The gutter is shot. Nothing is actually flowing to the downspout because it is completely clogged; it also has several holes along its length. Water is backing into the wood ceiling beams, soaking the back wall, and flowing in through the doors and windows. When it freezes, it's expanding and crumbling the brick and mortar. Salvaging our 82-year-old garage has shot to the top of our to-do list. Once the weather warms enough to work on it, that is.
Fragments of brick and mortar on a wet floor.
Water coming in around the door. The doors are a lost cause, and we knew from the start they would be replaced.
Water cascading down the wall and in the window. Again, we knew we were going to replace these windows eventually.So. Mom's vote is to hire a gutter guy to do the work. Ted and I are advocating we do it ourselves. I found instructions online calling the project "challenging" but still doable for the do-it-yourselfer, which we are due to a lack of deep pockets. It's a straight gutter, sloping down to a downspout. No fancy turns. We should be able to do it, right? I did a quick check online and Classic Gutters was selling vintage-looking gutters at $3.00/foot for aluminum. That seems reasonable, doesn't it? Considering when the downspout fell off our condo over the winter, the quotes for that were coming in at $800 or so, including labor. I'll have to do some more investigating.
In the meantime, we're not even using the garage for our cars because it is still full of the basement load of junk left behind by the Previous Owners.
The gutter problem is not the only water issue we had this weekend, either. I neglected to tighten everything up after bleeding some air out of the radiator, and Ted walked into the bedroom to find a pool of water had collected on the newly finished floors. I haven't taught him yet to document all mishaps so we can ha! ha! all laugh at how silly Joanne is when I post them on the blog later. So no photos.
But I did catch this image of Ted, when Mom found that the kitchen sink was leaking. The PO solution was to wrap a rag around the base (nowhere near the leak, by the way, just where the water was collecting). It's leaking down from the actual faucet, but since we'll eventually remodel the kitchen, none of us could get all that worked up about it.
In the meantime, we're not even using the garage for our cars because it is still full of the basement load of junk left behind by the Previous Owners.
The gutter problem is not the only water issue we had this weekend, either. I neglected to tighten everything up after bleeding some air out of the radiator, and Ted walked into the bedroom to find a pool of water had collected on the newly finished floors. I haven't taught him yet to document all mishaps so we can ha! ha! all laugh at how silly Joanne is when I post them on the blog later. So no photos.
But I did catch this image of Ted, when Mom found that the kitchen sink was leaking. The PO solution was to wrap a rag around the base (nowhere near the leak, by the way, just where the water was collecting). It's leaking down from the actual faucet, but since we'll eventually remodel the kitchen, none of us could get all that worked up about it.
So. Welcome home to us. And how was your weekend?
1 comment:
Hi Guys; Found your site while searching Google for a replacement toilet for our own old gem. Your post was about the basement fixture and its removal/replacement. On our occupying our 1893 Tudor we had problems with one toilet repeatedly backing up, a main drain augering (sp?) cleared up the problem BUT the plumber, an old salt to be sure, said re replacement to keep in mind that (at least in our case) the flush must carry the waste a long way from our 2nd flr to the sewer main in the street. So with a older home sometimes the angle of the drain from the house to the street is not steep enough and the flush does not carry far enough and leaves the waste sitting in the pipe. So after a while you have a blockage. The extra water ensures to some extent a complete flush, not so with the water stingy modern fixtures.
Just thought you might like to know.
Have been reading past blogs... enjoyable and heartwarming. We've been at this old gem for over 10 yrs and are almost done. Good Luck!
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