Leak! Wot Leak?!

Let there be light

Our kitchen is a North facing offshot, so doesn’t get much sunlight until late afternoon.  It also had an uninsulated half flat half pitched roof and the cavity wall space is too narrow for insulation.   

When Fester came into his inheritance we decided to do something about it. 

Will Fixit put a pitched roof above the existing one, built up the outside walls, and filled the void between with all the bits of roof insulation left over from the previous year’s loft extension.   

The Building Inspector was quite impressed 

“That’s a lot more insulation up there than is actually required Mr Fixit.”

“Better there than landfill Mr Inspector.”

Will Fixit also made sure we got as much natural light as possible.

 

From Facebook archives...

 

😒feeling fed up.  22 November 2016 at 12:12

When Will Fixit did the kitchen three years ago he put a huge skylight Velux window in the roof.  To maintain ventilation and prevent condensation he left it on "trickle": neither open nor shut, just the handle-bar down.   

There have been no problems, lots of rainstorms, no ingress.

Except last night when we had a strong North-Easterly driven rainstorm.

I was sitting quietly watching I'm A Celebrity and crocheting when I hear shrieking from the kitchen; so I enquire as to what's wrong.   

"Leak!  We've got a leak!!" he's screaming as if it's my fault for not knowing.

Anyway.

In I go and, yes, there is water dripping from the void beneath the skylight; and general panicking by the man of the house.

"No we haven't got a leak.  Will Fixit left the skylight on trickle for ventilation and the wind is blowing the rain in.  Haven't you felt the draught underneath it?"

"I wasn't told anything about that!"

Oh yes he bloody well was, several times, but seeing as it wasn't about pits, six-legged creatures, food or ball games he took no effin notice.

The handle-bar on the window is so high up even Thunderthigh (6ft 3½) on his tiptoes on the step-stool couldn't reach; and I wasn't going to try and get the step ladder out of the garage in the dark, wet and wind.  Eventually Thunderthighs got it shut by standing on the step-stool and using a broom handle.

Newspaper was spread on the floor to sop up the water and catch any more dripping down and, after a short while, the dripping slowed and stopped.

We will reopen the trickle vent in the spring when it will be a lot easier to get to the step-ladder.

Sometimes I wish I wasn't the one who has to sort everything out and that my husband would follow the "Keep calm and carry on" model a bit more.

Mrs Poet  Medal has been posted off.