Hiring a Portaloo

It's June 2014

It's my first time as a hirer of a portaloo!

There are several portaloo hire companies out there and most of them are set up for commercial use, either at festivals or for builders. You can get ones without a wash basin, just a cleanser dispenser but the asbestos removers need the water. Thankfully they don't want a full shower which would have been a reasonable request. I'm hoping to only need it for a couple of weeks but most hire companies have a minimum fee or time.

Working out the overall costs, most were similar but the lady on the phone at Space Mobiles was the most understanding and helpful so they got the business. The deliver, service & pick-up on Tuesdays in our area - you have to pay extra to get a different day which makes sense.

It turned up on the back of a truck with just one guy and I start thinking that I really don't want to be helping haul a loo around but it soon becomes apparent that it's really light! If you look in the photo, there are wooden runners on the bottom to protect it and make it easier to manoeuvre around a building site. The flush/basin water tank is filled from a reservoir on the truck after it's in situ and then it's good to go. Space Mobiles return each week to "service" it and I just ring when it's no longer needed.

There's no lock on the outside! I'm thinking anyone could use it! And then I remember, it's a portaloo. Who would want to go in it unless they were desperate and then I'd rather they used it and not the garden! There is, of course, a lock on the inside.

Daylight comes through the overhead white plastic and I realise that night-time use would be interesting but hopefully, not necessary.



Nick the plumber comes and removes the WC, basin & bath, the radiators on the asbestos walls plus the ones in the bathroom as they need relocating anyway. The supply pipes are capped off.

This photo shows the lovely plasticised tile-effect wallpaper. It's not what I'd use, but you can still buy stuff like this!






The WC is gone, leaving the waste pipe in the floor. Most modern connections are through a wall so the floor waste will limit our options when we get a new WC but it's still possible. Neither the builder nor the plumber really want to move the waste pipe. This is one of those times that we miss P's dad. He'd have turned up at 8am the next Saturday (while we were still in bed) and sorted it out.

The boiler is disconnected. The heating won't be an issue as it's June. The kettle will have to provide any hot water, mainly needed for washing up mugs.



I have to use the portaloo before I leave.

I am strangely shy about any of the neighbours seeing me go in which is ridiculous! Everyone uses a loo and I wouldn't have one there if there was one inside. Clearly I will be using it. Still, I make sure no-one is around before I go in and use the facillities. It is not a pleasant experience but better than I anticipated.

Everything is ready for the asbestos removers the next week.

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Clearing the decks

It's the end of May 2014

I need to get everything ready for the asbestos removal firm.

The carpets and underlay get rolled up. The normal carpets are easy but the flotex-style in the kitchen and utility have been glued down and the residue is unpleasantly tacky. All the carpets are dated and worn.

lounge

The curtains and curtain poles come down. The full-length ones for the patio doors have mouldy bottoms so they go off to the tip. The rest are salvage-able, albeit not our taste and go into the wash. The too-low ceiling light in the lounge gets replaced with a standard pendant fitting. P is not sorry to see that go!

bedroom

spare room

The fitted wardrobes in both bedrooms and the hall cupboard come out by doing a bit of unscrewing but mainly with the judicious use of a lump hammer. There are mouse droppings on the top-most surfaces which isn't obvious until, yanking it, I tip it down on my head. It takes about half an hour of stomping around outside; shaking every bit of me; gargling with water and generally being grossed out before I can continue! Time to spread some rodent poison around in the loft!

kitchen

The kitchen units adjacent to the asbestos also respond to the lump hammer. Fortunately the unit housing the sink can stay in place as it will be the only working source of water for the time being.

Everything gets put in the garage to be gradually taken by the car load to the tip. Some of the wood is usable and will be salvaged but most of the stuff is worn or broken beyond use.

The radiators and bathroom plumbing removal require a professional. They don't really but, as I've said before, I don't do plumbing - too many leaks.



Removing the 2 radiators on the East wall is straightforward as is removing the bath. Removing the WC and basin requires more planning. Although the bathroom will be the first room to get fully renovated, we will want the existing, avocado(!) WC and basin to use until we're ready for a new suite. An added complication is that I think we want to move the basin to a different position and get the hot water cylinder removed because we also want to replace the existing boiler with a combi-boiler. It's time to talk to Nick the plumber.



Nick's a local lad and drafts in his dad every now and then when the work needs another pair of hands. He's the plumber who fixed the boiler for us initially: swiftly and cheaply. Him and his dad are both Christians so meetings with them often involve theological discussions. Mind you, when non-Christian tradespeople find out about OH's job, they often want to talk apologetics too.

I talk through what needs to happen now and what we plan to happen in the future with Nick and we come up with a plan.

