Weather and its effects, Prepping and precautions

You have very high standards in your house & garden craftyone. I think the whole aspect of maintenance and good housekeeping brings you pleasure. A form of control (in a good way doubtless) that gives you great satisfaction in life.

Me, not so much.
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kittylester

I love weather - which is a good job as we are currently getting lots of it through our hall ceiling!

Regular readers of the Good Morning thread will know that this is an ongoing issue that the roofer is baffled by.

We can afford the repair if we could only work out what the problem is - a huge assumption that your neighbours couldn't, craftyone.

We love our 150 year old home (a converted village Board school) and are happy to cope with the inconveniences to have a house near the centre of the village, that has lots of character and that so many people have stories about.

I wouldn't swap it for a new build.

My son can join you. He has 9 chimneys on his roof and they have all been capped/repointed Over the past couple of years all with success except 1.

4 times the roofers have been back and it still leaks. It seems like throwing good money after bad, but he has to get it done. He has buckets in the loft.

PS it is an arts and craft house so just over 100 years.

Buckets in the loft is good - ours are in the hall!!!

There was one memorable occasion after we first moved her nearly 30 years ago when a man called at the door collect for WaterAid - I pointed to the row of 3 buckets in the hall but he was unimpressed.

That was a different leak!

Chimneys are the worst! We had several attempts at stopping water coming into our lounge, from the 10ft chimney stack which faced the Irish Sea.
After 3 costly repairs we solved the problem by removing the chimney stack and replacing it with a new one. Not for the faint hearted, but we wished we’d done it in the first place, rather than the expensive repairs.

Not so much water problems in houses I have lived in. But when we moved into the Edwardian house in 1976, we discovered the in the loft, the party wall to our neighbouring house, was not exactly well finished. Any time it snowed, a great pile would blow into the loft and settle along the joists against that wall. And, I do mean a great pile. I was always so terrified that if it melted the damage it could do, that every time it snowed saw me up in the loft (silly placement of loft entry just above stairs) - I would have my kids at the bottom of the steps making a chain and would pass them bucket full after bucket full of snow for them to throw outside.
Tried all sorts of things, - stuffed old blankets, etc along that area - made no difference whatsoever.
Risked life and limb each time, as it ewas a very high ceiling - and, as I say, entrance was over the stairs. One time I did fall as I was coming down and ended up with a broken clavicle. Never went up there again.

marydoll, I could see clearly this morning, just eyes, when the light was better, only looking at the roof btw. I was the third neighbour to alert her today and she was overwhelmed, almost tearful at the kindliness of good neighbours. Very much a stitch in time for her. You cannot take good neighbourliness out of a northerner, its ingrained to look after each other . Luckily it was only the 4 lower layers that had slipped and someone is already up a ladder helping her. Yes lemongrove, I got it, didn`t need them this morning to see the roof and glad to help her

Kitty
PMSL ?? And you Charleygirl ??

Ours isn't a chimney leak (that's tempting fate!) The school was built in 3 bits and has a mixture of Welsh slate and Swithland slate on the roof.
After the 3rd bit was added they decided to link it all nicely together with a lovely flat roof.

Then the people who lived here before us put in a suspended sort of conservatory between 2 bits of roof otherwise the upstairs bits wouldn't connect.

We are paying our lovely roofer a fortune!!

But I'm still not moving!!

Be careful even with a new build, craftyone. When we moved in several years ago, at least two of our neighbours had water ingress coming down inside walls because the flashing around the chimneys had not been fixed properly. They did get it done properly under the 10 year NHBC warranty and ours was checked too but was fine.

We did have a leak which could have damaged the hall ceiling but it was noticed immediately (I was standing underneath it) but that was another story.

We had our large tree trimmed recently but a neighbour lost a big branch off one of theirs yesterday, luckily causing no damage.

craftyone oh to have a neighbour like you. I am definitely missing that neighbourliness here.

I would not mind you using your binoculars because I would know it was for my benefit in the long run. That is what means by a good neighbour.

Barking back to a previous thread regarding net curtains, this is exactly why I have them at our bedroom window! (BTW, that is the only window that I have them at)

Heaven forbid that a kindly neighbour checking the state of our roof, with or without binoculars, might catch a glimpse of me dressing after my shower.

They might need therapy.

HARKING, not "barking"! Damn auto correct!

(Although there may be some that think I AM barking!")

Thank you Charleygirl5, you understood my intentions in one.

I am feeling very lucky, I have 2 immediate neighbours, male with lady friends and we have become a small community already, we help each other and in fact only last week, one put an oak mantle up for me, it was too heavy to do by myself. It has taken us a year and we have all been very careful but already we have (plus ladyfriends) formed an attachment to each other, We help out where we can and give each other things like spare veg and cake and de-cluttered tools and we water each others plants if needed

This covid stuff put the kibosh on making new friends, my plans were to go forward with this in may but of course everything ceased. All we can do now in my neighbourhood is keep an eye on each other, even if only in a superficial way for now.

Re preps for winter: having been suddenly snowed in for 6 weeks in the recent past and being semi-rural, I do keep good stocks in for winter. I have received my flours today, wholemeal spelt and rye, not available locally. I hear that the grain harvest has been poor this year

phoenix surely not!

A leaking roof is the devil's work to track down. My friend has had more men climb up on her roof to try and find out why she has water leaking into her bedroom and down the chimney than she's had hot dinners. Flashing has been replaced, broken and slipped slates ditto, roof membrane repaired and then replaced, all to no avail. And she's not short of a job or two either! or wasnt until she had to fork out for endless men to climb up on her roof. So if you could have a look with you binoculars craftyone I think she'd be grateful.

Charleygirl, which, barking or onlookers needing therapy?

Although both might apply!

phoenix definitely barking.

phoenix the roof is convex and slopes down a long way, ends about 8` from the ground and has no windows. They are very pretty roofs, behind and next to me is all big higgledy hotch potch gardens of flowers and veg and chickens. Really open aspect and just the line of roofs many feet away on my right at the end of their gardens