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#2983588 17-Oct-2022 00:37

Our house of horrors is finally looking a little more respectable, it's been a bit of a slow burn over the last few years but more recently been spending hours and hours each night and weekend on our granny flat.

Here's a couple before and after pics.

Kitchen:

Guest Toilet:

Granny flat:

Granny bedroom:

Granny bathroom:

I really need to do a better job of taking before photos. I tend to remember after I've begun.

neb

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#2983589 17-Oct-2022 00:41

insane: I really need to do a better job of taking before photos. I tend to remember after I've begun.

It also looks like you swapped the before and after shot of the granny bedroom. Either that or things really went downhill in the reno.

insane

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#2983591 17-Oct-2022 01:00

neb:
insane: I really need to do a better job of taking before photos. I tend to remember after I've begun.

It also looks like you swapped the before and after shot of the granny bedroom. Either that or things really went downhill in the reno.

Hehe, good catch! Fixed :)

The photos don't do the hours justice. Big stuff is fairly quick, it's all the filling, sanding, painting, tiling, changing of skirting, hinges, locks, cupboards, lights, curtains, blinds, etc that sucks up the time.

Have had family move it on short notice so had to hustle.

elpenguino

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#2988771 27-Oct-2022 14:48

I've got this 'low-cost' drop saw which came with an annoying adjustment for changing one of the angle settings. It has a knurled machine screw with a nominal hex opening in the centre. When you want to adjust it you can try an allen key , only to find it slips. Then you'll be off to find a pair of vice grips or similar to grip the outside of the screw, probably slipping at least once and adding to the 'character' of the screw.

I thought about welding a bit of steel bar to a screw to make a lever but before jumping into action I had a quick look on aliexpress. I found this thing which works a treat and looks a lot neater than anything I would have frankenwelded up.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

elpenguino

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#2994459 10-Nov-2022 20:20

Not long after moving into our current house, we discovered that our downstairs leaked occasionally. Our insurer washed their hands of it saying something along the lines of 'long term problem'.

We couldn't blame the ingress on any particular service but it did leak on the side with the sewer. So, a few years ago on a punt , I broke up the back path and a drain guy replaced the clay pipes with plastic.

This made little to no difference so after much hemming and hawing (few years) we were told to 'tank it'. Steps involved were:

Expose and prepare the house foundation / underground wall
Paint gooey black stuff on wall
Apply plastic sheet to protect wall
Create an envelope against the wall using geotextile
Install drain along footer at bottom of envelope
Fill envelope with drainage chip
Refill dirt, keeping separate from envelope with plywood barrier
Concrete path

My two lads are old enough to help humping materials uphill but we got sick of that so, part way through the project, I invested in an electric wheelbarrow. It's pretty neat actually and means you can take 50 kilos of whatever uphill, again and again.

Managed to get it all paved by Easter before the wettest winter in Wellington hit us. No more leaks !!

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

pih

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#2994462 10-Nov-2022 21:16

Very nice work!

Just one thing ... Maybe that's not quite the finished picture, but does that down pipe drain directly onto the concrete now? I would have thought you'd connect it down to the new drain coil, add in a feeder pipe that crossed under the path and joined the tile drain on the other side, or at least have a right angle on the end so the water isn't splashing against the side of the house when it hits the ground 🤔

pih

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#2994463 10-Nov-2022 21:20

Oh, and pictures of said wheelbarrow, and/or link to where you bought it please? Sounds very useful!

elpenguino

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#2994475 10-Nov-2022 22:13

pih: Very nice work!

Just one thing ... Maybe that's not quite the finished picture, but does that down pipe drain directly onto the concrete now? I would have thought you'd connect it down to the new drain coil, add in a feeder pipe that crossed under the path and joined the tile drain on the other side, or at least have a right angle on the end so the water isn't splashing against the side of the house when it hits the ground 🤔

Yeah it's so good to have this one ticked off.

That pipe is a left over vent from the buccan trap. Since the trap was removed when the sewer was modernised, the vent can go as well. I just need to 'get round' to cutting the lower cast iron part off and removing the stack that goes through the eaves, blocking up the holes etc etc.

