The Reluctant DIY'er

[parcelmonkey]

I thought I might share; if any one is interested in my ramblings , our journey over the last few years of our home renovation project?

I thought I'd start this thread in the garden and post an image of what we walked in to, a few of the gradual dig out and finally where I am presently. I don't want it to be boring but thought it might inspire others, especially if they are going through the same process. It's amazing to look back at the grime, dust and constant mess to where we are now. Still ongoing but 90% there.

So to start:-

We purchased a 3 storey dilapidated but occupied town house in Oct 2019. I was working 70 hour weeks and my wife was 4 days a week, so pretty full time. We knew the house had issues, we could detect damp and rotten joists. The owner was about 6 weeks away from repossession and the house was dirty and uncared for.

A view of the garden when we moved in, to be honest, it didn't look as bad when we viewed...

The back of the house to the garden was a little basic and uninviting to be honest

Then part way through renovations we had the opportunity to re-model the back as planning had increased permitted development of terraced houses to 4M from existing boundary. This enabled an increase of 1.2M, which doesn't sound a lot but it did make a difference so digging out footings

All by hand with an SDS, a matlock and a shovel as no rear access for any type of digger... This was unfortunately then shoved on to the existing paving in the garden which only added to my problems.

to be contd/

 

[rocky raccoon]

I thought I might share; if any one is interested in my ramblings , our journey over the last few years of our home renovation project?

I thought I'd start this thread in the garden and post an image of what we walked in to, a few of the gradual dig out and finally where I am presently. I don't want it to be boring but thought it might inspire others, especially if they are going through the same process. It's amazing to look back at the grime, dust and constant mess to where we are now. Still ongoing but 90% there.

So to start:-

We purchased a 3 storey dilapidated but occupied town house in Oct 2019. I was working 70 hour weeks and my wife was 4 days a week, so pretty full time. We knew the house had issues, we could detect damp and rotten joists. The owner was about 6 weeks away from repossession and the house was dirty and uncared for.

A view of the garden when we moved in, to be honest, it didn't look as bad when we viewed...

The back of the house to the garden was a little basic and uninviting to be honest

Then part way through renovations we had the opportunity to re-model the back as planning had increased permitted development of terraced houses to 4M from existing boundary. This enabled an increase of 1.2M, which doesn't sound a lot but it did make a difference so digging out footings

All by hand with an SDS, a matlock and a shovel as no rear access for any type of digger... This was unfortunately then shoved on to the existing paving in the garden which only added to my problems.

to be contd/

Keep 'em coming ! That is some serious shoveling right there. What the hell did you do with the spoil ?

 

[parcelmonkey]

Spoiler alert....

I don't want to get ahead of myself but I've spent a fortune on rubble sacks and grab lorries. here's a little teaser!

 

[parcelmonkey]

So, before we were able to deposit all the spoil in this gap, there was an area where people put wheelie bins and stuff, which was slabs on top of brick and subsoil deposits, leaving little room. Like this is what we moved in to...

Her mess not ours! We tried bagging up the spoil but it soon became clear that wasn't going to work as below:

So I started to dig out this front area, again with my trusty SDS and matlock.

Until a passer-by pointed out at some point I was probably going to get crushed up against the bay window under several tons of sub-soil!

So, plan B - I found a bloke on-line called Digger Dave, he popped down and with his digger, very carefully and skilfully managed to break it up and 360 it out on to the disabled bay, for collection by a grab lorry. Happy days! Until...

On a day that Building Control popped in to check on footings as they had insisted on a 900mm minimum dig, he kindly told me that I had to quickly build a retaining wall up against my front wall; otherwise the pavement was likely to collapse and the Council would be having words!

So, out came the SDS & matlock again and footing of 300mm were dug by me to enable a retaining wall to be built. We used medium density blocks laid flat & voila

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

keep up the good work

 

[parcelmonkey]

keep up the good work

On the thread or the building work? The thread has had little response so far, however, I find it kind of therapeutic, so will continue. Please ignore if you find it boring...

{So, what I wasn't realising at the time, was how all this subsoil was going to impact us later on. I'm going to post soon in the gardening thread about planting as I'm really green on that [excuse the deliberate pun] it is intended!}

We got a lad to help us and placed a weed suppressor mat on top of existing patio slabs, thinking no weeds will come through and de-rocked the crap out of the subsoil and laid a garden.

Oh crap, how wrong we were! Lesson learned.

Here's the spoil as seen from the original kitchen window just as foundations were poured: -

So we had nowhere for the soil to drain, oh what fun we were about to experience...
Also, as it was a house built in 1879, at the time of the new rear extension it had a shared drain for waste and surface water. Under new development rules you are no longer allowed to put surface water in to waste drains.

Rear extension under construction with temporary sewerage pipes etc

So once extension has been constructed said builder in picture does a runner...

We built a retaining wall to hold back the raised garden and re-evaluated our situation as nothing was happening until the great rains of 2021....
This involved myself and a Slovakian labourer who spoke very little English but could say with much confidence Shit Work!

