You are here: Case Study - Finding and Fixing a Leak. Part 2 The Destruction
Case Study - Finding and Fixing a Leak. Part 2 The Destruction
The insurance company finally agreed a price with the builder when we were on holiday in early June. When we got back we set about sorting a date for the work to begin. This is never easy as all builders have multiple jobs on the go. Finally, our slot for the first week in August arrived.
The weekend before Chris and I spent two days relocating everything in the kitchen and making space for a temporary kitchen in the garage. We had so much stuff!!! Given there were now only two of us living in the house today we seemed to have enough plates, glasses, cutlery, gadgets, baking trays, utensils and miscellaneous bits and bobs to furnish several houses. All of this was essential of course and once a year at least the children, partners and grandchildren visited, and we would go into catering/hotel mode.
It all had to be packed up and found new homes. We had a free-standing island unit which we managed to relocate to the hallway. This was a good decision as we could put the coffee machine there and when all around was chaos - we could calm ourselves with a delicious flat white! Two sofas and a bookcase went in the living room and everything else went upstairs to the bedrooms. The best I can say about that experience is - it was a great whole-body workout. We left the very large kitchen table as we ran out of ideas on where it could go. I was tired, and it was heavy!
We also spent a day clearing out the garage which had become a dumping ground over the years. We were very lucky to have a large double garage but, like the kitchen, we had filled it with yet more stuff. We managed to clear the floor which would store the units, plus a bit of space for a temporary kitchen. One of our neighbours lent us a fridge freezer and we found a few random bits of furniture that could work as storage and work tops. We hoped the cooker could be relocated and set up with a working hob ( LPG gas bottle) and the washing machine plumbed in somewhere.
Monday 5th August
The crew arrived bright and early and the destruction began. The kitchen was dismantled, and each piece carefully made its way to the garage. They did a great job, but I remained very down as no matter how carefully it was done I just could not imagine it going back and looking as beautiful as it did. I was heartened by Pete’s comments on how well made the units are and how well it was installed. Maybe it would be alright.
The job took two days and at the end we had a working sink, a working washing machine and a working hob- three important boxes ticked. Most of the units and the work tops were accommodated in the garage. The very large dresser went into the living room which now resembled a furniture show room. The temporary kitchen started to take shape although it was weird walking through and around the house to get to it. We found an old picnic table and set up a dining room in the hall net to the island unit. At least it was close to the coffee machine and the biscuit tin. Stood in the garage, I had a lightbulb moment and converted the long ladders hung on the garage wall into a shelf unit. A quick WhatsApp of that to the children got the thumbs up for creativity under pressure. The cat left home and only appeared for a few minutes to eat some food which we had to leave outside as the changes to the kitchen were too much for her and she refused to come in.
Top prize to Pete the kitchen man and Dave the plumber and little Bob the apprentice. They were brilliant
Wednesday 7th August
The crew arrived at 8:00am on the dot to start removing the kitchen floor. This involved heavy duty drills and mechanical chisels and it was hell. The noise was so loud it reverberated around the close and must have annoyed everyone remotely near us. There was no escaping it. The tiles were thick and solid and needed to be drilled out bit by bit. But even worse was the heat mat that had been installed under it. It disintegrated into tiny pieces embedded in a thick layer of concrete. The job that the insurance company insisted would take 2 days at most, actually took four days of solid work, solid noise and shed loads of fine dust which got everywhere. My elderly neighbours came around to see if we were OK and to offer sanctuary. I work from home, which was impossible with all the noise so I arranged to use the company’s London offices to escape and any local meetings I moved to the coffee shop at the local garden centre.
Friday 10th August
The drying began. Polygon arrived bright and early and installed two industrial dehumidifiers and two huge the fans. These were positioned carefully to maximise drying based on the previous meter reading. Monitors were stuck to the floor at various points to record progress. Each dehumidifier had long plastic tubes which snaked their way round the floor and drained into the waste pipe where the kitchen sink used to be. Goodness knows why the pipes had to be so long but once they were turned on we could see the water flowing. Very impressive. The equipment was plugged into the socket via meters which recorded how much electricity was being used. At the end of the process the consumption would be recorded, and we would allegedly receive money to compensate us for the added costs on our electricity bill.
Up until this point we had not received any money from the insurance company despite having paid out over £1,000. Friday saw the arrival of two cheques - one to cover the costs so far and part of the building costs and the other was three weeks disturbance allowance at £20 a day.
There then followed a few days of relative calm. The dehumidifiers ran 24 hours a day along with the two fans. The noise was continuous and as long as you were not in the room with them it was the sort of sound you get travelling on a plane or a ferry. It was all relative so compared with the drilling it was bliss. We started to feel optimistic!
Then the plumber came back and it all went a bit pear shaped. We knew that the heating system was continuing to lose pressure, so water must be still leaking somewhere. We had already decided to chase out any remaining pipes under the floor and either replace with protected pipes or re-route. The work started and as the trenches were dug and we followed the damp is was clear that there was still a problem, but it was not obvious where it was coming from. By the end of that day we had another flood in the garage, the heating system was on to try and track the problem (it was the hottest August on record) and the piles of dust and rubble were back. All very depressing. Luckily, I could escape to work, but Chris had to be on hand to sort it out. It turns out we had a third leak. This took a while to track down, as it was in the space between the garage and the downstairs loo. Once more it was old piping going down into the concrete where it had corroded and failed. When I arrived home I found a big hole in the wall of the downstairs loo and a couple of radiators lying about.
Dave the plumber had with him a youngster on work experience by the name of Bob. Naturally he was always referred to as Bob the Builder. He was sill at school but very keen to become a plumber and based on what we saw he was a natural. He was very hands on and did as much as Dave would let him. When Dave dropped a piece of plaster board down the gap between the garage wall and the loo, Bob was on it - he fashioned a screw to the end of a piece of wire and patiently fished it out. We shall keep an eye out for him for future reference.
By Monday 13th we were leak free with all under-floor pipes either re-routed or replaced and protected. We settled into the drying process and accepted the strange arrangements we had set up. We saw a lot more of our neighbours and were on hand to take in any deliveries that came!! To avoid the oppressive conditions of the kitchen and to contain the dust, we went back and forth to the garage via the front, so the front door and garage were open pretty much all of the time. The only sink for washing up was set up in the dismantled utility room which meant entering the dust bowl a few times a day. On the plus side everything left in there dried in minutes, so tea towels were redundant. If it wasn’t for the layer of gritty dust that settled on everything it would have made a great substitute for the tumble dryer, had we needed it. We got used to it as you do. It became the new norm and even the cat seemed to settle into sleeping and feeding al fresco.
Tuesday 27th August
Polygon declared the kitchen dry and removed the fans and de-humidifiers. The drying process had been expected to last another week but the fact that we had been able to leave the equipment on 24 hours a day and the dry weather had speeded up the process and we were home and dry a week early – hooray!! The house fell silent for the first time in many weeks. It has felt like we were on a ferry with a constant background hum that sort of faded into the background but was always there. The room had been so oppressive in the heat that it was a joy to throw open the doors and windows and let the dust settle. The cat even plucked up courage to peep in but was not impressed by what she saw and slinked back to her hideout out the garden.
With the drying phase over we could start putting it all back together again…
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