Tiling: The Shower (Day 3)

As our tiler continued to work his way around the shower, it had become apparent that the plumber needed to come back to install the faucet for the sink. Sean had started on the limestone, and would soon begin the rear wall of the shower - this rear wall is also where the sink's faucet is located, so once the more time-consuming shower was completed, the remainder of the bathroom was expected to go quickly.  Because the faucet is wall mounted, this became a critical issue as it had to be installed before the tile, so Sean could accurately cut the tile around it.

The limestone starts to go up

"Aglaya" and I had actually spent quite a bit of time deciding on the type of faucet (or tap, as it's known in the UK) - I was advocating a simple, modern wall-mounted one, whereas "Aglaya" was keen on a more traditional deck-mounted version. We looked at literally dozens of models trying to come to a resolution. So a stalemate ensued for a while..."Aglaya" wasn't necessarily inclined to give in, but I think when it became evident how much this particular design decision meant to me, she relented...I have always envisioned having a wall-mounted tap in my loo!


The tap arrived that morning, so while Sean was setting limestone, I was marking up the plywood wall to locate the faucet, so it would be ready for our plumber when he showed up.

Locating the faucet & cutting the holes

Fortunately everything was ready when the plumber showed-up - he immediately mounted the faucet onto the plywood, and then  began connecting the pipes to it. Because this was happening while Sean was tiling, there was a lot of activity, but fortunately no one got in anyone else's way. By the end of the day, Sean had installed most of the smaller limestone pieces, and our faucet was connected and ready to be tiled around.

To properly install the faucet, our plumber removed the plywood to do it

The plumber connecting pipes to the faucet

End of the day - limestone and faucet installed (faucet is in the bottom right corner)

Once Sean and the plumber left for the day,  I cleared out the bathroom floor and primed it for the rubberized waterproof membrane. After 20 minutes it was dry, and began painting on the membrane - the same waterproofing used on the shower walls. At the same time, I also installed a few pieces of the insulated waterproof tile backer board on the side wall. By the time everything was finished it was late at night, but fortunately the work had been silent...

The bathroom floor primed for waterproofing

Part of the floor waterproofed, and a few pieces of tile backer-board installed

Midnight - Yours Truly painting on the rubberized membrane

1am - the completed waterproof membrane on the bathroom floor

Heating Up: Not much of a weekend...

This weekend, as we raced to finish getting everything ready for the plumber, I had flashbacks to the insane, exhausting "marathon" we went through to get the scaffolding down a few months ago. Andre is scheduled to leave London on Tuesday, and our plumber is coming tomorrow (Monday) to install the new radiators and get the heat working - so we're down to the wire...

Morning of October 15 - yesterday's completed drylining

Andre started the weekend by continuing to hang plasterboard - this time in "the box". Once again, we were only working on one wall, since for now we just need to work on the area where the radiator is going to be hung. But it was a ridiulous amount of work. From my perspective it was far, far worse than working on the living rooms walls - even though the living room area is much bigger - because dry-lining is incredibly messy, and so we had to pack up everything and clear "the box" of all of our possessions and "furniture" (in reality, the only furniture is the air mattress, but still...).

Two boards up and ready for another

Finished and ready for plaster!

Once the pieces of plasterboard had dried and were rigid, I started plastering (known as spackling in the US) the joints between them. It wasn't difficult work, but I was totally unprepared for how finicky and tiring it was! I had to start by mixing dry plaster with water to make the plaster (spackle), ensure it was the right consistency, then apply it, smoothe it over the joints, wait for it to dry, sand it... and then repeat the whole process with a second coat. It looked and sounded so easy, but I discovered instantly that getting a smooth, even coat of plaster onto joints takes skill and technique - neither of which I had. (So in the end, it took Andre to make some of the more stubborn areas look presentable!)

Plastering the joints

We put in 12-14 hour days both Saturday and Sunday, but by Sunday night we did finally get to the point where the only thing left to do was paint the newly-hung plasterboard (just in the spots that will be behind the radiators, since after the radiators are installed we obviously won't be able to get to those areas).

October 16th - Hanging the last few boards

 But at around 9pm Sunday, exhausted, somewhat cranky - and daunted by the prospect of the enormous clean-up operation and reconstruction of the "box" that will have to happen before we can go to sleep tonight - we decided we deserved a little break while the final coat of plaster dried... so the painting only got done later on, after a quick trip to the pub and a couple of pints! Thank goodness for paint rollers...

