move. Yes you will be empowered to recognise and prevent bad practice when it happens. But if you find a good builder, trust him to know what he is doing and don’t attempt micro-management. The easiest clients either know next-to-nothing and assume I’m competent, or are property professionals who see I’m competent and leave me to it.

I’ll start at the top of the building and work down.

Roofs come in many forms, of which traditional pitched roofs are commonest and most reliable. Generally, the fewer things projecting through the roof, the better. Anything like a chimney or party wall that goes through the roof, essentially makes a great big hole, and we all know that holes in roofs aren’t a good idea. Other projections are dormer windows, Velux windows, parapet walls, and even other sections of roof, for instance where a gable-end joins a main-roof at 90 degrees. These form valleys at their intersections, usually lined with lead. Unfortunately lead corrodes with oxidation and acid-rain, causing leaks. In an ideal world we’d all view loft spaces in heavy rain, revealing any drips. When it’s dry check for suspicious grey vertical streaking caused by water running down the chimney in the loft, indicating leaking leadwork. Also look for yellow stains on the ceiling near chimneys or other projections through the roof. Staining can also be caused by leaking plumbing in the loft or an overflowing water tank.

gulley roof in bristol

The best pitched roof for a terrace of houses is a single roof over the lot, in line with the terrace. Unfortunately, in some towns such as Bristol where I live, we are cursed with many ‘gulley roofs’. In these, in an apparent attempt to save timber, multiple short roofs were built across the line of a terrace, one over each house, with a lead gulley between. These always give trouble, and need expensively re-lining with GRP or lead. Another form of gulley is where the parapet wall projects up beyond the roof, forming a channel in place of a gutter below roof level. These are also very prone to leaks and becoming blocked with leaves etc. Damp stains on party walls beneath gullies indicate leaks, as do stains on outside walls beneath parapets (although these can also be caused by penetrating damp, condensation, or even devious damp.

While you’re in the roof, check the condition of the sarking (underfelt) beneath the tiles/ slates. Old, cracking bituminous felt will need replacement with a modern micro-porous felt, which means taking all the tiles/ slates off first! A big job requiring scaffolding. Also inspect the timbers for excessive bowing under the weight of the roof. Most older houses (pre-building regs) were built with very undersize roof timbers and these can sag quite severely. A certain amount of sagging is not necessarily a problem if the roof is already 100 years old. However, when roofs are re-covered with tiles where there was slate, or re-tiled with modern concrete where there was terra-cotta, excessive deflection is likely. Tiles are much heavier than slate and concrete imitation terracotta tiles are much heavier then the real thing. I always put the original tiles back if I can. They’re usually good for another 100 years, and I think they look better too!

The same can’t always be said of slate, which can become soft and flaky with age. Inspecting from the inside where most of the flakiness occurs. A bit of surface deterioration is OK, but if they’re soft most of the way through they need replacement.

Galvanised slate nails lose their zinc-coating and become corroded as the slate moves about. Check the outside of the roof. If a few slates are missing or held on with tingles (little strips of lead or copper hooked underneath them) the nails may be on the way out.

Also inspect roof timbers in the loft. Is there evidence of rot or woodworm near damp areas? Particularly check around the chimney breast and any other projections, and at the eaves where it’s coldest and condensation accumulates. Live woodworm is indicated by little piles of sawdust around exit holes the beetles make to mate. Woodworm needs moisture and can be eradicated by thoroughly drying out the timber. Borax is a non-toxic-to-humans wood treatment.

Next week I’ll talk about other types of roof.

Tags: Blog, inspection, pitched roof, rich, roof, viewing
Posted in Repair Free Rentals on June 8th, 2010 |

9 Responses to “Viewing Property For Sale – What to look for.”

Sharon says:

June 8, 2010 at 12:24 pm

What a great idea for a blog series!
Will be linking to these too:)
Kind Regards
Sharon
Leasehold Life

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Richard says:

June 8, 2010 at 3:11 pm

I’m glad it’s useful!

