Diary

This page contains our diary of the work we are doing to Monks Chambers. It shows how our thinking and knowledge has changed over the time we have had the building. Hopefully this can be a guide to other owners as to the potential pitfalls of poor advice and relying on specialists.

July 2001

We have viewed Monks Chambers again and have fallen in love with the house. We know that there is a lot of work to do, but we think it will be worth it in the long run. Now that Lynn has had an offer on her house we can put in an offer on Monks Chambers.

After a bit of negotiation our offer has been accepted. Our buyers are moving from their parents and the current owners of Monks Chambers are moving into rented accommodation. Hopefully everything will run through smoothly.

August 2001

We have found a surveyor who appears to have lots of experience of old properties. He will be conducting a full structural survey.

The surveyor has completed his survey and prepared a detailed report. The main problems appear to be the damp, the structurally unsafe coach house and the main chimney. He has warned us that much of the downstairs walls are dry lined and that he therefore cannot assess the full extent of the damp problems. In the worse case there may be lots of rotting timbers hidden behind which will need replacing. We have decided to continue with the purchase and have allowed some extra money to deal with any problems we find.

September 2001

The sale is progressing well and contracts have now been exchanged. We are looking at a moving date around the middle of October.

October 2001

The moving date has been confirmed as 18th October. We are now starting to pack all of our possessions into boxes!

18th October 2001

We have moved in to Monks Chambers. We have found ourselves immediately at home. The house is lovely and we know that we will be happy here. We have started to investigate the house and the more that we look, the more interesting stuff that we find.

25th October 2001

The surveyor has been round and we have seriously started to investigate the damp problems. It appears that the internal ground floor walls are cement rendered as well as the outside ones. This leads to a tanking situation where any moisture that gets into the walls is trapped and the moisture then climbs further up the walls. Magazines suggest that the solution is to remove the cement render, inject a chemical damp proof course and then put new cement on the walls. The surveyor agrees that this is one possible solution. We have decided to get a damp proofing company round to advise.

10th November 2001

The damp proofing company have just been. The chap probed the walls with his moisture meter and did the same on the floors. His advice is to strip all of the existing plaster downstairs up to between a meter and ceiling height, inject a chemical damp proof and then install a concrete tanking system. He also suggested placing membranes into the floor to stop rising damp. He will prepare a report and costs and send them to us.

24th November 2001

We have the damp proofing report and we have prepared our first Listed Building Consent application. This was a pain to produce, mainly because West Berkshire Council required all documents in quadruplicate! The application has been sent to the council.

Christmas 2001

We have had all of the family over for Christmas. Everyone had a really great time. We have also been removing the completely inappropriate fitted wardrobe from the main bedroom. Underneath the carpet we have also found the original oak floorboards. They are in a poor state, but we should be able to save them and get them looking as good as new with some traditional beeswax polish and plenty of time!

10th January 2002

The council have rejected our Listed Building Consent application based on the fact that chemical damp proofing and tanking are inappropriate for old and listed buildings. Fortunately a friend has directed us towards the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) and we have ordered all of their literature on dealing with damp in old buildings.

20th January 2002

After lots and lots of reading and research we have a new approach to dealing with the damp. We have learnt that old buildings are designed to breathe. They absorb water during damp conditions and evaporate it during drier periods. Therefore putting any kind of tanking system in place is totally inappropriate. Our new approach is to deal with the causes of the damp: high external ground levels and condensation. We will then need to remove all the concrete from the walls and give them six months to dry out. Finally they will be re-plastered with a breathable lime plaster and painted with a lime wash. We have updated the LBC application and resubmitted it.

30th January 2002

We have created and submitted additional LBC applications for rebuilding the structurally weak main chimney and repairs to the coach house, including rebuilding one wall and replacing a lintel.

3rd February 2002

The improved damp proposal has been accepted and we can now select builders to carry out the work. We have decided to get quotes from one specialist building conservation company and one general building company who claim to work extensively with old buildings. We have also started doing some of the stripping work ourselves.

16th/17th February 2002

We attended a really excellent SPAB course for owners of old properties. They covered a huge amount of really interesting principles and methods. More importantly, the course confirmed that our new approach for dealing with the damp is spot on in terms of building conservation principles.

25th February 2002

While working in the living room, we have discovered that the concrete floors are laid on plastic sheet and are tanked into the walls. It therefore looks like the floors will have to come up as well, or at least a strip around the outside that links into the walls. Interestingly one end of the living room has a brick floor underneath, but this is quite badly damaged.

9th March 2002

The building conservation company have been round. I am very impressed. They offered lots of positive suggestions and advice. More importantly they appeared to be very sympathetic to the building and would only do the minimum required to get it back to top condition.

They also felt that the structural problems on the coach house are more extensive than we originally thought. They recommended that we get a structural engineering report on the building before doing any more work.

19th March 2002

The general builders have been round. They were very enthusiastic and a bit scary. They wanted to strip everything out and start again. They wanted to totally modernise the building and transform it into a Victorian restoration rather than a 16th century cottage! More worryingly they thought it was a good idea to seal all the brickwork with sealant before applying the lime plaster! We have decided to go with the building conservation company.

11th April 2002

I attended a one-day course at The Lime Centre. We learnt all about working with lime and the different types of lime that can be used. I am now much more confident about using lime for work that we will be undertaking on the house.

20th April 2002

We removed the downstairs bathroom today ready for the builders to start. It’s now months of showers only :-(

Also, a load of tiles fell off the roof of the coach house. We seriously need to consider stripping the roof to avoid any more damage. The structural engineer is coming this week to look at the coach house, so stripping the roof can be done once he has been.

24th April 2002

The structural engineer has recommended some additional work to the coach house. He also proposes strengthening of the roof structure, to avoid it causing the walls to spread, and rebuilding of two of the gables, which are very suspect. He will prepare a full report and we will have to obtain an additional LBC for this extra work.

7th May 2002

The builders have started work on the house. They will be removing all of the cement-based plaster from the ground floor walls. They will also be digging French drains along the two walls where the external road levels are much higher than the internal floors.

24th May 2002

The builders have finished their first stage of work. They have done a really excellent job. Now we just need to wait for the building to dry out before it can be re-plastered. This will take six months, so re-plastering will have to wait until December. During this time they will hopefully be able to rebuild the main chimney and do some work to the coach house.

15th June 2002

We have taken up a large amount of the tanked concrete floor in the living room. This part was laid on plastic and directly on the Earth. There is only one part of floor to take up in the living room before we decide on where to go next with the flooring.

22nd August 2002

THe entire hall floor has now been taken up. The bricks underneath are in a rather sorry state and sadly not many will be reusable. The floor was quite damp under the concrete. In fact, when we get home from work every day we have a nice collection of damp letters waiting for us!