Recent News...

Well... As I predicted, our arrogant, thieving chancellor Brown refused to bring in the 5% VAT ruling approved by the EU - see my story below - but Thanks, Brown, and your overpaid freeloading cabinet, for not giving one jot about all those folks out there who need help with their house repairs...

Heritage House are bringing Linseed Paints and Putty Lamp to the Midlands. The putty lamp is an amazing piece of equipment which allows you to soften very old, rock-hard putty and remove valuable hand made panes of glass from old windows to allow repair of the frames and glazing bars. We can hire you the Putty Lamp, or undertake repairs in our workshop, or on-site. This technology is essential in the repair of historic windows which contain very old cylinder glass (which has that lovely rippled effect when you look through it). Read all about the Putty Lamp, hire terms, and the use of Linseed Paints... Linseed paints are incredible - they are porous, totally breathable. They have been used for many, many years in Scandinavia on their wooden houses, in very harsh weather conditions. They increase painting intervals to nearly ten years. They need little maintenance, and they feed your timber. Linseed Paints are quite simply the only thing you should use for external woodwork - they will save you a lot of money and time, and they are actually about the same in price as normal grotty old plastic paints..

5% VAT ruling by the EU. What's the betting our darling Dictator Brown won't implement it...

The UK is to be given the option to charge VAT on home maintenance and repairs at a reduced rate of 5%, after a ruling by European Union finance chiefs. The ruling paves the way for the UK government to ease the tax burden on a construction industry badly hit by the recession – allowing architects, builders and surveyors to carry out private refurbishments for a cheaper rate. Yesterday's decision by the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council to allow member states to lower VAT on renovation and repair of private dwellings from 17.5% to 5% comes after months of campaigning by trade bodies and MPs. A 5% VAT rate on home improvements was one of the main points of the Get Britain Building manifesto set up by a coalition of MPs and trade bodies last month. It has been the focus of a long-running campaign led by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the FMB, welcomed the decision as a “victory” for the construction industry. “News that the UK government now has the option to reduce VAT to 5% on home maintenance and repairs is very exciting, as it can no longer blame Brussels for not being able to take action. If the UK government goes ahead and implements the VAT cut it could mean that many more small building firms will be able to stay in business.” It remains to be seen whether the government will opt to lower the VAT on home improvements, but such a move would have environmental benefits, increasing green refurbishment and helping the UK fulfil its pledge to lower carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

More about the Fraud of Rising Damp...

 

Oh Joy, Oh Joy!! Did you see Rogue Traders on the BBC this week? Mr. Rising Damp man in all his glory... and y'know what - it was just the tip of the iceberg. These ones were particularly nasty, but your average mortgage surveyor isn't much better - many mortgage companies insist on injection damproofing before they'll finance - Fraud, on a massive scale.

Rogue Traders Series 7 - You're_Nicked for Damp Proofing!

Have a look at the Damp Page, where we have just uploaded yet more examples of damp problems which are nothing to do with the so called Rising Damp - which doesn't exist - these problems can all be fixed without destroying the brickwork and injecting toxic chemicals that are totally useless.

Peter spends a lot of his time doing surveys of lovely old houses scattered all over England - last week he was in Coventry, London and Norfolk - and this little house was a gem - it just goes to prove the Fraud of Rising Damp - once again!! The wall of this house was sopping wet above the injection damp course, bone dry below, and on the inside, the lovely old lime plastered walls had been hacked off at ground level for about 10 inches, and cement rendered - precisely where the walls were sopping wet on the outside..