BW,

Rich

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Richard says:

June 8, 2010 at 3:34 pm

A little extra info:

Post-1990s houses should have lead trays continuing right through parapets and chimneys, preventing water in the masonry above from soaking into the walls below. Pre-1990s houses often don’t always have this. If the walls are wet, removing the parapet and roofing over is often the best solution. Alternatively lead can be dressed right over the parapet, or through it after removing the top portion. Sometimes a partial solution can be obtained by renewing the mortar in the joints between the capping slabs on the parapet. But complete removal is often the cheapest and best way forward.

I was looking over a block of ten flats for a friend yesterday and it made me think of this.

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David GW Bartlett says:

June 8, 2010 at 5:20 pm

Hi Rich,

Stonking idea for a blog series and great first post. This series is clearly written for people like me and I will be following keenly.

I particularly like the way that you assume little/no knowledge of construction. Easy for me(!) but very difficult for someone like yourself who has been in the trade for a good while.

Best regards, David GW Bartlett

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Jocelyn King says:

June 14, 2010 at 3:27 pm

A point to add to the above excellent list – when viewing Victorian houses which still have the original fireplaces it is wise to check the ‘damper plate’ which is the flap above the fireplace that lets air in & out. If it is hard to push and sand starts to fall out then it is likely that it is weighed down with loose mortar that has washed down the chimney over the years and has blocked the passage of air. This can cause damp to penetrate through the brickwork and plaster into rooms and particularly the ceilings around chimney breasts.

There are two things to think about:-
1) the blockage needs clearing to vent the chimney and dry out the walls/ceilings
2) If really bad it could mean the chimney needs repointing and if the fireplace is to be used then the chimney really needs lining – add another £2-£3k to your budget for repointing chimney & relining. If chimney is not to be used then it is possible to cap it off but it still must be vented from below to stop the damp causing long term probs.

Jo

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Richard says:

June 14, 2010 at 9:33 pm

Good point Jo, thanks. I’ll probably nick it to add to another blog when I get to that bit. It also relates to the Devious Damp blog number 30, the one with Jackdaws in it!

BW,

Rich

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Jocelyn King says:

June 16, 2010 at 10:03 pm

feel free to use info as you think necessary Rich. I’m going to view another Victorian terrace any day now – one that hasn’t been touched for about 50 years – I may send you another snippet!

Jo

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Inga says:

June 16, 2010 at 10:11 pm

Thank you Rich,
Great and useful knowledge. Have a few flats and have never made that thorough kind of search of roofs before – but I will next time. I try to notice smells, damp patches, rotten window frames, settling cracks, state of kitchen and bathroom. I do 95% of repairs etc myself so I try to find something not too delapidated.
Please keep it up.
BW
Inga

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Richard says:

June 19, 2010 at 1:10 pm

Thanks for the compliment Inga. I’m glad it’s useful, it gives me an incentive to keep going!

BW,

Rich

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Annual Pre-emptive Maintenance.

Richard Greenland

Last week I looked at cheaper alternatives to brand new double glazing. This week I’ll discuss inexpensive jobs you should do at the outset of any new tenancy and annually to avoid expensive repairs later.

For safety reasons, landlords are obliged to carry out gas checks annually, and appliances should be PAT tested. However, cost-wise water is usually the biggest problem. Checking and maintaining any fittings & equipment likely to leak is incredibly cost-effective.

Washing machines should be inspected annually for slow leaks from the hose, door-seal and underneath. Even a slow leak can cause a lot of damage over time, or suddenly become a fast leak!

Other common problem areas are waste pipes under the bath, shower, sinks, basins and toilet cisterns, as well as the shower hose. These are usually screw or push fittings and can become loose. While the bath panel is off, look for signs of water running behind the silicone. Also check the silicone around the shower, and behind the kitchen sink.

Rain water and damp are the other main causes of water problems. Gutters should be checked for blockages after the autumn fall. Visit on a rainy day to make sure water isn’t sloshing over the top and down your walls. It can soak in causing damp patches inside. Also check overflow pipes aren’t dripping. A ball valve in the loft, or on a toilet cistern, is cheap to replace compared to rot caused by penetrating moisture. I dealt with other forms of damp in the last four-blogs-but-one.

