External Maintenance: What the Painter saw in Clapham

This photo shows a detail of the front of a Victorian terraced property at high level where it joins the neighbouring property in the terrace. This can only accessed well from a scaffold and demonstrates the point of making the most of such a scaffold and not just painting.

Items to be addressed:

The cap end of the gutter is missing so the water will cascade over the brickwork causing damp and blowing out what's left of the brickwork pointing. What is more is the neighbour's gutter section is missing which will affect both properties. In this case we alerted both neighbour and client and were able to repair and replace the guttering so everyone won.

The lead valley is nearing the end of its useful life and the cabling needed securing. We reported both and secured the cabling only taking the view that the valley guttering would exceed budget and with luck would last till next time.

Other items were to clean the moss from the roof, check the flaunching, check for loose slates, clear the gutters and take a reassuring photo of the lot when done.

Moving to the rear of the property the side photo shows cracking to the brickwork over many courses. This is something that can be handled inexpensively with the Helifix system. The brickwork pointing is taken out and stainless steel Helibars are embedded in resin before repointing over the top. This is a simple and effective way of handling a structural fault that could lead to further damage internally and externally.

Also showing up here is the external plumbing. All brackets where the pipe work is fixed to the wall were checked and replaced where necessary. This is also a money saver as neglected the plumbing will loosen causing leakage onto the brickwork which in turn will cause damp and damage.

See you next time

 

Joe

 

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