Finished - ready for the radiator!

The Next Two Weeks...

So with our new focus on getting the heat working, that will be the goal of my next two weeks here in London.

It turns out that it's not just a question of getting the plumber here to finish his work - there are a ton of things to do before all the different parts of the system can become operational (déjà vu...). Each of those parts requires work that goes beyond the plumber - and so falls to yours truly.

One of the key issues will be to have the new radiators installed on the walls. The not so obvious problem here is that we don't have walls...yet. Well, not the final, finished ones, anyway. To get those up means hanging new plasterboard on the grotty old perimeter walls, plastering and painting - because once those radiators are connected to the plumbing we won't be able to get behind them ever again.

Initially, I had no inkling of how much would have to be done to get the heat working, but here's a quick list:

• Rewire the entire flat with new electrical wiring and a breaker box - needed to power the boiler (and everything else)
• Install the last section of the boiler's flue pipe (that vents to the outside)
• Level the floor where the old kitchen used to be (one of the radiators goes there)
• Order plasterboard, plaster, fasteners, etc. Then carry everything upstairs  :-(
• Dry-line portions of the old walls with new plasterboard (a lot more work than it sounds!)
• Spackle the joints of the plasterboard (for now, only behind where the radiators go)
• Paint the plasterboard (also only behind where the radiators will go)
• Finalize the heat calculations and sizing of the radiators - then order the radiators along with the valves and pipes
• Hang the radiators onto the walls
• Connect the radiators to the pipes along with the thermostatic valves
• Fill and balance the system
• Turn the boiler on!

The Marathon: more painting

The past week has felt like a marathon; the finish line is being able to make the call to the scaffolding company to say that we're ready for them to take the scaffold down.

We've been working full-tilt – André was in fact supposed to fly back to New York today, but we're not quite where we need to be so he's postponed his trip by a day. It's important that we get the scaffolding down now - mostly because it's very expensive to keep renting it, but also because psychologically, we are really ready to move forward. And I think that at this point we owe it to our neighbours to get it down, too!

Today we finally finished something on the long to-do list for getting the scaffolding down: the rest of the exterior painting. André and I had worked together last weekend to paint the first window, and yesterday I started working on the other windows. In order to get everything done as quickly as possible, I had to do it on my own because André was working upstairs, at roof level.

The front windows before scraping and painting

Like last weekend, the work was quite involved - I had to prep the windows by scraping off as much of the old, peeling paint as possible and fill in any rotten areas with putty before painting.

A detail of the window's condition

It all went a lot faster than last weekend because these ones are in better condition (and my technique got better as I went along). But all told, on average it still took about 3 hours per window!

Meanwhile, André had been spending ages over the previous few days prepping the exterior of the dormer for painting – he had to apply an exterior conditioning treatment and then putty over all the screws. Once the putty dried, it had to be sanded  so that the dormer would have a smooth, even finish once painted..

June 25th - Applying the wood conditioner - will make the wood ready for the exterior elements

June 27th - After waiting 2 days for the treatment to dry, patching all the holes & joints with an exterior grade filler putty

June 30th - All the screw holes and joints had to be filled with putty - turned out to be a huge job

Once the dormer was ready, I primed and painted it in between working on the windows. This was a carefully planned tag-team operation, because we were supposed to wait 16-24 hours for each coat to dry - and we found ourselves running out of time! So the primer went on the dormer early Saturday evening; the first coat of paint on Sunday morning; and the second on Sunday night.

July 2nd - Starting the primer...

André touching up the primer

July 3rd - Starting the first coat of exterior paint

André insisted on three coats of paint, so I had to wait til getting home from work today to put the final coat of paint on! In the evening I also painted the balcony posts and the clips that will attach the railing to the posts (André had painted the balcony railing during the day).

It's been an absolutely exhausting three days. We've made huge progress, and it's an amazing feeling to finally be able to step back and look at something that looks finished! But there are still so many things to be done before I can make that phone call…

July 4th - The painting completed!

Painting (myself into a corner?)

Today we did the bulk of work on yet another task that needed doing before we can take the scaffolding down: exterior painting.

