You may notice how I love that word “Free” and I am sure my Pimlico Tenants will love these free theatre tickets. The catch is that you have to be under 26, so I myself will have to take advantage of the £10 Mondays which is still a great bargain at less than half price for the best seats.

If you do qualify for the free tickets be quick because there are a limited number of tickets available. The tickets are for Pimlico’s famous experimental theatre, The Royal Court on Sloane Square, and the production is Tribes by Nina Raine (14 Oct – 13 Nov) in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs:

Free tickets are available for Friday and Saturday evenings, all matinees and selected previews (Tues-Sat).

To book, please e-mail boxoffice@royalcourttheatre.com with the following information:

• Your full name
• Choice and date of show.
• Number of tickets (maximum six per booking – all attending must be under 26 years of age).
• Date of birth
• Address including UK postcode
• Mobile telephone number

Alternatively, you can visit in person or call 020 7565 5000 and speak directly to the Box Office.

Tribes by Nina Raine

Richard Greenland

Last week I wrote about wooden floors, this week it’s solid floors.

Solid floors in modern buildings are usually concrete or beam-and-block, though they may be covered by tiles, laminate, stone, wood or carpet. They should present no problems if properly constructed and there is no subsidence. If they are wet it’s usually because there has been a plumbing leak above floor level and they have yet to dry, or pipes below floor level have corroded because they have not been isolated from the concrete properly. This means taking part of the floor up to fix the problem. Cement is very alkaline and corrodes copper so all concreted-in pipes should have been placed in plastic sleeves.

Older houses with solid floors can present these problems plus many others. Before the 1960s or 1970s it was normal to lay concrete without a plastic Damp Proof Membrane (DPM) leading to rising damp. Floors should be carefully inspected for signs of damp. A damp meter is an inexpensive tool which is useful for this, but beware that they are just as good at reading condensation or spilled water as rising damp!

Rising damp is solvable by re-screeding the floor on DPM, or even painting the floor with bitumen although this isn’t ideal. Flagstone or tiled floors without DPM can be OK if allowed to breath (I have a flat with one and it’s no problem, but it’s somewhat elevated so the ground underneath is only slightly damp, never wet). If carpeted they will sweat and cause rot. A plastic sheet over the floor helps, but again is far from ideal.

Other types of solid floor in older buildings include lime concrete cast between steel joists. There may be no reinforcing at all besides the joists, which are usually about two to three feet apart, so they need checking for obvious cracks and the condition of the steel (corrosion). They can be very strong if in good condition. You won’t be able to lay cables or more importantly pipes in them without seriously weakening the floor. Waste-water pipes need a fall, so this needs careful planning if you are undertaking alterations.

Talking of pipes, I’ll cover plumbing and heating next week.

Al the best,

Rich

• London’s traffic about to grind to a halt with the start of the new school term,
• Heavy rain forecast (which doubles car journey times in Central London),
• A tube strike starts this evening

now seemed an appropriate time to publish a review of using the London Cycle Hire Scheme, and we asked Andrew of Cabre for his experiences of commuting into London and using the scheme. This is what Andrew told us ……….

On the Wednesday of the first week of operation of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme I gave it a go. l bought the key and membership for £4 plus a £1 day pass at the sign up page. That bit was easy and the key arrived a couple of days later in the post.

Here is how the first day went:

• I drove up from Alresford and parked below the Ibis Hotel near Euston. £11 for 5 hours.
• A short walk down Cardington Street brought me to the Drummond Street docking station. Unfortunately the six bikes there would not release. A red light came on, not the green one.
• I walked on to the next docking station on Euston Road and I think the second bike I tried worked. Undocking after the green light comes on requires a vigorous tug. My computer bag fitted in the front carrier and the straps held it in firmly
• I cycled ten minutes to Red Lion Square. Docked got the green light. Why do the bike lights keep on flashing! I had a pleasant chat with the guy in the photo. His experience in Paris was good. Went to a nearby office and discovered I was in the wrong place! It was raining heavily so I took a taxi down a hotel near the Tower of London. Never assume next month’s meeting is in the same place as the last one.
• After the meeting, I walked to Crosswall Street where I could not find the docking station shown on the printed map and instructions that come with your key (the on-line map does not show a docking station). I walked on to Aldgate Street where there were several bikes. The first one undocked immediately.
• Started cycling back to Euston. After 28 minutes I was at Endsleigh Gardens and I docked to stay within the 30 minutes for free deadline. By now I was rather sweaty even cycling in lightweight trousers and a shirt. I walked the remaining 500m to the car park. These bikes are heavy at 23kgs. My 70s steel road bike is 15kg. If you want to arrive at a meeting without needing a shower first cycle 10-15 minutes rest for 5 and then take another bike.
• I found the three gears to be appropriate. You need the low gear everytime you start from the lights and the highest gear is enough to do 15 mph which is enough in the centre of London. They twist the opposite way to my own bike

Would I use it again – Yes, but I have not been back to London since then. It seems a better proposition than bringing my road bike on the train from Winchester (I have been doing this twice a month) or leaving a bike in the rack at Waterloo (I did this a couple of years ago but the bike gets damaged on the rack and was nicked one day).

Some photos from the day:

Charity Bike Ride

Yesterday and today 3rd of September Patrick, Jon and John have been embarking on one of the most ridiculous charity cycles anyone has ever done, they will attempt to be the first people to cycle around London on Barclays Cycle Hire bikes, docking the bike at every one of the 400 docking stations along the way, finishing in Westminster at about 11:00 a.m.. They are raising money for Frank Water Projects, who work to help bring safe, clean drinking water to thousands of people, in hundreds of villages and towns around India.

The details of this wacky cycle ride are as follows:

73 miles – distance as the crow flies

100 miles – the distance we will cycle (at the very least)

24 hours – the time taken

2 – the number of teams

350ish – the number of docking stations we will be stopping at

4:00mins – the time we will have to get between each docking station

23kg – the weight of a Barclays Cycle

Congratulations to Patrick, Jon and John on a fun and imaginative way to raise money. See the full mapped version of the London Cycle Challenge & find out more about the charity and donate.

Tickets to see Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea FC

If you are you aged between 12 to 19 enter Westminster City Council‘s prize draw to win two tickets to the Chelsea vs. Blackpool Premier League match on Sunday 19th September. I don’t know why our Council Tax is buying Chelsea tickets, but don’t you miss out,

Email the following details to

wow@westminster.gov.uk:

• Your name
• Your date of birth
• Your mobile number
• Please specify if you would like to receive activity updates in the future

Get your Bike Security Marked Free

Warwick Ward Safer Neighbourhood Team would like to invite you to a FREE SECURITY BIKE MARKING event on

SATURDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2010 at 2pm until 6pm.

This event will be held outside the PIMLICO ACADEMY on LUPUS STREET SW1.

Please attend if you can and bring your bikes with you.

Mayor of London’s Skyride

London Skyride

This Sunday 5th September you will have the rare opportunity to enjoy a day exploring London on two wheels. There will be a wide variety of entertainment to enjoy, from music and fancy dress to sporting challenges and cycling tips and advice from Olympic star Sir Chris Hoy.

This year, the route will be taking in some of London’s most iconic landmarks. Londoners will get the opportunity to experience the heart of the capital with a circular route that will take in the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Sky Riders can join the route at any point and ride as many times as you like – it’s up to you – just get on your bike and have a great day!

Mayor of London’s Thames Festival

Thames Festival

For the weekend of Saturday 10th, and Sunday 11th September the Thames will be host to an enormous selection of free activities and entertainment.

The festival stretches right along the Thames through London, and the events in Zone 1 (the Pimlico section) from Westminster bridge comprise:

Festival Freedom Stage

All Eyes on Korea

New European Village

BBC Blast on Tour at the Thames Festival

Photography Masterclasses

Cadbury Spots v Stripes

Southbank Centre – Live African Music

Free Thames Festival screening at BFI Southbank

Festival Market

‘Hanging Gardens of Pimlico’

Image via Wikipedia

Congratulations to the Lillington and Longmoore estate in Pimlico, the only council estate to be awarded a Green Flag as one of the best green spaces in the country.