The roof is quite high there and the ground slopes so it will probably have to wait till scaffolding is in place to paint the house one day.

This is the wheelbarrow. https://www.tradetested.co.nz/p/gardening/garden-barrows-carts/wheelbarrows/tradesman-e-barrow-wheelbarrow-72l

Not cheap but it's not a toy.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

insane

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#2994480 10-Nov-2022 22:41

Wow that's quite pricey! Nice job btw, that looked like a mammoth effort!

A former work colleague levelled their entire back garden with the only option being to carry large buckets of dirt through the house. They hired several day labourers at around minimum wage and had many many cubes hauled by hand over two days. Pretty sure it cost half of that motorised wheelbarrow that still requires you to drive it :)

elpenguino

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#2994528 10-Nov-2022 22:56

Buying the wheelbarrow pretty much doubled the cost of the job but one quote for the job was >25k so it was pretty much free, right?

I live on a slope and I'm not getting any younger so I consider it an investment.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

elpenguino

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#3018552 8-Jan-2023 12:42

Whoa, looks like everyone else is having summer off!

Meanwhile, I tackled roof 2.0.

Last summer I replaced my garage roofing iron and purlins. It improved the leaks but the main problem was a rusted out internal gutter which just dumped water inside the garage so that was on this summer's job list.

I read somewhere that if your gutter is wide enough to stand in you need to support it. My builder recommended the gutter be widened so I got a new one made at 300 mm compared to the existing 100 mm.

To do that I needed to cut each joist out to accommodate a layer of marine ply. Cue much skil sawing with the blade depth set just so. I also replaced the worst couple of joists which were rotten or twisted - you can see a new one in the middle photo.

New gutter works a treat and hat off to the gutter and flashing company who made everything millimeter perfect (to my drawings) so it all fits very well.

We've had 3-4 days of rain since I finished and there's no leaks which is frankly unbelievable after putting up with it for ten years.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

tweake

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#3018590 8-Jan-2023 15:04

elpenguino:

Whoa, looks like everyone else is having summer off!

Meanwhile, I tackled roof 2.0.

Last summer I replaced my garage roofing iron and purlins. It improved the leaks but the main problem was a rusted out internal gutter which just dumped water inside the garage so that was on this summer's job list.

I read somewhere that if your gutter is wide enough to stand in you need to support it. My builder recommended the gutter be widened so I got a new one made at 300 mm compared to the existing 100 mm.

To do that I needed to cut each joist out to accommodate a layer of marine ply. Cue much skil sawing with the blade depth set just so. I also replaced the worst couple of joists which were rotten or twisted - you can see a new one in the middle photo.

New gutter works a treat and hat off to the gutter and flashing company who made everything millimeter perfect (to my drawings) so it all fits very well.

We've had 3-4 days of rain since I finished and there's no leaks which is frankly unbelievable after putting up with it for ten years.

a little hard to tell how you have done it, but internal gutters should be a double gutter system. so when the gutter overflows or rusts through, the water goes into the gutter under it instead of into the garage.

single internal gutters is a major cause of leaky homes.

neb

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#3018595 8-Jan-2023 15:14

tweake:
internal gutters should be a double gutter system.

Internal gutters should be consigned to one of the circles of hell that are being discussed in the Trump thread. They're about as suitable for use in the NZ climate as Arizona-style plaster/monolithic-clad homes.

elpenguino

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#3018601 8-Jan-2023 15:27

neb:
tweake:

internal gutters should be a double gutter system.

Internal gutters should be consigned to one of the circles of hell that are being discussed in the Trump thread. They're about as suitable for use in the NZ climate as Arizona-style plaster/monolithic-clad homes.

Agreed.

OTOH due to the block work being at different levels at different ends and sides and the garage being on the boundary it wasn't easy to convert to a pitched roof by whacking some trusses across the blocks.

It's also not connected to the house so leaks are in the annoying but not damaging category. Therefore I just fixed it in the existing style.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

neb

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#3018604 8-Jan-2023 15:35

Fair enough. Friend just had his internal guttering, which repeatedly overflowed into the house, replaced and it was several days work by a crew of three, so definitely no easy task.

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