New workshop

[zipgun]

Glad it was the house and not the garage !

[Grumpy Northener]

Not much done in the shape of car related projects over the holidays due to issues on the home front - yet more flooding - this time at least it was on the outside of the property and no effect on the interior - still needs to be sorted though !!!

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To the rear of the property / side of the garage is a large field which is approx 1 metre higher than the lane - the water drains from the field into the lane - then travel down the lane and fills the ditch to side of our boundary - the ditch has nowhere to drain to so it overflows into the side path of the property

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it then travels all around the property and in effect forms a moat

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I have lifted the manhole chamber covers in order to drain the water away from the side of the brickwork

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(which is a 20"solid brick wall) otherwise we are likely to have allsorts of problems at a later date (bearing in mind that the property was built before damp proof courses were even thought about)

I am going to have to sort this problem by installing a couple of land drains to the base of the field and then convert the open ditch to the side of our property to a French drain and divert the water to the main drain. Add to this the fact that all the gutters were overflowing and have not been cleaned in at least the last 10 years - some of the surface water drains are running backwards and are discharging water to the side of the property rather than draining it away, some rather dodgy electrics, a cooker / boiler (Rayburn) that has managed to consume £450 of gas in a month and a TV aerial mast held in place by chewing gum (that promptly blew down in the first gust of wind)

With this in mind I am considering changing the name of the place from 'The Old Chapel' To 'The Chapel of Bodge' not sure how I prove it but I am sure the previous owner was quite aware of the recent short comings. On a good note - The aerial is fixed, electrics sorted for now, new range cooker on order, new (separate) boiler - central heating on order, log burner fitted in the lounge and a plan to tackle the drainage problem is in place

[TerryG]

You have your own moat!
My house pre-dates damp proofing too, it cost £1400 to have one injected in. Fortunately we were renovating at the time as if there is plaster on your walls, the bottom foot or so will need to be removed.

[JPB]

Four hundred and fifty Pounds in one month?

Is that for mains or a self contained supply with your own tanks? I ask because when I came to my current home I was thinking about signing up for a mains gas connection only I found that the cost of bringing the mains to my house would have cost me as much as the difference between having my gas delivered in a tanker and a typical mains gas cost for three whole years.

So I put off and put off, convincing myself that I might move again at some point but eventually, after using an estimated extra £1784.32 of gas compared to what I'd have paid for the mains stuff , I gave in and had the gas board connect me, some three years after mains gas came to the village.
Since I've been on the mains supply, my monthly spend is typically £130 for both gas and electricity and I use loads of both, especially as I do more of my work from home these days so cannot always rely on being able to use the Local Authority's gas to keep me warm during the day. Or their teabags, their chocolate digestives, their bathrooms, their massage suite.......


I'd enjoy a moat though. Especially if it came with some form of bridge that I could instantly and in remote fashion withdraw into the doorstep from the comfort of my couch every time the Plymouth Bletherin' or Jehova's Witnesses were standing out there, ringing my bell constantly. They'd make lousy witnesses too, since they can't tell the court what they saw him doing because they were ringing my bloody bell when he was doing it!

[Grumpy Northener]

Is that for mains or a self contained supply with your own tanks?

That's for mains - we appreciate its an old property with gothic arched leaded windows that you cannot double glaze (well you could but may as well clad the brick & stone work in broken plastic bumpers at the same time to match the atheistic effect of the double glazing) - its quite drafty when the wind blows and its not insulated that well (it will be before next winter) The Rayburn is 20 years old and inefficient and is on its way out it will be replaced by a multi fuel range cooker - the megaflow hot water system is also on its way out to be replaced by a large combi boiler (then I can loose the badley plumbed refinery that poses currently as a airing cupboard) - the combi along with the 7 - 12kw log burner that I just fitted in the lounge and we should be able to half the current gas bill

[rich.]

we had a victorian sextons lodge which had similar windows, it had fitted internal secondary glazing which was very effective & didnt look too bad..