The Lillington and Longmoore estate comprises 943 flats split between 18 blocks which overlook the central gardens. It is the only social housing estate in the country to have been awarded a prestigious Green Flag Award putting it in the same as class as rival horticultural neighbours such as Regent’s Park, Hyde Park and St James’ Park, all of which also recieved the  award this year. Congratulations to the Lillington and Longmoore gardening team and their employers CityWest Homes.

Richard Greenland

I wrote about external walls last week, this week it’s wooden floors.

Problems with wooden floors are much more common in older houses before the advent of cavity walls and damp proof membranes (DPM). Joists were commonly built into potentially damp solid walls. Later, with early cavity walls they were only built into the dry inner skin, and on modern buildings they are built on metal hangers or DPMs and don’t penetrate the walls at all. This is one of many reasons why in my opinion contemporary houses are the best they’ve ever been (a few others being shallow foundations, damp, lack of thermal or sound insulation, and drafts in older buildings). Modern buildings can suffer from shoddy workmanship just like older buildings, but better materials and techniques are now available and we have rigorous Building Regulations.

Floor sinking excessively below skirting board

Look for rot or woodworm along the outside walls and particularly in the corners where damp tends to collect. Also look for sinking floors. If there’s a gap of more than about 4mm beneath skirting boards, the skirtings certainly wouldn’t have been fixed that way so it gives warning of possible collapse. Ceilings which have visibly sunk at the edges offer similar evidence. The joists may need splicing or replacing on metal joist hangers built into the wall to isolate the timber from sources of damp. I did this recently and the bill was over a thousand pounds for one room so it’s significant.

Ground level floors in older buildings are commonly supported on stubby walls built on dirt in the cellar with no DPM. They inevitably suffer damp damage and woodworm is common (it likes damp and dies in dry wood). The timber bearers should be placed on DPM. Any rotten timbers need replacing with treated timber. Also cut the ends from any floorboards or joists touching potentially damp walls. Leave a ½” to 1” gap on all sides. The skirting will cover it.

Modern buildings have fewer problems with wooden floors. The most common are caused by internal leaks such as slow leaks to baths, showers and plumbing. It’s a good idea to check under the bath if you can. New plaster under the bathroom may indicate a problem covered up but not resolved!

In older buildings the joists are usually under-sized by current building regulations and somewhat springy. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but upstairs floors were commonly chopped about at chimney breasts with trimmer joists held up by little more than the plaster. I’ve also come across houses with chimney breasts removed, where the joists which were previously built in have become effectively unsupported and merely wedged into place. Again look for sinking floors and ceilings (see above).

I’m thinking of doing solid floors next week.

BW,

Rich

Richard Greenland

There are three main types of damp and outside walls are prone to all. I’ve already covered this in detail in previous blogs.

In summary, rising damp doesn’t usually travel beyond 1.2 metres above ground level unless the masonry is very hydrophilic (attractive of moisture). It shows itself by damage to plaster and efflorescence. This is white crystalline deposits of sulphur and carbonate salts from soil or masonry, dissolving in moisture and coming to the surface, giving a blistered appearance to the plaster. It can be treated by injection (£500 or more for a typical terrace).

Penetrating damp can also cause efflorescence. It can appear anywhere, from multiple causes. Faults with masonry include porous stone or brick, loose render (the cement outer coating of the wall) and deteriorating pointing (the cement finishing between bricks or stones). These may require scaffolding to rectify and can be expensive.

Penetrating damp unconnected to the masonry includes leaking gutters and downpipes, dripping overflow pipes, leaky roofs, water splashing over the hopper where the gutter joins the downpipe, and earth piled high against outside walls acting as a conduit over the damp-proof membrane (DPM). Most are easily and cheaply rectified.