Isolation valves under sink

Prepare for the worst and avoid additional costs. Install isolation valves to every outlet, avoiding having to turn off the whole system to repair a leaking tap washer, at massive inconvenience to tenants.

Airbricks should be kept clear to allow ventilation to potentially damp basements. Floors above ventilated basements should be insulated, and NEVER have bare floorboards, unless the gaps between have been thoroughly sealed with matching-colour caulk or silicone. Without the gap-sealing, the rooms will be very cold and drafty. If they have any choice, your tenants will leave.

Drains should be inspected for fatty deposits, and debris blocking drain grids removed.

Roof tiles & chimney mortar joints should be visually checked from the ground (gritty deposits falling down chimneys is a sign of problems).

Also check silicone seals around windows and doors. These can let in a lot of water, especially at the bottom.

Make sure any outward-opening doors can be hooked back, otherwise the wind can blow them off.

These things don’t cost much to do but cost a lot NOT to do. Most structural damage to properties could easily be avoided with a little forethought.

Fire is the other major hazard, fortunately much rarer than flooding but even more devastating. I’ll discuss it next week.

Tags: Ball valve, Basement, bathroom, Blog, Business, Flooding, Home & Garden, Maintenance, Pre-emptive, rich, Toilet, Washing machine, Water
Posted in Repair Free Rentals on May 25th, 2010 |

2 Responses to “Annual Pre-emptive Maintenance.”

Sam says:

June 10, 2010 at 10:16 pm

Just to add – a new tip which we have been advised. Twice per year for properties with double glazing we are to spray the hinges with silicone spray to ensure they maintain well. This can be done on routine inspections. To replace is a 2 man job and simple hinges will soon cost you much more!

Reply
Richard says:

June 11, 2010 at 9:22 am

Great tip Sam, thanks. Just in case anyone isn’t clear on this, it has to be silicone lube if the windows are plastic. PVC is carbon-based so normal oil or grease will dissolve the surface, as it is hydrocarbon based.

Rich

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Alternative Double Glazing

Richard Greenland

Here’s a great money saving tip I’ve used countless times. Double-glazing salesmen will hate it, but you can easily upgrade your windows without installing new ones.

It’s a little known fact that secondary glazing using low emissivity glass is actually more energy-efficient than normal double glazing, as long as it’s well sealed against drafts. The much larger air gap is why. Secondary DG + low E glass exceeds the requirements of building regs Part L (conservation of heat and power) for new windows. These must have U values below 2.0 W/M2k. Secondary D/G has a theoretical range of 1.8 – 1.95 W/M2k, so get more brownie points on the EPC than normal D/G. Also the comparatively low cost means it could pay for itself very quickly in lower heating bills. For comparison, a single glazed wooden window has theoretical U value of 4.7, and a metal window 5.7! (The calculations are based on the British Fenestration Rating Council’s standard window size – 1230mm wide x 1480mm high.) The disadvantage is that secondary glazing is a bit harder to open and close.

Another alternative is to turn old wooden windows into D/G windows by remodelling them. The old glass is taken out and the rebates (the slot that holds the glass) cut deeper with a router. D/G units can then be fitted. You will usually need a thinner unit than the standard 28mm as the wood probably won’t be thick enough for more. It’s also vital to thoroughly seal all drafts with draft excluders. The brush ones work best with sliding sash windows, those with a flexible rubber skirt are best with casement windows. Sponge draft excluders work well but fall off or apart in time.