[TerryG]

You can have double glazed panes inserted in to wooden frames. Unless you have leaded / stained glass windows, you wouldn't notice the difference. The cost can be pretty high if you need them cut in a custom shape.

[tractorman]

I don't want to teach granny to suck eggs, but I'm not sure that filling a gutter would be the best solution - even if it is a French drain - especially if there are trees or a hedge near it. Most of the wet spots on the farms I have worked on have been caused by farmers putting tiles in gutters and levelling the ground to make a nice flat field! Tree roots head for the water that's in the drains and ruin the dashed things

I have a similar problem at the moment: I put a nice plastic drain in six or seven years ago and nearly killed myself doing so: it was a warm month and the clay soil was dug by hand (hence the purchase of a digger!). I put two shanks to it this year, but haven't got round to sorting a connection to a main drain because I need to be able to get the tractors and Landy through where the join will be. In the wet weather, the water collects in the "soakaway" (some lumpy rubble), fills it up and now the whole lawn around the shed is flooded and the water runs along the end of the house (past where the new connection will be) and along the front to the drive's gulley!

I'd agree that secondary glazing works well and can't understand these TV "experts" who seem to want everyone in older properties to stick with old, single glazed, windows! To be honest, I thought our original secondary glazing was a lot better for noise insulation and didn't lag far behind on draught-profing and stopping heat loss compared to our relatively new Everest "K-glass" windows that Ma decided to spent £14,500 on!!

I heat and cook with a 30-year old oil fired Rayburn during winter and have just got a nice new 4KW multifuel stove to replace an open fire. I'm spending about £14-60 pw for "coal", £700pa for oil (I won't use the Rayburn after the year's tank of oil runs out!) and, at the moment, £20 per month on electricity! However, I was using electricity for everything while waiting for the man to do the stove: the old fire had a back boiler that had to be disconnected, so I didn't want to light the Rayburn until they had sorted that - he was always coming in "two or three days". I was using £50 per month of electricity then - and, of course, EDF checked my useage and upped the monthly payments to £30 odd because of that month! I was using about £30 per month during summer, when the immersion and electric cooker were used.

I haven't actually done the maths (it's all on a spreadsheet of course!), but it makes me wonder if all-electric isn't actually the most cost-effective way for me to go!

[TerryG]

I'm not sure how big everybody's house is or how many people live there but I get through about 2000 litres of oil pa at something like 56ppl with a combi that does the heating / hot water. Electricity costs around £50pcm, a little bit less in the summer. There are just the two of us living in a 3 bed with double glazed windows and doors. It is costing slightly less to heat / light than my flat in London did.
I burn some wood but not a huge amount as I am usually too lazy to light a fire in the evenings. I have the advantage of my wood supply being very cheap, it just costs me the petrol from driving around the farm to collect it and filling the chainsaw.
A very large ash tree blew down last week which is the rest of this winters wood supply taken care of.
I will burn more wood after the new garage is built, one of the inlaws has given me an old pot belly stove to use for heating it. I can't wait to have somewhere warm and dry to tinker with cars in. I will admit to being a bit jealous of you all who have nice dry warm garages and workshops.

[Grumpy Northener]

Fed up with water lapping around the property and the fact that my neighbour had just ordered a new Merc sports convertible and was keen to see the pot holes in the lane gone - I managed to get one of my sub contractors to come in and sort the drainage

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I organised the plant & materials and we cracked on installing land drains in the problem areas on the lane

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We also graded the potholes out on the lane which is circa 300 metres long prior to rolling it with a tandem roller - 80 tons of road planning's were brought in and we resurfaced the whole lane - I spent an entire Saturday rolling the planning's in to ensure that were firmly consolidated (and I ached for the rest of the following week) Fortunately I was able to keep the costs tight with trade contacts & suppliers and has the lane provides access to 5 properties the costs are split 5 ways - Now if only we could charge a toll for the walkers that have a public right of way down the lane