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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 21, 2018 16:43:25 GMT
They just left at 17:00 and had not finished yet, so they put a tarp over it. That will be really useful when it freezes tonight.  |
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 21, 2018 19:56:01 GMT
Since I had a long and friendly conversation through the roof with the main roofing person, and he was very apologetic about the delays and the difficulties on the roof, I think they put several layers of tarp on the opening tonight, because it is quite cold outside but my radiator is keeping the upstairs room quite comfortable. Since I wore 5 layers of clothing today at home, I really appreciate the fact that I am only wearing 3 layers tonight.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 22, 2018 10:51:53 GMT
I am feeling really lucky after receiving photos in the weekly report. My side of the building was not nearly as rotten as it might have been. But, the other side really makes me understand why my neighbours were constantly complaining about leaks when it rains. The building is actually two buildings that were joined together maybe a hundred years ago, so the construction is quite different. It appears that I am in the "good" building, because the other roof is absolute crap. |
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 22, 2018 11:05:14 GMT
Do you have a "weather side" to the building? Meaning generally the bad weather tends to come from one direction? Or is this the same side as yours but further along?
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 22, 2018 11:51:40 GMT
Actually, my side is the bad weather side because I am facing north.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 22, 2018 12:17:54 GMT
You'll be able to watch the incessant rain through your new skylight then.
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Post by amboseli on Nov 22, 2018 14:22:43 GMT
You'll be able to watch the incessant rain through your new skylight then. Question is: is this something to be happy about?  |
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 23, 2018 20:22:51 GMT
I have been happy with the work so far, even though it has been slower than hoped.
But since there was heavy rain tonight and there was a huge leak along one of the old beams, I will certainly have something to tell the workers on Monday. Luckily it was in a remote corner of little importance, but I will make it clear that it is as bad as if it had all dripped directly onto my newborn baby's crib.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 25, 2018 12:31:55 GMT
Things were going not too badly. And then it rained Friday night. I knew something was wrong when I could hear a fountain in the corner of the attic. It's a pretty inaccessible location, but I saw what was happening by crawling around some with my flashlight. Oh well, I thought, that part of the floor is cement, so everything should be okay until Monday. But it also rained very steadily today (Sunday), so the trickle was becoming alarming. And that's when my living room ceiling downstairs split open (just a nasty crack, but doesn't "split open" sound catastrophic?) and there is now a steady drip downstairs, two drips, actually. I have a plastic bowl under the big one and several layers of paper towel under the minor one (but it's starting to look like I should put a bowl there, too, especially if it starts raining again).
What a shame that I had the ceiling painted just last year at considerable expense since the insurance will pay for a new paint job in a few months when everything is completely dry again.
I sent a terse email to all of the people involved in this roofing situation, which brought my downstairs neighbour up for a visit less than 15 minutes later. He is president of the co-owners association (a "job" I held for at least 15 years). He and I put down some old towels and stuff and then some plastic sheeting which had been protecting my furniture up until then. He even went on the roof against all the rules since he can crawl out of his apartment directly on to the scaffolding. He thinks he found the source of the problem and was able to pull a bit on the tarps as a partial solution.
Now I just have to wait until Monday when all of those other people will come running in the sort of panic that they deserve to feel. I'll survive.
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Post by amboseli on Nov 25, 2018 13:18:59 GMT
Oh my! Autumn is definitely not the best time of the year for roof work.
And yes, 'split open' sounds very catastrophic. Like the ceiling coming down in two parts. I can just picture the scene.
Thank god it wasn't so bad. Let's hope for no more rain today/tonight.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 25, 2018 14:18:25 GMT
It has started raining again.
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Post by mossie on Nov 25, 2018 19:30:38 GMT
Rain in Paris is not permitted for the next 4 days!
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 25, 2018 20:34:53 GMT
After a pause, it is pouring again. I have to check on the situation.
It is not supposed to rain tomorrow.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 14, 2018 19:04:37 GMT
Due to weather issues, the end of the roofing project has now been extended to the first week of January.
Meanwhile, my living room ceiling has cracked along the entire length from side to side, proving that an absolutely huge amount of water leaked in. I have no idea how long it takes for this to dry before repainting.
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Post by bjd on Dec 14, 2018 20:31:49 GMT
Is it plaster or placo? I would give it a few weeks (with the heating on) to dry properly. Otherwise, the paint will bubble and it will have to be redone.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 14, 2018 20:49:10 GMT
It's at least 20cm of 19th century mystery crap. So whatever it is needs to dry completely. The heat is on, but is it sufficient?
