Silver Lining

Today

When you are living through one of the wettest summers since about 1759, it helps to look at the advantages. One of those is that flaws in a building quickly become apparent. So, while we still have builders in the house, we could ask them to check out the damp patch appearing on our newly decorated sitting room wall. The trouble, it seems, is from an ill-fitting seal on the balcony above and will be remedied by our talented builder.

In My Day

In 2000 or thereabouts we decided to extend 7 Mead Close in the only possible way - upwards. We looked around and selected a local builder who came up with an attractive design, including gable, that maximised the available space. That summer was fairly dry, although cold, and work started briskly.

We endured weeks of "radio wars" with several builders all playing their radios simultaneously on different stations, and coped with having scaffolding all round the building. It would all be worth it.

After a while we began to notice that work was slowing down. Unknown workers appeared, brought in from agencies, of very variable quality. The builder began to get twitchy about being paid some money. Clearly his business was in trouble and he couldn't afford to keep on his regular staff or sub-contractors.

Eventually, in October, the final touches were put into place. We went to bed that night, relieved to be rid of bodging carpenters, ill-mannered labourers and skip drivers and the encircling scaffolding. That night the wind got up and the rain teemed down all night. The kitchen faced west and received the full brunt.

In the morning I went downstairs to admire the new kitchen, to find water pouring in through the lintel above the window. The paint hung in hammocks , spilling water freely and there was a large damp patch where the extension joined the house. As I stood there, open-mouthed, the builder rang. "Can I come by and get my final payment?" he asked. "Well, when you've sorted out all this water that's pouring into my kitchen," I replied.

He came over and assessed the problem. It seems that the incompetent jobbing brickies had inserted the lintel porous side out and had not correctly fitted the flashing between the extension and main house. Out came the window and the whole front had to be redone. When the plasterer turned up he said "I only came because I knew it was you - I haven't been paid for the past three jobs I've done for this company."

Eventually building control came and signed off the job and we paid our builder. Without the rain we might never have noticed until he was a distant spot on the horizon.

Even so, I wouldn't mind finding out what might happen after a long dry spell.