top of page
Writer's pictureSimon Hollis

Almondbury


Next on the list of nice places I've visited is this lovely stone-built property in Almondbury. The weather was damp and cold, but spirits were not dampened. Noteworthy points on this inspection were the bottle of brandy left in the garage guttering, the rodding eye mortared into the paving and the odd shoe in the gully, with the boot sat back!


Two of the chimney stacks had been removed to first-floor level to make a large attic room. I was not able to establish when this work was undertaken, which is important as there were no physical measures in place to the fire escape route out of the second floor. There was a balcony, but this is more of a mitigation measure than a substitute. The client was advised of this.



On the front corner of the property, there was some structural movement and a cracked lintel. This looked to have been repaired on at least two previous occasions. Unfortunately, the repairs were undertaken in inappropriate materials and did not address the problem. This is a major load path and the ground at the foot of the pier was completely saturated. The fall pipe set to the right-hand side went into a quagmire of mud and grass and did not appear to connect into any mains drainage. This needs to be addressed, the area left to dry out and the stonework above monitoring for at least twelve months before repair works can be proposed. At the point that repairs are undertaken, and ferrous metal pins need to be removed.


25 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page