Asbestos Removal Decision

It's May 2014

I manage to get 2 asbestos removal companies to visit and do a quote from the full survey from Terence Martin.

Now I know that the guys doing the assessments are rarely the people who will actually do the job but I do expect them to be able to discuss what they will provide, my responsibilities, a rough starting date and how long it will take. One contractor could and the other couldn't. Any guesses which one we picked, even though the quote was slightly higher and the delay slightly longer?

We have decided to remove the internal wall between the WC and bathroom and also to move the wall between the WC and the spare room, actually removing it for now.  This is all good news to the asbestos removal team as it will make the removal easier.

Although it would be appropriate to leave the lounge ceiling asbestos in situ, removing the walls will no doubt damage it and the additional cost of removing it is not significant.

What I have to do:

• remove all soft furnishings as these would trap any fibres;
• remove all wall fittings on the affected walls - this includes radiators, fitted wardrobes, part of the fitted kitchen, WC, basin and bath;
• provide WC and hand-washing facilities outside the affected area, ie a portaloo;
• vacate the property.

They expect it to take about a 1.5 days and can start the next month. The cost will be, including VAT, £3,300.

This amount is much less than we'd budgeted for. The budget of £10k includes the building costs of making the resulting work good, plastering, etc but we'd expected the actual removal to be roughly twice that. This is very good.

It's also evidence that getting work done on a house before selling it is usually about half of the reduction of value if you don't do it. The Fleepit purchase price was probably £10k-£15k less than it would have been without the asbestos.

The costs involved make it absurd to try to do it ourselves. I'm still confident that we could have done it but the Fleepit is supposed to be a relaxing place for OH and a total DIY approach would make that difficult for an extended time. We'd budgeted for more so we'll go pro.

We book the removal firm Safeline Environmental. This is the start of really knocking the Fleepit around!

Is it worth fitting a water meter?

It's April 2014

At the bungalow we are expecting to use much less water than a normal residence so it seems sensible to consider having a water meter fitted. We'd only pay for what we use and research has shown that having a meter fitted encourages water saving which is all good for the planet - yay!

The provider is Severn Trent Water and they've got a handy gadget Water Footprint Calculator that works out what you probably use and good ways to save water.

Marcel from the moneysavingexpert says:
"As a rough rule of thumb, if there are more or the same number of bedrooms in your house than people, check out getting a meter."

In England, the water companies should fit a water meter for free which makes it better odds that you'll save money. Scottish companies can charge so it's not such an attractive offer.

The meters are fitted just before the main stopcock on the mains side. Once fitted, you're not allowed to interfere with the mains side of it. If possible, and it was at the Fleepit, the water company fit one that will transmit the reading to meter readers without them needing to gain access to the property. This feature is great for us as we're usually only in 2 days a week.

Have we saved money?

We had the water meter fitted in April 2014. Before it was fitted, the invoice for 1st Apr 2014 to 31st Mar 2015 was over £350 which we paid by monthly direct debit.

Once the water meter was fitted, you don't get an annual bill, but are charged for what you use plus a standing charge. Our monthly payments were reduced by about about 25% and then by another 60%.


In the same 12 months we've made a saving of:

£214.82!

Clearly, there wouldn't be the same saving if the Fleepit was our full-time residence but I'm really pleased with this.



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Original Floorplan

Here's a plan of The Fleepit as we bought it.

The very original bungalow was a 2 bed rectangle without the garage and it's the external walls of that original building that were made from the pre-fabricated asbestos concrete sheet panels.

Before we bought it, the garage and weird side storage was added plus the utility room and the lounge extension.  Those were built using standard bricks or breeze-blocks.

The diagram above was created using this Free Floor Planner which is a brilliant resource once you've got used to it.

Asbestos Survey

It's March 20th, 2014.

I'm meeting Terry, as in Terence Martin, at Sunny Acre for the asbestos survey.

We need a full asbestos survey to see where the asbestos is, what sort of asbestos it is and how to remove or encapsulate it.

Terry is very happy that we're not worried about damaging the walls. He tells me that he's been asked to do surveys where the owners have been surprised that he needs to dig into the walls. He starts peeling back wallpaper and chipping away at what is underneath. The ceilings come in for some scrutiny too.

The bad news:

All the external walls of the original house, ie not the extensions, have a layer of rigid asbestos cement internally. This has been wallpapered and then painted.








You can see in the pictures where I've stripped away the wallpaper. The extension is pink plaster and the original external walls are grey with various layers of paint.

The lounge ceiling is chrysotile (white asbestos) artex. It would be perfectly acceptable, according to the government, to leave it in-situ and just repaint it! However, if we did this, we would have to take precautions every time we wanted to put a screw or nail into the wall. Any contractor would need informing.

