DIY with function over finesse!!

[Paul-R]

Not received anything. Have you solved your problem?

[mickthemaverick]

You may remember the flooded kitchen down in Elstree detailed here.

Well it turned out to be far worse than at first it seemed. Virtually the entire ground floor concrete floor is damp so today I have been moving things around to get the carpet up off the concrete and free air across almost all the cement. Now with two fan heaters and 3 dehumidifiers running 24/7 we are slowly getting the water out. It is my belief that water seeped between the damp course and the floor and then ran right across the property forming an 'underfloor lake' which is slowly migrating up through the cement as the top surface is dried. Only time will tell as the owner does not want me to drill a pilot hole through the concrete to examine the underside with my endoscope and if there is a lake then to suck it out with fine tube and wetvac!! So it is ongoing surface drying and water condensing until the floor no longer goes wet when the machines are turned off!!

The lounge

The toilet

[Gibbo2286]

Are there no airbricks in the outside wall you can poke your camera through Mick?

[mickthemaverick]

Yes I did that and it seems dry below the dampcourse. I fear that because the membrane had been brought up around the water main the leak sprayed water onto the upper membrane surface which then seeped down across the membrane under the floor. Thus the only way to view it is between the concrete and the membrane and hence the need for a 'borehole' through the floor but not the membrane. Easier said than done of course but I'm not allowed to try!!

Something like this

[Dormouse]

That is going to be very difficult to dry out.

[mickthemaverick]

You may remember the 'leak catcher' tank I made to deal with the garage roof leak. Well, yesterday during a shower I was standing in the garage when a droplet fell on my hand. I looked up and saw it was coming from the beam at the end of the tank.

Investigating today I discovered that the water from the hairline crack was not all dripping into the tank, a small quantity was running along the underside of the roof sheet to the beam past the tank and then soaking down through the beam and dripping on the floor. There had not been enough to notice on the floor and I was only aware because the drip happened to hit me!!

I decided that another short term fix was required to get us through to the full roof replacement next year so I settled for making a silicone 'dam' across the sheet just before the beam and attaching a cotton cloth to it which will provide a soak away for the water. The bottom of the cloth I laid into the tank so now hopefully any water that bypasses the main 'drip site' will hit the dam, soak into and down the cloth and drip back into the tank!!

Hopefully you can see my new 'wick!'

[CitroJim]

Fingers crossed Mick! I'm sure it'll be fully tested again very soon...

[CitroJim]

Mick, we may soon have weather that may test your work

I'm hoping for rain too as I have some work I need to test - on my garage guttering...

Avid readers of my blog will know the erection of my carport highlighted a problem with the guttering on the front of my garage... It would over-top in heavy rain and drips off the bottom of the barge-board would continue for ages after it stopped raining...

Nothing was obviously wrong and the whole lot was relatively new, having been renewed when I had uPVC bargeboards and soffits fitted to the house and garage.

Yesterday I took a very close look and found the problem. Despite looking as if it had a good 'fall' toward the downpipe by eye, the gutter actually ran uphill Now, water doesn't like doing that and was therefore pooling in the gutter to a depth sufficient to create capillary action in conjunction with the bargeboard top weatherstrip that deliberately dips into the gutter - hence all the drips down the bargeboard.

My and my neighbour's garage is not on the level! There's quite a lateral slope on the roofline and the bargeboard is similarly not level. The gutter fitter assumed the bargeboard edge to have been perfectly level and installed the gutter to 'look' right along the bargeboard - wrong!!!

Only one thing for it. Pull it all down and start again... I left one gutter hanger in place and using a chalk-line I got a proper fall-line established. I re-fitted the gutter with all brackets in new places and all is now flowing nicely... Looking by eye at the gutter against the bargeboard it appears to have a massive and excessive fall but a spirit level says it's actually not hugely far off level! It's all an optical illusion due to the garage roof being so far off level.

Rain is forecast today so it may get properly tested... Yesterday I used many buckets of water to test it...

Looking back, the original garage guttering never worked very well. It was always full of soggy moss, even in high summer, and on occasion, plants happily grew in it!

Fingers crossed all is now good

[myglaren]

surprising how many gutters are install with a 'negative fall'.
One would think it would be fairly simple to install them with a slight fall to the downcomer but it seems otherwise.

[CitroJim]

surprising how many gutters are install with a 'negative fall'.
One would think it would be fairly simple to install them with a slight fall to the downcomer but it seems otherwise.

I think it's all to do with how it looks...

This is mine now... The gutter only has a slight fall but looks awful due to the upward slope of the roofline... If an installer did this I'm sure the average customer would be unhappy...

It's just started raining so is being tested properly

[mickthemaverick]

An update on my 'wick' fix. We just had a very heavy downpour and so I went into the garage to observe proceedings. With the aid of a step ladder and a torch I was able to see, over a minute or so, 7 drips form and run down the underside of the roof. I am happy to say 6 of them dripped straight into the tank while the seventh ran to the end and soaked into the cloth and down into the tank! Meanwhile the beam has dried right out since my wick installation so I am pretty happy that all the leak water is now routed into the tank and on out to the outlet pipe over the garden waterfall!! Result!!

[CitroJim]

Excellent Mick That should hold good until the roof is renewed...

[Rp0thejester]

Okay long story short, car failed MOT as exhaust fumes coming from front join. I've ordered the replacement set which is due tomorrow. I got under the car today and decided I don't want to play this game. There is naff all space to work in, can barely get my hand to the area. The spring bolts are loose, these type,

I think I will need to cut them off as they are rotating. Any tips on how to get these things off without dropping the exhaust on my neck!!

[mickthemaverick]

The exhaust issue has been moved to the DIY Car Maintenance thread and you can follow the story from here!

[mickthemaverick]

So who mentioned gutters and downpipes? While out in the garden removing some dead wood from a shrub I noticed our main gutter downpipe was 'shining' in the sun. On closer inspection I became aware of a leaky joint problem:

The cause of the shining - very nasty slime!!

The section of pipe which I can remove to clean out and rod the whole pipe.

Evidently it has been going on for a while without me noticing!!

I'll see how the mood takes me but I'll probably tackle that later today!!