If you are doing a conversion or major renovation, Building Control will insist you upgrade the windows to the required standard (U values below 2.0 W/M2k ), or do other works bringing the building as a whole to the required insulation standard. There is a get-out clause though. If the cost of doing the work is more than you’d recover in 15 years of lower fuel bills, you don’t have to do the work. Likewise, if the cost-differential between altering existing windows with thinner D/G units, and complete replacement, is less than you’d save, you can alter the windows instead of replacing. This saves a lot of unnecessary waste. From an environmental perspective, the embodied energy spent on making and transporting new windows may outweigh their benefits to insulation. I’ve successfully used this argument many times with Building Control, but it would be prudent to check first, just in case. Also the alterations are only worthwhile if the window is in good condition. If you then combine this method with secondary DG it should be very warm indeed!

A final method for the real cheapskate landlord is to stretch clingfilm over the casement to form a gap between the glass. This makes instant, cheap but very temporary double glazing. Only effective if you also install draft excluders, see above.

Next week I’ll recommend some cheap jobs you should do at the outset with any new property, then annually, to prevent expensive repairs later.

Rich

Tags: Blog, double-glazing, Maintenance, rich
Posted in Property, Repair Free Rentals on May 18th, 2010 |

Devious Damp

Richard Greenland

Last week I covered condensation, this week it’s unusual sources of damp, including jackdaws!

People often mistake rising damp (rises up the walls) for penetrating damp (comes through the building skin above ground level) and vice versa. Building skin means walls, roof, windows. Condensation is often mistaken for both, and can produce massive amounts of water. A domestic dehumidifier can remove ten litres of water or more a day, an astonishing amount from the atmosphere.

Dehumidifiers are great little machines, and unlike ventilators won’t bring cold air in making your tenants suffer. But they shouldn’t be necessary if the building’s skin is properly waterproofed and insulated properly (see last weeks blog).

Unusual sources of damp:

‘Rising damp’ caused by a copper water pipe in a cement floor without a plastic sleeve. The alkali in the cement caused corrosion, so a leak, not rising damp.

A friend’s property suffered damp walls where his tenants piled earth against the outside walls above DPC level. This is quite common.

Another friend had a ‘roof leak’ caused by his ‘cheap’ builders venting the cooker and bathroom fans directly into the loft. So no roof leak but an extreme example of condensation.

Several others, including the gym where I train, had ‘leaky walls’ caused by leaks in lead roof gulleys. These commonly run front to back in Bristol over the party walls (stupid idea). When they leak the walls get wet.

Damp high up in walls is often caused by splashing hoppers (water collectors between gutter and downpipe). When it rains, water splashes over the walls and soaks in. A strip of lead as a shield usually solves the problem. I’ve seen this cause damp two metres down and 1.5 meters across from the point of entry, on the party wall! The usual suspect would therefore be the roof gully, but no, it was the hopper!

gaps between soffit and cement can channel water in

Rain running between asbestos or slate soffits on gable end roofs is common. These hold up cement sealing the tile edges. The cement cracks letting water in. Silicone provides a solution, but it needs re-inspection every few years.

Iron downpipes let into walls can corrode at the back and inject water into the wall.

‘Rising damp’ at the bottom of window frames is usually condensation caused by poor insulation, or rain blowing in around the sides and underneath the window. Easily cured with a silicone gun.

Mysterious water drops can appear anywhere on ceilings and bear little relation to the original penetration point. Rain can blow under tiles or slate if the roof pitch is shallow and sarking (felt) is damaged or absent. It then runs down the sarking and exits elsewhere. Next it runs along the ceiling until it finds an exit point, a light rose or plasterboard joint. Tracing it can involve some detective work in the loft with a torch when it rains.

decaying chimneys are just a big leaky hole in your roof

Porous chimneys often cause damp on chimney breasts and ceilings. Water gets in where plants grow in the mortar. Acid from burnt fuel also attacks mortar. Lead soakers and aprons around chimneys corrode and leak. The best thing to do with an unused chimney is take it down and get rid of it. Failing this, unused vents can be capped with cement, slate and bricks, and the chimney coated with waterproof render.

Genuine penetrating damp can appear behind loose outside rendering. If you tap it with a screwdriver handle and it sounds hollow, it’s partially detached and may be providing a conduit for moisture.

