In which I am going to be pumped with foam
Life throws interesting wobbles from time to time.
I received a phone call yesterday. It was a chap with an English accent who wanted to come and measure up the house. Could he come tomorrow? I said fine and at what time? He said half eight in the morning. I told him not to be daft, that such a time doesn’t exist as the day usually starts at around eleven. But he insisted that such a time did exist and he couldn’t come any other time. *sigh*
So I set an alarm. It managed to wake me and I got up, fired the dog out the front door and then poured a scalding cup of tea on Herself to wake her up. That worked. At half past eight on the dot the chap arrived. A nice friendly chap who set to work with measuring tapes and laser beams. He went all around the Manor leaving no granite rock unturned. He filled reams of paper on his clipboard with little sketches and diagrams, all in the name of upgrading my house to protect it from Climate Change or something.
He then went outside again and drilled a hole in the outside wall under Herself’s window. That scared the shite out of her and guaranteed she was awake, as if the scalding tea hadn’t worked. I calmed her down and said he was nearly finished. Then he drilled another hole in the outside wall beside her bed. She shat herself again.
He finally finished up and said he had all the details needed. Apparently they are going to pump the cavity with foam in the main part of the South Wing and then add an outside layer of insulation on the wall beside the back yard. Also he told me that because of some reason or other we qualify for new double glazed windows where they are single glazed. This will include Herself’s room, and to my surprise, all the windows in the North Wing. This last bit was good news as the old frames were rotten and the glass was about to fall out. I had been meaning to replace them sometime anyway, but now the Gubmint are going to do them for nothing. Happy days.
I’m to expect a team of contractors to arrive and fill all my cavities with foam and put in new windows. But not tomorrow. Maybe a bit later. I was told to ring the office if they haven’t arrived by the New Year.
On top of all that, I finally solved a computer problem [getting little programmes to run on a server] that has been bugging me for days.
For once I’m in a good mood.
A good mood!? You’re mot used to that kind of thing. Quick! Find something to piss you off–hurry!
A good mood!? You’re not used to that kind of thing. Quick! Find something to piss you off–hurry!
On the contrary, my mot is indeed used to that sort of thing. I blame the amount of junk she has on her bedside table.
Are you trying to piss me off with lots of comments? Nah!
I swear I only posted my comment once. And I’m a bit confused why this “reply” comment box came up way at the bottom of the other comments instead of below your comment. I must be a bit of a site jinx today or something?
Heh! You did actually comment twice. The site accepted both as there was a difference between the two [mot/not].
WordPress seems to have made a change to the comment layout in that a reply frame will now appear at the bottom, but once posted it will pop up to the correct place.
If you’re in a good mood now GD you soon won’t be. This work isn’t free, its a gov grant that you are entitled to, but instead will go to the companies that do the work. Expect extremely poor workmanship and a damp problem caused by the cavity insulation. Foam will bring water through like a sponge. How do I know this? Council contractors, or put another way, private companies paid by the council, who they are usually ripping off. When our house had new upvc windows some years ago, plastic trims were used to cover the cavity, held on with silicon sealant. Trims and window boards didn’t fit, there were large gaps which were also filled with silicon. In fact, they were pumping half a dozen tubes of the stuff into each window. Over a few summer/winter cycles this stuff begins to let go and you have force 10 gales coming through. Same kind of work with heat pumps etc. The company doesn’t have enough fitters to fulfill the council contract so in order to get it they recruit untrained, unskilled workers. Still, it will look like a good job for a few days, or until a trained eye takes a closer look. It’s still to your advantage to take the windows if what you say about the state of the old ones is accurate, but if it were me I’d forego the insulation. Hope I haven’t pissed you off.
I know well that I have paid for this and am still paying. It’s nice to get some back though. The main jobs that interest me are the replacement of single glaze windows and insulation cladding on the back wall. I might even tell ’em to hold off on the foam as the main room [with cavity walls] is pretty good at retaining heat.