This was a hell of a lot of digging to remove over 3 tonnes of subsoil and carry through the house in rubble sacks to the front spoil area

As you can see in the picture, it was sunny until one day it wasn't!

We had no sliding doors at this time, just some plywood pushed up against the opening.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, and I didn't fully comprehend my situation until heavy rains came, my deeds show bizarrely, that I take surface water from 3 roofs in the terrace. These are 4 & 5 bedroom properties so it's fair to say these roofs are large. It wasn't a problem until we couldn't drain surface or rain water away via main sewerage drains.

It took us over 2 hours with our buckets and a Titan wet & dry hoover to drain approximately 1000 litres of water from what I'd now created was a small but perfectly formed swimming pool...

It came through the new footings in to a new sub floor!

Still interested in our misery?

Don't worry it gets better!

Stay tuned.

 

[jkbmusic]

Here I am sitting in my new Orangery, thinking about when my builder digging the foundation, cut through the main gas pipe to my property, it was the end of the world and we’d all go up in a big bang. Pales to nothing compared to this debacle.

 

[parcelmonkey]

Pales to nothing compared to this debacle.

You've been sorely top trumped my friend. Whilst this debacle was unfolding my poor wife was undergoing Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer, we were living in one room with no heating, I was working full time. No wonder I have bald patch and loss of hair, thank goodness my wife's grew back...

I'm only using this thread as therapy.

 

[jkbmusic]

You've been sorely top trumped my friend. Whilst this debacle was unfolding my poor wife was undergoing Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer, we were living in one room with no heating, I was working full time. No wonder I have bald patch and loss of hair, thank goodness my wife's grew back...

I'm only using this thread as therapy.

My succinct question would be “Why the **** did you go through all this for?”. Surely not for therapy.

 

[Trumpton Riots]

Methinks you are some sort of masachist Ade.

This is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Think I'd have stuck a tent in the car & pitched it somewhere near Elgin. Permanently.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

On the thread or the building work?

both

 

[parcelmonkey]

My succinct question would be “Why the **** did you go through all this for?”. Surely not for therapy.

Nope, this thread is the therapy.... The experience was hell. But we came through it.

Methinks you are some sort of masachist Ade.

This is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Think I'd have stuck a tent in the car & pitched it somewhere near Elgin. Permanently.

Am I?

I don't think so, I believe.
However, once we'd paid most of our money for a property we love, we found ourselves committed and we're just not quitters and we got on with it. The thing is....

It gets worse!
This is only the beginning, stay tuned. This could run for quite a while, there's a lot of mileage in this one and quite a few rooms to go yet.

 

[rocky raccoon]

Keep it coming ! This is great and it shows what can be done if you're motivated. Awesome.

 

[parcelmonkey]

Keep it coming ! This is great and it shows what can be done if you're motivated. Awesome.

Thank-you! Kind words...
Motivation & determination are some of the things you need, especially as an unfit 55 year old with 2 x shattered vertebrae in the Cervical area of the neck thanks to a serious motorbike accident as a youngster and 2 x prolapsed and dehydrated vertebrae in my Lumbar region as well as a labral tear of the right hip means you lack any of the above and nothing gets done!


It appears some of you here on the Wam are questioning our sanity in regards to this thread.

And I get that, looking back it does make me think, what the hell. When we first looked at these renovations it was Jan 2020. Very soon it was Covid-19 and things got awkward. Costs started spiralling. My wife was extremely ill and the sensible-ish option would've been to rent elsewhere, thus, avoiding living in this chaos.

Things like this I think can be sorted in to 3 categories. Cost / Time / Effort
To gain back on costs and to allow for more time we have to put in extra effort. Adding nearly a £1000 monthly to our costs for rent would've meant serious compromises in our designs and wants. I know we wouldn't have had the mini extension built for starters.

The house just wouldn't have been what we desired.
So, the long list of disasters continues....

 

[lostwin]

Just found this thread Ade. I obviously only got a very sanitised version of events when you came round last week! Flipping ‘eck, I can feel my back twinge even reading it.

Great story though, look forward to the next instalment and perhaps a little look round when it’s all done.

 

[parcelmonkey]

So far we've discovered,

a) - we're not quitters
b) - water is a life saving resource but a b'stard that finds its way in anywhere
c) - I'm not giving up on this thread - no matter what!

So, with the water deluge taken care of, [shout out to Titan & Screwfix], I decided, having built one previously; a French Drain was the answer by the Sliding Doors . So I dug out 40 odd centimetres, then created an intestinal pathway and removed most of the non-draining sub-soil by hand and carried this through the house.

Filled it with crushed concrete.

I also built a sump; digging out to a depth of 1.2M by hand, bricking it up and put in a pump that activates if water reaches a certain level.

Next job was to move all the surface water away from the house. I put a soakaway pipe 5M from the house and perforated it at the end.

Buried it 1.2M at termination.

I thought this was the end of it, sadly it wasn't!