What about damp meters? ‘Damp Surveyors’ (i.e. salesmen) use electronic damp meters to measure damp on walls etc. They’re just as good at measuring condensation as other forms of damp, but can be pretty persuasive in the hands of the damp-man that you have a serious problem. Likewise I know an investor who uses one to persuade vendors that THEY have a serious problem. Beware!

Finally, the mysterious Jackdaws. They love nesting in chimneys. When they leave the nests falls down and accumulate where the chimney steps diagonally inside. It rains and the old nests are like a sponge, holding moisture, which leaches through walls drawing brown sooty stains with it. Having the chimney cleaned and capped will stop the problem.

A long blog this but there’s a lot in it… Anyone else got any unusual damp stories? Next week I’ll cover Double Glazing, and some cheaper alternatives.

Rich

Tags: Blog, damp, jackdaws, rich
Posted in Property, Repair Free Rentals on May 11th, 2010 |

9 Responses to “Devious Damp”

Helen Eade says:

May 15, 2010 at 10:32 am

A very interesting article, with some good suggestions to resolve problems! How about damp patches appearing indoors, 2nd floor,on the inside of exterior walls – looking outside the brickwork appears to be ‘worn’ (Victorian property)?

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CNA jobs says:

May 16, 2010 at 3:51 am

Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!

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Itanyionini says:

May 16, 2010 at 6:45 am

Just want to say what a great blog you got here!
I’ve been around for quite a lot of time, but finally decided to show my appreciation of your work!

Thumbs up, and keep it going!

Cheers
Christian,

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rich greenland says:

May 16, 2010 at 7:09 pm

Can’t say for sure without looking. It might be condensation if it’s appearing behind a picture or bookcase, anything stopping good air circulation. But penetrating sounds more likely, particularly as the walls will be non-cavity in a Victorian building and the bricks or mortar are very porous. If that’s the case, re-pointing and filling damaged bricks with waterproof cement can help. Better is a waterproof render over the whole surface. If there’s a lot of re-pointing, rendering is likely to be quicker and cheaper anyway.

Some people recommend waterproofing treatments to the outside walls, with silicone-based films. I have strong reservations about these, particularly for older buildings, unless they are micro-porous, and generally silicone isn’t. Old lime-mortar walls naturally attract moisture from vapour inside as well as out, and need to ‘breathe’.
Moisture trapped in the walls needs to be free to evaporate to the outside air. Waterproof render and exterior emulsion paint both allow this.

Rich

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Richard says:

May 20, 2010 at 7:21 pm

The replies seem to have got mixed up. For reference, my first reply was to Helen’s question.

In this reply, I’d also like to thank Christian and CNA Jobs for their encouragement!

Rich

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Rich says:

June 16, 2010 at 11:02 am

Hi Rich,

Great blog and very informative and useful. I’ve got a problem with damp at the moment in a GF flat and it has only recently come about since building work began at the rear of the property. There are quite large mounds of earth very close to my flats wall which I now realize is possibly the cause of the damp!
I think I will be asking the builders to -
‘Shift their Sh… Muck!’
All the best,
Rich

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Jocelyn King says:

June 16, 2010 at 11:29 pm

Another excellent Blog Rich and over the years I have seen several examples of some of the things you mention.

The earth mounding around walls is very common as is earth blocking air bricks – I have seen all sorts stuffed into air bricks which caused damp & rotting floor joists!

We had dry rot in the floor joists and boards at the front & rear of a Victorian house – when investigating the cause it was a combination of recent renovation works which included the following:-

1. Courtyard had been concreted over to tidy it up – took it over the top of the Damp Proof Course in one corner allowing rain and blocked drains to overspill into solid brick walls & into house
2. New waste pipe from sink was cut too short and although set just above a drain it was causing too much splash which was soaking into solid brick walls to inside.
3. Condense pipe from new central heating boiler (fitted by British Gas) was too short and not taken to a soakaway or drain as it should be, but allowed water to run straight down the outside wall of the kitchen – and into house.
4. British Gas installed new meter outside front bay window and took copper pipe from meter through wall just above floor level and then down wall through wooden floors – they didn’t seal around the hole so the rain running down front wall collected along copper pipe and ran through hole into wooden floor which had been nicely soaking this up for 2-3 years, causing dry rot.

