A friend of SWMBO is having to move back into the ex matimonial home after a year of it remaining empty. Long story and as I am led to believe an acrimonious divorce and attempted sale of house, so house left empty for a year and to make matters worse a burst pipe caused more damage.
As she is very skint, SWMBO offered me to have a basic look to determine what needs to be done (either by me or by the professional) to make it habitable again.
Having had a look there are a couple of jobs on the heating system which will need doing and the boys in teh heating forum have helped here.
Most are not too much of a problem and if she had more time I might do them for her, but she's in a very difficult position. House isn't selling for enough to cover the equity loss and she is about to be forced out of her rented accomodation so has no-where else to go. If the bill gets too large then she may lose the house as well.
Therefore trying to keep it to the minimum safe level. I'll do what I can, but the stuff I can't or that which needs to be done in a time frame I cant accomodate due to work and our family has to cheap and cheerful. Frankly now I've seen the state of the place I wish we could find another way, for her and the kids, but we dont have the space for them with our kids and she has to live somewhere.
The Ceiling which took brunt of pipe burst needs work, but not sure what we can get away with. Its a lathe and plaster ceiling now with cracks in see pics
Looking from above all the lathes are intact and the plaster is still overlapping then so doesnt look like its going to fall off, but I suspect it ought to be repaired or replaced. Anybody suggest it could be left?
If not, can we simply get some plasterboard and put it over the current ceiling and screw through to the joists (perhaps with a few more screws than normal, then get a platerer to scim it?
Any other suggestions
As she is very skint, SWMBO offered me to have a basic look to determine what needs to be done (either by me or by the professional) to make it habitable again.
Having had a look there are a couple of jobs on the heating system which will need doing and the boys in teh heating forum have helped here.
Most are not too much of a problem and if she had more time I might do them for her, but she's in a very difficult position. House isn't selling for enough to cover the equity loss and she is about to be forced out of her rented accomodation so has no-where else to go. If the bill gets too large then she may lose the house as well.
Therefore trying to keep it to the minimum safe level. I'll do what I can, but the stuff I can't or that which needs to be done in a time frame I cant accomodate due to work and our family has to cheap and cheerful. Frankly now I've seen the state of the place I wish we could find another way, for her and the kids, but we dont have the space for them with our kids and she has to live somewhere.
The Ceiling which took brunt of pipe burst needs work, but not sure what we can get away with. Its a lathe and plaster ceiling now with cracks in see pics
Looking from above all the lathes are intact and the plaster is still overlapping then so doesnt look like its going to fall off, but I suspect it ought to be repaired or replaced. Anybody suggest it could be left?
If not, can we simply get some plasterboard and put it over the current ceiling and screw through to the joists (perhaps with a few more screws than normal, then get a platerer to scim it?
Any other suggestions