Restoring Victorian Buildings

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Well as you know it is always work from the top down,you property from victorian times would have had slate on the roof,or in places where I live clay tiles,if your roof has been fitted with concrete tiles in the 50's the main concern would be has the roof timbers been uprated to take the extra weight,also any chimney stacks may need repointing,also given the age of the property and fire places that might be used may well need sleaving,so that smoke from a wood burner or coal fies does not leak into rooms,these jobs are easily done with the scaffold up,on that topic you will find local builders will get a better rate for scaffold than you could,with the repointing of your property,most builders will use small kangoos to remove the old mortar,given that you have 400 sqm to be done I would expect the work to take three weeks.
At the moment getting materials to do any building work is getting difficult,but there are signs that people are now putting off work because of the financial situation in the UK,so my advice would be for the roof to possibly use the slate effect tiles that will give the property the look it had when it was built ,but whatever you choose make certain you have all the materials onsite,to complete the roof,and have the scaffold up before the roofers turn up.
Having done a number of properties over the years I well remember being under prepaired for the trades coming onsite,if you make someone in charge of the build make certain they know what they are doing.
There is only one chimney (as it wasn’t originally a house) and that’s led to a small leak, so it will need to be repointed and re flashed I suspect.
The damp around the windows might just be condensation through lack of ventilation. Don't do anything drastic yet. i rented out a Victorian terraced for a few years, main bedroom window reviel was black on my return, turned out the window was never opened. Get a dehumidifier in there and open the windows during the day,
Good advice 👍🏻
 
Yes he said 3 months. If doing the whole building then there is quite a lot of brickwork, my very quick estimate would be around 400 m2 after deducting windows - but even then 3 months still seems a very long time!.does that sound right?
3 months is ridiculous. He's having you on unless he only intends to do 2 hours a day! I'd be asking your surveyor what he thinks.
 
Wow, things changed quickly. A friend recommended a roofer today so I gave him a call. He was on his way to quote a job in the same village, so I hopped in the car. Incredibly we were stuck in the aftermath of the same accident on the way and arrived within minutes of each other!

He’s said exactly the same as the Surveyor said about the roof, except having been up there he said it’s probably closer to 25 years old, and has had new ridge tiles and EPS trays in the last 10 years, so generally worth repairing and not replacing.

He’s quoting me for multiple relatively small job, fresh lead where needed, pointing and flashing the chimney,!repairing some decay (which wasn’t as bad as it might have been), sorting some guttering and a few other bits and pieces.

He said it’s the sort of work he’ll do between big jobs or maybe even a weekend, so lead time won’t be too much of an issue either. Feeling relieved, assuming that he and the surveyor are right, and the other roofer was trying it on.

Brickwork next. I tried using white vinegar to work out what’s lime and what’s cement, but I couldn’t be conclusive. I have someone going to see the brickwork who has a long list of customers who he works for with similar properties - doing what’s needed to conserve every year or two.

Keeping fingers crossed the news is good there too 🤞🏻
 
3 months is ridiculous. He's having you on unless he only intends to do 2 hours a day! I'd be asking your surveyor what he thinks.
I think he was either trying it on, or if I give him the benefit of the doubt making it a bigger job to make it worthwhile. I’ll wait until I see the quotes from the guy today - see last post for more on that 👍🏻
 
Regarding your window cills, assuming you're talking about the external ones, it's well worth checking they still have a viable drip line, ie a line under the cill from which rain can drip, rather than running along the underside of the cill and penetrating the walls.
 
Regarding your window cills, assuming you're talking about the external ones, it's well worth checking they still have a viable drip line, ie a line under the cill from which rain can drip, rather than running along the underside of the cill and penetrating the walls.
The windows have a natural stone cill, and externally have quite a significant overhang from the wall, however your point regarding a drip line is a good one.

The stone is quite weathered - it’s in an exposed location with harsh weather - and so there may not be the same crisp edge that would have originally been the case.

Worthy of investigation 👍🏻
 
A shame i am in France at the mo, im based in bolton and would love a ride out in the hills, may be October when i am back i can have a good recky with you and a brew. Don't expect any tools with me, them days are gone 😇
 
Regarding your window cills, assuming you're talking about the external ones, it's well worth checking they still have a viable drip line, ie a line under the cill from which rain can drip, rather than running along the underside of the cill and penetrating the walls.
It’s called an anti capillary groove.
 
The windows have a natural stone cill, and externally have quite a significant overhang from the wall, however your point regarding a drip line is a good one.

The stone is quite weathered - it’s in an exposed location with harsh weather - and so there may not be the same crisp edge that would have originally been the case.

Worthy of investigation 👍🏻
A stone chill should have an anti capillary groove. When we used to cast a cull with a shutter we would pin a length of sash cord in it to form the groove.
 