British Gas were also responsible for bashing a 3″ nail into a ceiling joist above a lathe & plaster ceiling (to support a lateral pipe) which caused extensive cracking and dropping of ceiling!

sometimes people do more harm than good when they try to improve these old properties.

We have also just investigated the cause of rising damp in an Italian villa – they had never had damp before and couldn’t work it out. When looking outside there was a beautiful copper downpipe which disappeared straight into the paving with no hopper or drain grid. We were assured it went to a large soakaway several meters away from the villa – the conclusion we came to was that there is a blockage at the base of the pipe as it goes into the soakaway. There had been heavy rain and snow in the winter – we believe the rain cannot get away and is building up around the base of the walls which are solid so it just soaks through. Unfortunately it will mean digging up the area to clear the blockage.

Jo

Reply
Richard says:

June 17, 2010 at 7:36 am

Again Jo some excellent anecdotes which I just may use later. Thanks!

Rich

Reply
Richard says:

June 17, 2010 at 8:22 am

Come to think of it I’ve seen this too with the blocked downpipe. Especially Victorian or earlier ones which can be a lot thinner. Water pouring out of the top and down the wall causing damp inside, but the blockage could be anywhere, even underground.

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Clamping down on condensation.

Richard Greenland

Landlords often blame tenants’ bad habits for condensation in rental flats, but you can make your properties much less prone to it. It’s also easy to confuse extreme condensation in poorly-insulated houses for penetrating damp. The key to stopping condensation is making all the interior surfaces warm. Ventilation is only a very secondary solution. Current Building regulations specify high standards of air-tightness for residential buildings, keeping occupants warm and saving power. Insisting that tenants open windows or use constant extractors in cold weather is unreasonable when the fault is poor insulation.

condensation at edge of poorly-insulated bathroom ceiling

Keeping inside surfaces warm is not difficult or expensive compared to the cost of extra heating, and grants are often available through the council. Ceilings should be insulated with a minimum of 270mm fibreglass to meet current standards, which should not be squashed by stored junk! Even 100mm will make a massive difference. The edges of the ceiling adjacent to outside walls get cold more easily and insulation should be pushed right into the corners, without obscuring any air-vents into the attic.

Cavity walls can be filled from the outside with little disturbance to tenants. Solid outside walls can be insulated with thin insulating ‘papers’ like Sempatap. It’s not hard to apply and only 10mm thick so doesn’t require re-fitting of skirtings, door linings etc. It can make a massive difference to the surface temperature of walls, with concomitant reductions in condensation. It still falls well short of building regs standards for renovated property, which normally requires 50mm of closed-cell phenolic foam insulation for solid walls. This is MANDATORY if you’re replacing more than 25% of plaster on any outside-facing wall. It’s particularly important to insulate around the bottoms of windows as they commonly accumulate heavy condensation.

Single-glazed windows in well-insulated homes often attract massive condensation. If double glazing is too expensive, consider secondary glazing, which often gives better insulation anyway because of the larger gap. If this is still to expensive, you can improvise with clingfilm over window casements to create a gap between the glass. You’ll also need to thoroughly seal all drafts between casements and frames with brush- or foam-type draft excluders.

Condensation mould can grow where wardrobes or pictures restrict ventilation of poorly-insulated outside walls. Moving them usually sorts the problem.

The bonus of all this condensation-prevention is it keeps your tenants warm and their heating bills down. Warm tenants with low bills are less likely to leave your flats!

So far I’ve given three causes of damp: rising, penetrating, and condensation. As a builder I’ve found people often confuse them, so I should identify some of the odd sources of damp which confuse people the most. Did you know that Jackdaws can cause damp in older houses – I’ll explain how next week.