This sopping wet wall was found in Norfolk last week - above a LOVELY, and completely useless injection damp course. Notice how the wall is dry beneath the injection holes, and wet above them... Best example I've ever seen of the 'Fraud Of Rising Damp'	... and the reason is.... on the inside .. all that lovely cement render at the bottom of a perfectly good lime plaster wall which is dry as a bone. The cement is trapping water into the wall. The idiots who installed the injection damp proof course also stripped the plaster off the inside and put the cement render on - causing more damp problems than the started with.
	.. and just to ram the point home - this is the millrace, at the hotel I stayed at. The wall above the water surface is bone dry - that's the restaurant wall you're looking at. Damp proofing companies tell you water magically 'rises' a metre up the wall - why a metre I wonder? Anyway - this wall is sitting in water 24/7, and its bone dry - so, Mr Rising Damp man - how do you explain this?!! I have just, in the last day or so, looked at YET ANOTHER big, old farmhouse, which ALREADY has a damp course injected, and the building surveyor recommended.... you guessed it.... another injection damp proof course!!! These people should be shot! They are not worthy of being called professionals. The house in question is very wet inside - because of excessive condensation caused by the last lot of damp-proofing, when they coated the interior walls with cement. The lime plaster which miraculously is still behind much of the cement, is BONE DRY - all the water and dampness is from condensation. The cement which fills the damp proofing holes is the same as the cement which fills the joints in the brickwork. My first move is to remove every skerrick of cement pointing to let moisture out of the brickwork where it has been trapped since they installed the damp course and pointed the walls... idiots! I make no apologies for my language or attitude towards injection damp proofing people - they are fraudsters who cause irreparable damage to old properties and should be exterminated!

 

Building Surveys...

One of the biggest problems with the Heritage building sector is the lack of suitably experienced building surveyors capable of assessing old buildings, be they listed or not. All too often we hear of surveyors recommending injection damp proofing (which instantly shows they know nothing of the reasons damp is present in the first place, or more to the point, the chemical companies give them a nice Christmas pressy every year..), and failing to understand or report problems with timber frames. Usually they understand very little about the characteristics of traditional building materials (one surveyor recently questioned the use of lime mortar, saying it wasnt strong enough.... he ran for cover when we reminded him that half of the houses in London are built with it!). Add to these problems, the raft of legislation that drowns builders, architects and planners on a weekly basis, and which is totally inappropriate for old buildings....

We do A LOT of timber frame surveys. If you think you might have a problem with a timber framed building - CALL US! - we are happy to travel all over the country to help and advise you, and this need not be expensive. We can undertake a survey of your timber framed house, and then give you a breakdown of what is wrong with it, what MIGHT go wrong, and a schedule of work which can be timed over a period of years - so you have a proper maintenance strategy. We also teach you all about your timber (oak) framed house, so you can recognise problems and know how to deal with them yourself if needs be.

Copyright: Gotz Wiedenroth

We offer a full Building Survey and Project Management service. We undertake an initial survey and assessment, produce a detailed condition report and create a work specification and schedule. This highlights problems found, and ranks them in order of importance - which helps greatly with budgeting current and future maintenance. If required, this can then be modified to create Listed Building Consent specification and justification. Liaison with conservation officers and planners, costing and financial control are included if required. This allows us to work on projects with values ranging from a few thousand to over a million pounds.

If all of this sounds a bit high faluting and poncy... in plain English for us normal folks, it means we'll survey your house and show you how to keep it nice and dry, bereft of nasty grotty slimy things that eat it and make it rot - and save you some money into the bargain....

Our architect, (Roger Latham B.A (Hons) Dip. Arch. P.G. Cert. Conservation R.I.B.A) works closely with our project manager to produce all the required drawings and paperwork for Listed Building Consents - so frequently required in our work. It is vitally important when undertaking work on listed buildings that the architect involved is familiar with, and fully understands all aspects of conservation and restoration practise - Roger will often find solutions where in some cases, years of planning applications have failed to produce results.

Timber Framing...

This was a bit of a problem at the time - if you have a timber framed house, you might not have had quite such a problem, but its nice to know its relatively easy to solve! We currently have four timber framing projects on the go -

Not the best way to wake up in the morning... ! It was the bathroom that fell to bits..		All sorted - nice new lime rendered panels, and oak frame...

 

Metal Windows...

We now have the capability to make and supply steel framed windows - a recently completed restoration job required black powder coated windows to be set within mullioned oak windows, and the results are sensational to say the least...

Steel windows in a conservation project in Birmingham.. Oak, Lime Render, Lime Pointing, Oak Framed extension, and stone floors all feature..		Close-up, with stone and brick dating back 300 years

 

Although based in Shropshire, we have worked all over the Midlands, with projects in Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Wales and other counties. Basically... if there's a nice pub nearby, we'll travel...