The good news:

All the internal walls, ie the ones that are between rooms - not an original outside wall, are not asbestos but hardboard. The front and back extensions are asbestos free. All ceilings, other than the lounge, are asbestos free.Woo hoo! This probably reduces the potential bill by about 30%!

When we decided to buy the bungalow, we had assumed a worst-case scenario, that all the original walls and ceilings would need to be removed. The amount of asbestos is high but not as bad as we'd planned for.

Removal

Removing and disposing of the wall panels is not necessarily a professional job, Terry tells me. The asbestos cement panels are rigid, not fibrous, and would crack with minimal dust rather than release loads of dangerous particles. The pieces would need to be double wrapped & sealed in heavy-duty plastic but would then be accepted at many domestic waste sites with specialist bins. Anyone doing this should wear protective overalls with a hood, wellies, gloves, goggles and face mask.  Careful cleaning of both the area and oneself also needs doing, removing any soft furnishings before starting.

Removing the artex ceiling is really a professional job but would be more acceptable to leave as many houses have such ceilings.

Options:

1. leave all the asbestos as it is and paint over it, encapsulating it - restricting what and how we can improve the property; 
2. remove and dispose of it ourselves - hard work but saving us pots of money;
3. get the professionals in - the most expensive option but the safest and quickest.

I'm intrigued by option 2 but we need to get some proper quotes to see just how much option 3 will cost. Time to arrange to meet some more men...

And Then the Boiler Burst

It's March 2014

It’s the day after we got the keys and I’ve returned to Sunny Acre.  I need to have a better look at the boiler and it’s bad news.  It’s a lot wetter and I can’t work out where it’s coming from.  Time to call in that plumber.

I’ve never been good with plumbing.  If something goes wrong, there’s water everywhere. And something always goes wrong. I never seem to get a good seal and have to call a plumber to fix it so the plumber might as well do the whole job.

I like wiring.  We replace the wired fuses on this old consumer unit with mini circuit breakers (MCBs) straight away for immediate improved safety even though we know we'll probably be re-wiring. Each one costs about £10 but I’ll be able to sell them on ebay if we don’t have them for long. If you have circuit breakers and you get something wrong it either just doesn’t work or it trips the circuit breaker.

Nick the plumber arrives and fixes the problem. It’s an overflow outlet that’s supposed to leak but it was too leaky! We chat about on-going plans and decide that the temporary fix will suffice until we are ready for a new combi-boiler. The call-out charge is £30! Wow, what a bargain!

Our old youthgroup logo

The boiler didn’t burst.  The post title is a reference to a game that my old youth group used to love. Everyone starts by sitting on chairs. Someone starts a telling story which builds up to the line “and then the boiler burst!” at which point everyone has to stand on their chair – to avoid the flood… The last one up has to start the next story. Happy memories!

The only other things I do on this visit to Sunny Acre are: remove & replace the external letter box that has no key with one cut into the wooden door & replace all the light bulbs with eco-friendly ones.

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Meeting the Neighbours

It's still March 2014
and our first real visit to the property as owners.

The photos have been taken - see my last post The Before Photos.

Onto the more physical stuff and you have to start somewhere...we peer at the walls and don't touch them.  The spectre of asbestosis is not to be trifled with so, until the asbestos survey is done, it's strictly hands-off.  The whole house could be made of it for all we know.  The outer brick layer will be safe and the front and back extensions are probably OK but the rest is all a potential risk.

The hedge - before & gone

First things first, we chop back the front middle hedge to make access to the drive easier.
Although the address is on a well-used road, Sunny Acre is on the corner of a bridleway and that's where the drive is.  Backing onto the main road is asking for trouble so it's best to back onto the drive.  The hedges have got overgrown while it's been empty although not as bad as expected.  But still, the limits of my car reversing skills require a wider entrance.  Besides which, the central hedge is that horrible shrubby lonicera that always has loads of spiders so it has to go.





Of course working in the front garden has the extra benefit of meeting some of the neighbours, a very helpful thing to do, especially while Paul is with me as he's the extrovert in our marriage! They've been keeping the hedges under control.  It was in their own interest but it's an indication of how neighbourly people are around here:

• One gives us the contact details of a local plumber - we'll need one sooner than we're planning;
• One drops round a business card - he's a builder and his wife thinks we might need his services - I think she's right;
• Another neighbour is a gardener and designer - we'll need his help too but not for some time;
• Our immediate neighbour is the guy who built Sunny Acre!

Everyone knows about the asbestos...