Tags: Blog, condensation, damp, rich, sempatap
Posted in Property, Repair Free Rentals on May 3rd, 2010 |

One Response to “Clamping down on condensation.”

rich greenland says:

May 5, 2010 at 10:33 am

I’m posting this in response to posts on propertytribes still advocating ventilation. This is like closing the gate after the horse has bolted. To reiterate, ventilation is a second-line defence. Your first line should be preventing moisture getting into the house in the first pace. You do this using barrier methods as described in the earlier blogs. And by keeping all surfaces warm, which prevents undue condensation. As a rough guide, NO HOUSE SHOULD BECOME DAMP IF LEFT UNOCCUPIED. Dryness should be built-in and ventilation unnecessary.
When the house is occupied occasional ventilation will be necessary, for instance when cooking or after bathing. Constant ventilation should be unnecessary and just makes occupants cold!

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Penetrating Damp Prevention for London Flats.

Richard Greenland

Last week I discussed damp in floors. This week it’s about rising damp in walls.

Many older properties have no damp-proof course (DPC) in the walls, allowing rising damp to damage plaster and cause florescence (salt crystals forming on the surface) and mildew on wall surfaces. The two main ways of treating it are:

1. Injecting a chemical DPC.

2. Painting a waterproof barrier onto the wall beneath the plaster.

Number 1 is best for large areas as it avoids lots of expensive re-plastering. It’s a task for a specialist company, they inject a silicone-based chemical into the wall base at very high pressure. They should provide a guarantee, and it’s very normal to have to call them back to re-inject small areas where the DPC hasn’t fully taken.

Number 2 is suitable for isolated areas. The plaster is chipped back to bare masonry, and two coats minimum of waterproofing agent are applied. The most popular waterproofers are bitumen emulsion and Vandex.

bitumen paint being applied

Bitumen is old-fashioned, very messy, but highly effective. It won’t set on very wet walls. (You need tanking for this – beyond the scope of this blog but I may write another). Care must be taken not to leave any tiny holes with the first coat. When this is dry, a second coat is applied, then while still wet, ‘blinded’ with sharp sand thrown against it. This provides a key for the render.

Vandex is a cementatious slurry. It’s micro-porous and less messy, but in my experience more easily penetrated by efflorescence than bitumen.

The wall is then re-plastered with sand and cement render with a waterproofing additive. The additive gives belt-and-braces protection. Gypsum plaster is very hydrophilic (attractive of water) and only suitable for the top finish coat.

Any screw-holes in treated walls should be injected with silicone sealant (bathroom sealant will do) before the wall-plug and screw are put in, to seal the hole from damp.

If damp patches appear over 1.2 metres above ground level it’s not usually rising damp, but penetrating damp or condensation. Landlords often blame tenants for condensation problems, but there are loads of ways to make your properties much less prone to it. That’ll be the subject of next week’s blog.

Tags: bitumen emulsion, Blog, damp, DPC, rich, rising damp, vandex
Posted in Property, Repair Free Rentals on April 28th, 2010 |

Stamping out Damp on Floors in Rented Flats.

Richard Greenland

Last week I blogged about durable outside décor. This week it’s about dealing with rising and penetrating damp in floors.

Many older buildings suffer with floors rotting as the timber joists bear directly onto damp ground below. Tell-tale signs are larger than normal gaps appearing between skirting boards and floors. This should not be ignored, the floor needs lifting, and if damp, the timber bearers should be placed on plastic (DPM or Damp Proof Membrane). Obviously any rotten timbers need replacing with treated timber. Also cut the ends from any floorboards or joists touching potentially damp walls. Leave a ½” to 1” gap on all sides. The skirting will cover it.

Joists on DPM on damp sub-floor

Similar problems may be encountered on upper floors of older buildings, because before the advent of joist hangers, joists were built into exterior walls. If the wall becomes damp the joists will rot. Last year I spent a week replacing a bedroom floor of a student HMOs. The joist ends all down one wall had rotted because the wall was damp. The solution was to splice or replace the joists (not a job for amateur builders) and support them on metal joist-hangers cemented into the wall. I also wrapped the ends of the joists in thick plastic to prevent further penetration.