As you can see, the exteriors of the windows were (like almost everything in the flat!) in dire condition.

I thought this was going to be a relatively fun job, because I had NO idea how much work was involved! First we had to strip off the loose old paint (well, what was left of it) Then we had to repair some of the wood that had rotted/been damaged after years of rain and neglect. This involved getting rid of the old, rotted wood, and then drying what remained that still had years of damp embedded in it. André laughed at me when I suggested that my hairdryer would speed the process along - but actually, the technique worked really well !

Once the wood was dry, we used wood filler to repair the wood where it was damaged. Then we sanded the filler down once it had dried.

Finally, after all of this we were able to bring out the brushes. The first step was a coat of primer on the exposed wood, and then, once that dried, finally, fresh white paint.

As for being painted into a corner (literally)? No, it didn't happen, because I did figure out that I needed to climb back in through the window before painting the sill, and paint the sill from the inside! Being stranded on the scaffold would not have been much fun...

Just in case you think the roof is finished...

...it's not.

One might imagine that now with the slates done, the roof is finished...

...but unfortunately that's hardly the case.

There's still a long list of things that needs to be done before the roof work is officially finished, the scaffolding can come down, and I can go back to New York:

• The Ridge tiles need to be installed along the sloping edge of each roof plane. These tiles are triangular shaped and cover the gaps where the roof planes meet (at one of the dreaded corners) with a bed or mortar. The tiles are placed on the mortar which holds everything together and seals all the openings. (You can see one of these ridge tiles sitting on the edge in the picture above.)
• The eaves, which are plywood, need to be be protected from the rain so they don't rot away. They can either painted (which would mean they would have to be re-painted every few years), or - preferably - covered by a waterproof sheet (so they won't fade or need repainting).
• The gutters need to replaced because we took the old ones out in order to remove the roof joists back in January as part of the structural work. Besides being in the way, the old gutters were metal and rusting away - it was only a matter of time before they started falling off...
• There's a small area of re-pointing to be completed in the brick party wall over the flat roof.
• The flashing needs to be completed along the brick wall - primarily where the flat roof is.
• Once the flashing is completely finished, I need to apply a special waterproof caulk in the open joints where the lead is inserted into the brick. The caulk is formulated to bond between the brick and lead, but allows each to expand and contract properly - this avoids the problems associated with water getting into cracked mortar, which is the traditional way to seal the joint.
• Our neighbors' TV antennas, which are cluttered along the face of the dormer, will need to be relocated.
• And now on to the dormer - the first element of the dormer that needs to be done is all of the final exterior trim-work and facing. The plan is to do this with wood and then paint it (beacuse it will be easily accessible for repainting)
• Once the dormer is trimmed out, the wood needs to be treated for exposure to the rain & damp weather with a protective coating for the wood. Once that's dry (2 days later), all joists and screw holes need to be patched with an exterior filler. After drying and sanding, the wood is ready to be primed, and then finally painted with 3 coats of black exterior paint.
• Once the dormer is painted and finished, the final flashing/cap can be installed over the top edge. this will prevent water from coming in along the edge of the dormer where the slates stop. The trick with this is that the detail needs to span both types of roofing: traditional slates and modern membranes, yet look the same for visual consistency.
• The vents for the boiler, kitchen exhaust and bathroom exhaust need to be cut through the brick wall in the rear and the vents need to be installed. This has to be done before the scaffolding comes down because otherwise there is no way to install the vents and patch the holes. The plumbers will do the boiler vents and I'll take care of the others.
• The hole from the old boiler vent needs to be patched (once the plumbers take it down) - otherwise we'll have a 4" hole on the side of the building!
• The windows need to scraped and painted (not replaced) because in a few years we would like to replace the windows with efficient double-glazed windows. 
• Paint the exterior stone sills and other decorative stone elements that frame the windows. These are probably the most distinctive features of our building's facade.
• The floor of the Juliette balcony needs to be poured in concrete. To do this, the wood form-work must be made, followed by the placement of steel reinforcing bars, followed by the brackets that hold the railing posts. Once all of that is done...then you can pour the concrete...
• Once the balcony is poured and dry, the balcony railing can be installed.
• Finally...the scaffolding needs to be cleared of all the debris that's piled up since November, and then it can be taken down by the scaffolding company!