The garden steps have gradually deteriorated over the years. The mortar is going and on the one side the pillar is collapsing through the weight of the stone top. It is also home to a huge ant nest and many miner bees. The intention was to do this myself but on looking at it carefully decided that it was beyond my abilities, so a local brick layer was called in.
It was soon easy to see that it was not just the brick work that needed doing but also the steps themselves repaired and some concrete laying to be done.
Preparing for wallpapering the dado continues and as usual is more complex than first thought. The skirting board in many places has come away from the wall or in some places such as the stairs, where it is solid, there is a gap of up to .5 ins(12mm) between it and the wall. It did not seem a good idea to have the bottom of the wallpaper finishing at a gap. So these gaps and other problems needed to be fixed. Below the bathroom window was the biggest mess(the bathroom has three internal windows and no external!) and gave me an idea of some of the maintenance that had happened in the past. The repair below looked a little strange and on further investigation looked even stranger.
The filler box was embedded in the wall as part of the repair! It was possible to get this sorted out and replace the skirting using the original nails and wood inserts in the brick. Looking carefully at the skirting board meant that the plastering was studied more closely and in one area on the stairs a large chunk seemed loose. What would happen if it was pried off? Not a good idea! My alternative was to wedge it tight against the wall and then fill the gap with plaster, at least this would stop further movement. After drying, take the wedges out and fill the wedge holes.
At the bottom of the stairs the skirting had flexed out by about 1ins(25mm) and after some thought this was fixed with nail and adhesive with the help of an acrow (builders prop) laid across the hallway.
Originally the gaps were to be filled with tubes of builders grout but it all just disappeared behind the skirting so that is why plaster was used, plus it would be more solid.
There is always something extra to do! Last night while going to the toilet, after the pub, a drip of water hit me on top of my head and some splashes could be seen on the floor. Is this another water leak? Upstairs in the bathroom the sink panels had to come off and the floorboards pulled up, there to find a puddle of water. Nothing seemed to be leaking but it had soaked through the plaster board and into the toilet below. Best to look at this completely sober in the morning. In the morning, after checking all the pipes, no leaks could be found but the washbasin waste pipe did not look right. After checking the pipe with a spirit level found that it was angled the wrong way – but this pipe has been here for years! This is what I think happened – when hammering the skirting back on outside the bathroom the pipe must have been jolted and slipped down causing the water to flow backwards and leak at a joint! The pipe was moved up and a bracket put in to hold it in place – end drips on head – I hope!
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