The source of the damp then had to be removed. It frequently amazes me how many landlords cut corners to save a little money short-term. There was a gutter leaking water down the wall, and a copper pipe built into the masonry without the protection of a plastic sleeve. Cement is alkaline and rapidly causes copper to corrode and leak. Rather than investigate the damp, he’d simply boarded over the wet patch with plywood. The work easily cost him a thousand pounds, but could have been prevented with very little expense.

For concrete ground-floors a built-in DPM stops damp rising. A hardcore base is laid and vibrated to bed it down firmly. Then it is ‘blinded’ with sand to cover sharp edges. A special heavy-duty polythene is laid over this, lapping right up at the sides, and the concrete cast on top.

If you don’t want to dig up existing concrete floors to re-lay them on polythene, so long as they aren’t very wet, a quicker solution is to paint with two coats of bitumen emulsion. This will remain slightly sticky, but if covered with newspaper, you can overlay carpet and underlay on top. As it is rather pungent when wet, your tenants may have to be moved out overnight. For very wet concrete on which bitumen emulsion won’t set, it’s possible to lay DPM directly over the surface and carpet on top of that. It’s not something I’ve ever done myself as it’s a very poor solution leading to little damp voids and condensation under the DPM, but it might provide a temporary solution for some.

This leads me to penetrating damp next week, and probably condensation after that, things any landlord with older properties will have encountered.

Photo to follow.

Tags: Blog, damp, floors, rich
Posted in Property, Repair Free Rentals on April 20th, 2010 |

Durable Outside Decorating for Rented London Flats

Richard Greenland

Last week I talked about why a building inspector won’t necessarily spot bad workmanship and why you should always have another method of verifying this. This week I return to specific maintenance jobs on rented property with tips on exterior decorating.

For gloss work on timber and metal, light colours and particularly white are more durable outside as they reflect sunlight so are less damaged by UV and getting hot. The same goes for plastic gutters. White will last longer than black, brown or grey. With magnolia walls it is also pleasantly neutral. The main drawback on busy streets is white shows more dirt. But a quick wipe over with a damp sponge and some detergent is a lot quicker than re-painting!

I’m happy to use inexpensive B&Q paint indoors, as own-brand paints are pretty good these days so I don’t see why I should pay almost twice just to have ‘Dulux’ on the tin. BUT when it comes to the exterior I don’t recommend skimping on paint. The overwhelming majority of the cost is for labour and scaffolding if appropriate, so you might as well splash out (sorry) on paint. I favour the Dulux Weathershield system which is formulated to dry slightly flexible.

Don’t forget, as mentioned in an earlier blog, to prime behind door and window frames and under doors before fitting them.

eaves in PVC cladding

An alternative to painting fascias and soffits (the eaves under the roof) is to cover them with proprietary white PVC strips. With all the rubbing-down and prepping required for painting, this can be just as quick and last a lot longer. There’s usually no need to replace wood unless it’s very rotten indeed. The PVC will keep it dry so the rot will not progress further. It can be fixed directly to the ends of the rafters if the fascia and soffit is too rotten in places. A special exterior grade silicone is used to seal all gaps. The PVC covers will last many times longer than paint and are surprisingly quick to install. After a recent experience with one coming astray in strong wind, I now use 2” number 10 screws with white plastic caps siliconed to the heads, as well as the usual white-capped ridged pins to fix them.

Jayne asked about how to get rid of polystyrene tiles. Most things that apply to these design disasters also apply to artex, see my blog on this little horror at http://pimlico-flats.co.uk/blog/property/removing-artless-artex-from-london-flats/ I’d try scraping them off first, if that doesn’t give a decent surface, you can’t really re-plaster onto a pre-painted surface and I would re-board and skim. If the plaster is bare of paint, you may be able to re-skim directly.

Next week I’ll talk about durable solutions to the problem of damp floors in rented flats.

Tags: Blog, Maintenance, outside-decorating, PVC-cladding, rich
Posted in Property, Repair Free Rentals on April 13th, 2010 |

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