So, a good start.  Lots to do but very much excited rather than daunted.  As we're getting ready to leave, we notice it's a bit wet by the boiler. Hmm! I'd better come back the next day to see what's going on...

The "Before" Photos

It's Mar 2014


and we're here taking photos, a crucial part of the project.

When the going gets tough, I can look back and see how far I've come (hopefully) and be encouraged to continue.  My friends and other interested parties also need to see what a nutcase/hero I am for taking this project on.  How will they be impressed if I can't show what a state it was in to begin with?

The front - ahh, look - the sun shines on the righteous (& the unrighteous but who's to say?).  It's not a good photo and that's because of THAT HEDGE and a very narrow opening to the drive and I'm not that tall.  THAT HEDGE is for the chop and soon!





The front entrance, with the key-safe with no code and a dinky letter box, with no key... This is the front extension, the main entrance and it houses the boiler plus washing machine connections.  Not the best route into a des res.





The side view with a random path going out to the main road.  Was this the original way onto the property?  Currently the path makes no sense except to get to a drain cover.



Here's the back, what looks like the original front door & porch. We can open the inner door but not the outer ones. That sticky-out bit is the back extension, the one with no support across the opening... The back garden is south-facing, perfect for my dream veranda.

Going inside, the bungalow is what it is, something decorated and furnished some time ago to provide a long-lasting and comfortable home for an elderly couple and eventually just a widower.  It served it's purpose well but now it needs re-imagining.




The kitchen. This is the best shot we've got but you can see the original set of cupboards and a working sink. A working sink together with a working bathroom is something that is required to get a mortgage.






The lounge or is it the living room?  I'm never sure which is posh and, if so, whether I'm posh enough to use that word.  I'll probably flip between the 2 and may even use "sitting room".  I'd be surprised if it ever becomes a drawing room oor parlour tho.

We have a stone fireplace, with a calor gas fire, plus a ceiling light fitting that is just the right height for P to walk into, every time! Oh, and that carpet! Is this the right time to confess that it's not dissimilar to one we chose for our first ever house? In my defense, it was 30 years ago.

The patio doors (no patio) in the extended part of the lounge let in lots of light and give the best view to the South. There's a side window to the East not shown in the photos

The main bedroom, on the south side at the back of the house, with those views. Fitted wardrobes whose time is limited and more carpet...





The spare bedroom, more fitted wardrobes and some very 80s curtains.

There's some sign of damp under the window.  That's either a drainage problem at the base of the north wall or more likely a problem with the window.  All the windows are just secondary glazed so we're planning new double glazing throughout.  That will probably sort out this damp problem.



The loo - the smallest room.  Now I like a separate loo from the bathroom but there's hardly enough room to open the door and get in, never mind space for a hand basin which I'd consider essential now.  The first 3 places we lived in managed without but, now I think about it - euw!

It appears to be a hardboard wall between the loo and the bathroom.  Yes, a hardboard wall!  I think that might be coming down...

What to say about the bathroom?  Who doesn't like an avocado suite?  When this country has obliterated all coloured sanitary-ware, I'm convinced that we'll get bored of white and yearn for yesteryear's colours: avocado, primrose yellow & champagne. We will be going for white, btw.  Who are we to buck the trend?




That's enough photos for now.  I've got a few more and they'll appear when I want to do a "before & after" thing.

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Sale Complete

It's March 2014...

The sale is complete! It's on a day-off so we both go to pick up the keys from the local estate agent who needs no proof of identity - a trust not experienced in more urban transactions.

There's a key-safe by the front door but no-one seems to know the code. P starts trying different combinations even though he knows the stats are against him.

OK, there's all sorts of boring things you have to do when you take on a house:

• sort out the building insurance - no contents yet, make sure they know it's empty and that I'll be having tradesmen in and out;
• contact the council - register it as empty to get a discount on the rates - it varies with each county - 12 months of discount in Shropshire and then it's 150% if it's still empty - a good incentive to avoid unused properties;
• electricity (& gas if you have it, we've got oil...) - set up an account with the existing provider, submit meter readings & negotiate the best tariff - make a mental note to consider switching after a few months to get the very best deal - I do this every year;
• register for water rates and, with low occupancy, we arrange to get a water meter.  As we won't even be able to sleep here overnight for some time, I'm hoping it'll be a financial saving as well as encouraging water saving.

Last of the telephone conversations - Terence Martin who carried out the initial asbestos survey. Asbestos removal firms will only provide proper quotes against a full asbestos survey so that's what we need.  All the walls and ceilings will be measured and have samples taken.  Terry will be the first contractor that I'll be meeting here and he's been before so I don't need to give directions.

The next blog will have lots of original photos J