Recent content by houseonahill

Haha, I should have explained - the picture was taken *before* any works were carried out. Trust me, the repointing looks a lot better than in the pic! The lead was also chased to the correct depth. As I said, the chimney has not leaked since the work was done so we're happy. I take your point...

This is a good point - luckily, the pointing was done roughly a year before the cream was applied.

We need some wall ties isolated due to corrosion at the outer leaf end, and new ties fitted. A wall tie specialist has recommended helical ties, which are drilled through the middle of the brick. We have a 60mm cavity wall, 100mm solid red brick on the outer leaf. The cavity was filled with...

Hey everyone, just an update on a problem that bugged us for years, which I hope might help others here. We have a large chimney stack (the rear one in the picture - sorry for the quality, had to crop!) that was causing water to leak into the room below during heavy rain. For YEARS we tried...

I just wanted to post an update here for anyone reading this thread in the future. We have not taken the stack down. A repair to the roofing felt appears to have solved the problem of moisture getting into the roofspace area around the outside of the stack. The damp patch on the internal...

The first picture above was taken before clay cowls were fitted. No internal vents, the breasts are on the outside and we do want to get some fitted to the exterior - brick vents or similar.

If it helps anyone, here is a photo of our neighbour's chimney - of the same design and condition. They have similar gaps in pointing. I have tried to include all the detail I can, and everything I can think of to mention. If anyone has questions or requests for pics, if I can supply then, then...

OK. I'm aware the first pic in my post isn't high quality - apologies for that - I can't get onto the roof to get a much better shot. Hence why I've been asking roofers to look! I don't see how my photos on this post have anything to do with whether *they* do a good job or not. To be clear...

I've seen other posts on this forum in this vein but still need advice. We have been suffering with a damp issue related to our chimney stack. It's a 1950s house, hipped roof. The stack is quite large with two pots. All fireplaces in the house have been blocked off for years (by previous owners)...

Thanks @Harry Bloomfield that's interesting! Yes, to be fair, there was some washing drying inside (in a room with a slightly open window) yesterday but I think we would still have had condensation without that. The house is reasonably well sealed and it's tough to keep the air dry when one is...

Long story short, we have: 1950s house Double glazing, only about 10 years old, good condition. No condensation between the panes. Trickle vents OR openers that we leave open a crack during the night Two adults in the house, no pets High outdoor humidity (it was 91% RH last night!) and humidity...

Thanks @JohnD. No, we don't typically get window condensation in that room as no-one sleeps there. Might change in the future if we have kids! But I'll always keep an eye on humidity levels / temperature...

Recently posted about getting some plastering work done and whether to board and skim or just chip off old skim and re-skim... Trades did the latter in most places but we decided to board in some small areas for various reasons. On one wall in particular, they put 10mm gyproc board on the wall...

Thanks @Wayners - if I understand you correctly, you mean take a hammer and chisel and chip at regular intervals / rows along entire walls. What's loose comes off, what's not stays on. Then prep + skim? (The other option I have is to board it all then skim - but I'm wary of that due to losing...

I've seen lots of threads about this sort of issue but every case has details that are slightly different to ours... and I want to get the right advice here. We are renovating our 1950s house and all our walls are like this (see below). Previously, all walls had wallpaper - which was carefully...