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Conservatory/Utility Problems (Read 2909 times)
WDWGunner
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Conservatory/Utility Problems
Mar 31st, 2020, 11:09am
 
Hi all,

So the wife and I bought a house last month and due to some shoddy work on the part of the surveyor have been left in a crap way.

The house had a conservatory put on abut 20 years ago and an extension in 2006 along with conversation of the garage. The extension was a new garage, a utility room and a conversation of the old garage to a downstairs loo and garden room.

We knew it was single skinned and planned on getting it sorted if it was currently free from damp. We were advised there were no current issues so went ahead with the purchase.

One month in and we are pulling our hair out, and feeling like we’ve made the worst decision ever! there is damp and cracking everywhere and with Corona now we can’t even get anyone to look at it and give us some idea what’s going to be required.

From what we can tell it all stems from the single small wall which has been built to connect the utility to the old garage. Due to the face the previous owner for some reason had no downpipe from the gutters, all the rain water ran down the wall. We asked again for the surveyor to look at it and report back (he said no issues HA!) and we got a guy to install a downpipe pretty much as soon as we moved in.

Anyway I’ve attcahed some pics: first set is of the external wall, it has holes at low level and needs repointing clearly.

Second set are of the conservatory walls near the windows (only the first is attached to the crappy wall but noticed issues on the other side too)

And the third set are of the damp in the utility of the other side of the wall where there is obviously penetrating damp.

I think my wife and I just essentially want an honest idea of what fixing all this crap may realistically cost.

I should add the long bits of missing paint on the conservatory walls are from where the previous owners (The Bodgertons as we can them lol) stuck strips to hide wires with no more nails to the walls 🙄)

External WallExternal WallExternal Wall
External WallExternal WallConservatory Wall opposite the damp external wall
Conservatory wall on opposite side of conservatory from damp wallConservatory wall on opposite side of conservatory from damp wallUtility room
Utility roomUtility roomUtility room
Utility roomUtility roomUtility room
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thescruff
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #1 - Mar 31st, 2020, 12:01pm
 
I leave it to the others to reply later.

Did any of it have planning consent?
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woodsmith
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #2 - Apr 1st, 2020, 9:14am
 
This can't possibly have had building consent, I can't imagine any building control officer passing the plans let alone the job. Didn't your solicitor flag this up? Plus I don't understand how any building surveyor could think this is ok, so morally you should have some redress and this may be worth pursuing but these people take your money and are as slippery as a kipper when they cock it up.

So, what to do? It's very difficult to see exactly what's wrong, and I can only give you some rough advice, but you have done exactly the right thing getting getting the guttering connected to the drains or soakaway.

The single skin wall seems to be your biggest problem and there are two ways to address this. You could clad the outside not only to keep the rain off but also add some insulation to prevent internal condensation. However if they have messed up the damp prooof course this may not completely solve the problem.

Alternatively you can treat the inside face of the wall by stripping everything off the wall then bond thermalcheck plasterboard over the entire surface. I would suggest 40mm board would be best however that is going to cause a bit of a challenge as I think the window fits right into the edge of the wall. It may be worth considering replacing the window with one narrower in width so that you can get a proper return.

It's a specialist job fitting insulated plasterboard when it's being used to sort a problem like this. I've been on jobs where they haven't done it right as they haven't understood that the plasterboard is forming a damp proof layer and they have bridged it with adhesive. So you will need to shop round and find someone who has previously used it for this purpose.

Insulated plasterboard, (thermalcheck board), is not technically designed for this but it works. I've used it quite a few times on older buildings where there was no option to do anything more radical and it has solved the problem of penetrating damp effectively and permanently.

Good luck with this, you should have some redress from the so called professionals that allowed you to buy this but if not this should still be fixable without costing an absolute arm and leg.


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WDWGunner
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #3 - Apr 1st, 2020, 10:04am
 
Hi

Yeah we did our best to get a down pipe fitted straight away so the rain water is now draining into the garden area.

No there was no planning permission as it met the requirements to not need it (less than 3mtrs high, less the half the width of the original building etc). They described it themselves as a lean to.

We feel sick with how bad it is after looking at it now, we can’t see how the surveyor missed a lot of it, we paid £700 for the best one money could buy 🤬. Hoping at some point soon people will be able to start quoting for us.

Cheers
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #4 - Apr 1st, 2020, 10:31am
 
Bigger problem is we are at a loss on who to contact, all the damp survey companies say this isn’t their area, so I’m guessing we need a builder?
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woodsmith
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #5 - Apr 1st, 2020, 2:10pm
 
If it complied with all the rules for being a conservatory then it usually wouldn't need planning or building consent but it looked from the photos that they had done a more substantial job and made it into part of the house.

If you can just dry line it with insulated plasterboard then a plasterer could do it, if you need to alter the windows too then you will need a builder. Try to find one that's up to date with modern methods of insulation.
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #6 - Apr 1st, 2020, 2:52pm
 
As we understand the conservatory was already on the house when the previous owners moved in and was built in 1998 so is outside planning permission enforcement, our solicitor was satisfied with that. The actual extension on the side of the house is a lean to and converted garage. Again we don’t believe it needed planning permission due to its size etc BUT we took an indemnity out to be safe.
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Re: Conservatory/Utility Problems
Reply #7 - Apr 14th, 2020, 11:23am
 
It wouldn’t need planning, but converting a garage into a room does require building control inspections.

The planning rules were relaxed, but not building control!  They still need to ensure the work carried out is done to the required standard.

I would be going back to the solicitor.
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« Last Edit: Apr 14th, 2020, 11:24am by Lectrician »  

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