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Post by amboseli on Dec 14, 2018 21:47:41 GMT
Oh my!
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Post by patricklondon on Dec 15, 2018 7:05:45 GMT
Crumbs. It'll not only have to dry out, but also to be sealed with an oil-based paint (IME damp tends to interact with something in the plaster to create a stain that will re-emerge any time water, such as in a water-based paint, comes into contact with it again). And a big crack might argue for relining with a heavy-duty linen-based paper, as the only way to avoid remaking the entire ceiling (something I had to do some decades ago). Better start preparing a claim against the builder's insurance! My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam" |
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Post by bjd on Dec 15, 2018 9:20:59 GMT
I haven't heard of linen-based paper. There is a very thin fibreglass sold in rolls that you glue on, taking care not to cut your hands. But also there is a thicker paper that also is made to cover imperfections in walls. Easier to use.
One problem is indeed the 19th century mystery crap. We found the same when redoing under the window of our daughter's place in Faubourg St Antoine. When we started scraping the wall under the window to smooth it out, we found bits of wood, rocks, plaster! That is when I learned how to use plaster, just filled it all up and put that strong paper on top before painting several weeks later. It is much harder on a ceiling so I suppose the insurance should pay for a professional to come and fix it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 15, 2018 11:29:06 GMT
I don't know why I wrote that the space between the floors is 20cm. I just measured and it is actually 38cm.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 15, 2018 14:44:33 GMT
Our crooked building, shored up a few years ago, is still moving (in the opposite direction) and there is a fine opening in our outer glazing of the front window, so I have to find some way of insulating it (the crack) before our windows are redone in the spring.
This building is much younger than K2s; about 100 years old, early 20th century. But some older buildings I've lived in here were more structurally sound.
The oldest building I've ever lived in was in Perugia; many hundreds of years old, forget the exact century. fumobici's reports on Umbria will give you a good idea of the architecture.
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Post by bjd on Dec 15, 2018 16:44:57 GMT
Lagatta, you can buy a spray can of a kind of foam that you spray into the crack and it should expand to fill the gap.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 15, 2018 17:03:00 GMT
Yes, I'll do that. I have a "Canadian Tire" centre very close by.
By the way, we live in a housing co-op. The co-op owns the building, but fortunately the members aren't responsible for their shares as people in a condominium would be. These co-ops were built in large part to "clean up" a part of the neighbourhood which had become quite dodgy. The borough's strategy worked; now it is a most sought-after area.
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Post by patricklondon on Dec 15, 2018 17:45:20 GMT
I called it linen-based, but I can't remember the technical term - heavy duty with reinforcing fibres of some sort. Mind, it was over 30 years ago, but I'm reasonably certain it was linen rather than fibreglass. I had a lovely time sticking that on the ceiling single-handed. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam" |
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 21, 2018 5:49:07 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Dec 21, 2018 11:11:12 GMT
Thank you for pointing i the right direction Kerouac! Oh heck, look whatI have been missing...!! Anyhow, I can keep abreast with recent movements on the roof repairs. What a huge under taking.
I enjoyed being able to see the "guts" of the building as the skin was stripped away and ancient old beams exposed.
Looking forward to more.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 8, 2019 21:50:50 GMT
So, the new roof has been completed. Now they have to fix my apartment inside, and the main chore will be to repaint my ceiling... but it is not dry enough yet. It will probably take a few more months. In the meantime, the previous paint continues to fall off in patches. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2019 4:51:14 GMT
Now they have to fix my apartment inside, and the main chore will be to repaint my ceiling That's good! I was afraid that you were going to have to deal with that yourself. |
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 9, 2019 5:49:08 GMT
It was a given that any damage to my attic room was my problem because my ceiling material was improperly installed. But they were amazingly careful and nothing at all was damaged upstairs. However, due to the big leak in the roof that was their fault, they are responsible for the water damage downstairs. I was really quite lucky that my upstairs floorboards do not stretch all the way to the outer walls because they would have been warped if they had been flooded. The building is totally irregular because apparently the straight line had not yet been invented in those days. My floorboards are built up about 10cm over the original floor in most places, because of course the original floor is not flat either. So my upstairs floor is actually the only flat floor in my apartment. |
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Post by bjd on Jan 9, 2019 6:41:09 GMT
I'm sure they knew about straight lines, but built to accommodate what they were doing. When my daughter and I were renovating her apartment in Paris, we discovered that none of the corner in her bedroom were at 90° angles.
Why will it take months for the ceiling to dry? Will they replaster before painting? Plaster only needs a few weeks to dry, in principle. Will you know it's ready when the old paint stops flaking off?
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