A stone chill should have an anti capillary groove. When we used to cast a cull with a shutter we would pin a length of sash cord in it to form the groove.
I’ll have a look next time I’m there but I think it may be flat
 
A quick update to this thread. Thank you once more for all of your guidance, insights and well wishes. The collective knowledge and experience of MBClubbers never ceases to be amaze me. You posts and messages are very much appreciated.

Having lived in the house for more than 3 months, we’ve fixed the heating and air recirculation system, which together has dramatically reduced the amount of moisture in the air, down from 7x% to 4x% now. The underfloor heating system is now working as it should be and is making it a much more comfortable temperature too.

We’ve also taken care of a small leak in one of the pipes connected to the UFH manifold, another in the very small leak in a valve in the “plant room”. The pump which primes the hot water system so that taps always run hot straight away has been replaced too, but the timer switch that controls it still needs to be replaced.

All but the worst patch of damp appears to be no worse than it was in back July, more than 6 months ago which is promising. The source of one patch of damp was traced to a leaking radiator pipe, and has been fixed. The others are potentially guttering related, and helped by temporary adjustments, with permanent fixes starting next week.

The worst patch of damp appears to be getting worse, but is in a room we don't use, so the impact is limited. The source is unclear, but I suspect that it’s linked to a concentration of spalled bricks and cement mortar on the external face of that same wall. It could also be guttering related, or a combination of the two.

Conservation work has started today on the brickwork most in need of attention, and the potential source of the worst damp. A brick has been removed to find good matches from reclamation yards, and from Monday they’ll start to replace spalled bricks and repoint that section of the wall with lime mortar.

Whilst they’re here they’ll also be doing some more permanent repairs to the guttering, and a few other very small jobs like repointing where there are gaps in the mortar at various points around the building, generally doing what they can in any remaining time beyond the defined scope of work for this first phase.

Further inspection of the stone windows suggests that some pointing - and minor-ish reconstruction - might conserve the original stonework which has deteriorated most, and push back the need for serious restoration and replacement for a few more years. A cherry picker will enable external assessment in the medium term.

The next phase - later this year - will probably address the stonework mentioned above, and the “next worst” section of brickwork. Once those items are addressed then it will enable us to make a start on those things which we’d like to add or change, like building garages and potentially creating an additional gated entrance.
 
The damp around the windows might just be condensation through lack of ventilation. Don't do anything drastic yet. i rented out a Victorian terraced for a few years, main bedroom window reviel was black on my return, turned out the window was never opened. Get a dehumidifier in there and open the windows during the day,
This may well be proving to be the case, at least in part. Thank you once more 👍🏻
 
Once the reclaimed bricks are in, they probably won't be amazing at repelling water, especially if the front face is micro abraded from reclamation handling.

Consider a water repellant brick sealer.
I had a problem just like you are describing with some slightly spalled 1907 bricks, and one coat of this product (when scaffold was up for putting a new EPDM roof on) stopped the water ingress. It was quite remarkable. Stormdry.


Other products exist.

Thanks for updating us with progress, always good to hear how these things get on.
 
Once the reclaimed bricks are in, they probably won't be amazing at repelling water, especially if the front face is micro abraded from reclamation handling.

Consider a water repellant brick sealer.
I had a problem just like you are describing with some slightly spalled 1907 bricks, and one coat of this product (when scaffold was up for putting a new EPDM roof on) stopped the water ingress. It was quite remarkable. Stormdry.


Other products exist.

Thanks for updating us with progress, always good to hear how these things get on.
Thank you for sharing. Did you apply it only to the brick face, or go the whole wall j clouding the mortar?
 
Thank you for sharing. Did you apply it only to the brick face, or go the whole wall j clouding the mortar?
Just everywhere, rollered on like the pic on the link 👍

Only only applied to the top 1m of bricks on the house, as they were the only ones affected, due to exposure to the elements much more than the lower bricks. I couldn't really tell that they had been treated after it had dried, but that might have been masked by the fact those bricks were much rougher looking.

Whichever product (if you go this route), I'd recommend it's worth trying a discrete couple of bricks out of the way, leaving it to dry and seeing how much of a noticeable difference there is before deciding to do a partial or full wall coating.

In my case, the building wasn't listed, money was tight, and weather proofing was 100% higher priority than any subtle appearance inconsistencies.
 
Just everywhere, rollered on like the pic on the link 👍

Only only applied to the top 1m of bricks on the house, as they were the only ones affected, due to exposure to the elements much more than the lower bricks. I couldn't really tell that they had been treated after it had dried, but that might have been masked by the fact those bricks were much rougher looking.

Whichever product (if you go this route), I'd recommend it's worth trying a discrete couple of bricks out of the way, leaving it to dry and seeing how much of a noticeable difference there is before deciding to do a partial or full wall coating.

In my case, the building wasn't listed, money was tight, and weather proofing was 100% higher priority than any subtle appearance inconsistencies.
That’s much appreciated, thank you.

With our house it’s the lower bricks that are most affected. Fingers cross the replacements look good and improve the damp 🤞🏻
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom