Sometimes you would rather not know about a problem

My daughter "broke" a hideous kitchen light fitting that was in her house. As per usual I received the "Daaaaaaddddd......" call to come and fit the new one she had bought. Of course the new fitting she bought has a central mounting bar that won't fit with the ceiling rose. When I took the cover off the ceiling rose, I just had that feeling this isn't going to go well.

Yep all the cables were old, no slack etc. but the worst bit was after I took the old rose out, there was a steady stream of dust and grit like someone pouring sand. Put my fingers to where the cables came out of the ceiling, and there was a huge draft blowing out all the dust. At which point you think here we go this is going to be fun to sort out.

My daughter has always complained that the kitchen was cold and so was the bedroom above, so at least we know why. I can guess it what it is - It a 1920's house and there is probably gaps around the joists where they rest on the inner skin of the brickwork and the wind is coming through the airbricks, up the cavity into the floor space. Of course it can't be simple can it ? there is the moving of all the furniture, emptying and dismantling the built in wardrobes, separating the flooring system etc. Just what I need

Of course, me fitting the new light has been forgotten and the daughter has gone from "Daaaaaaddddd" to "dad! when you going to fix the draft this the house is freezing!" because now the house is obviously far colder now that she and her mother knows there is a problem.

Marvellous isn't it, a relatively small job to fit a light fitting, now will turn into a load of grief a ear bending and I just know when those floor boards are up something else will be rear its head

 

This is one from a few years ago. This is buildover extension between two houses. We checked the lintels before hand and the intention was to get access to the new extension was to remove the window and the lower wall - simple. Rather than skim over the old pebble dash we hacked it off to reveal this


This was the outer wall of the house with a bedroom above. Hot foot down to the hire place to get some acros and call out building control. In the end had to take out all that wall. dig new foundations for new piers, build the piers for 4.5m lintel and buttress up the house wall. added a good 6 weeks to the job

 

PS this is one I was glad I found out about.

 

So started to lift the floor boards in search of the draft and its the usual tale of woe:

Whoever fitted the central heating used 10mm copper. Not a great fan of these but the muppet who installed it cut notches in the top of the joists less than 10mm in deep and all the pipes are now oval with wear marks where they have been rubbing on the floor boards - the pipes are rubbing because there are no clips for the pipes at all either where they run along the joist, through the joists, even up to the rad there is no support and has the usual dinks from the hoover. The pipe work is like a roller coaster where it has sagged with heat and gravity. So thats all coming out with a 15mm replacement

The electrics are much the same where the joists have been notched just enough to run the cable through with no nail protection plates on top. Amongst the rats nest of cables was a nice pair of twisted cables with electrical tape neatly resting by that white RSJ. Fortunately haven't seen this for years but at least easy to fix.

Whilst I was outside, I knocked over a tub of water only to see it run straight passed the drain and pond next to the kitchen extension. About 2m high on the wall there is a nice crack running horizontally, which when you tap the plaster makes a nice hollow sound. So it looks like we have some subsidence to contend with - and replastering and some drainage to sort.

Haven't even got close to the source of the draught yet