The third type, condensation, appears on cold surfaces such as single-glazed windows where it runs down and damages the sill and walls to the sides, or on outside walls where ventilation is poor, such as behind wardrobes or inside cupboards. Insulating well and removing furniture from outside walls, plus putting in a mobile dehumidifier, will help.

Other issues are corroding metal wall ties on early 20^th century cavity walls. Early cavity wall buildings up to the ‘40s or ‘50s are prone. Modern ties are galvanised or plastic, and designed so that condensation doesn’t settle but drips off the middle and down the cavity. It can be very expensive to get remedial work done. Unfortunately there’s no simple way of telling unless the brick skins have already started to separate and become unstable.

‘Concrete cancer’ is a problem of system-built (prefab) buildings from the mid 20^th century, with pre-cast concrete walls. It’s caused by efflorescence of salts damaging the concrete and corroding the reinforcing rods. That’s why these buildings are generally unmortgageable, although many may be structurally sound.

Modern houses should have out-and-down facing cavity trays of plastic or lead above openings (windows and doors), cavity closers at the sides and a folded-over plastic DPM underneath. This prevents water migrating from outer to inner skin across the cavity at the window reveals (sides). If there is evidence of damp migrating in around openings, the trays may be faulty or missing.

I’ll write about assessing wooden floors next week.

All the best,

Rich

Richard Greenland

Most UK homes have walls of masonry, e.g. brick, block, stone or concrete, either with or without a cavity. The cavity separates the damp, cold outer layer from the dry, warm inner layer. There are exceptions using modern timber framing methods, and Elizabethan houses are often timber-framed with a cavity, so it’s nothing new! Cavity wall insulation really helps keep the inner skin warm and condensation-free. Most homes built before about the second decade of the last century have solid walls.  If masonry walls are about 9 inches thick or less they are solid (a brick is 4 inches thick, so two bricks plus plaster = about 9 inches). Thicker walls doesn’t necessarily indicate a cavity as earlier homes were often built with very thick solid walls.

The first check should be whether the walls are plumb. If there is significant lean it’s usually perceptible to the eye. You can visually line up the edges of the house with other buildings as a rough gauge to see when walls are out of plumb. Are the two edges parallel? To check if it’s your building that’s leaning, dangle a plum bob (a bit of string with a weight attached) out of an upstairs window. If it’s parallel to the wall, all well and good. If the variation between top and bottom is more than a third of the thickness of the wall, it’s potentially unstable. I wouldn’t necessarily leave a house because the walls were leaning slightly, particularly if they were very thick, but it could be due to subsidence. If unsure get a structural engineer’s report. Underpinning if needed will cost several hundred pounds per linear meter, depending on depth, access, soil type etc

Another cause is that roofs can push them out. The rafters are diagonal and press out sideways on the walls, unless they are tied in at the bottom by ceiling joists which are continuous throughout the whole width of the house. Tying them in is not complicated, but re-righting leaning walls is generally impractical.

A little surface cracking of render is usually due to thermal movement as the building expands and contracts over the seasons and at different times of day. They are nothing to worry about, just a reminder of where someone should have put an expansion joint but failed to do so! Cracks more than three or four millimetres wide can indicate ground movement of the foundations. This is also indicated by the courses (layers) of bricks becoming uneven and out of level. Go to the edge of the building and look along the mortar joints. Are they straight and level? Or do they dip at piers and rise at windows? The latter indicates that the heavier parts of the building are sinking on it’s foundations. If the building has been rendered, you can look along the window sills, or along any coping. Again, a little movement isn’t necessarily a concern, especially if the building is over 100 years old and most of the movement may have occurred early in its life.

Render (a wall-coating of sand-and-cement) should be checked for adhesion to the wall by tapping it with a screwdriver handle or similar. If it sounds hollow, it may be partly detached and need replacement. This can let water in. Try scratching it with an old screwdriver, if you can easily it’s too soft. In a misguided attempt to save money, some buildings are rendered with as little as 1 part cement to 12 parts sand, which is far too weak, porous and soft.  It’ll need chipping back and replacing with a minimum 4:1 mix and a waterproofing additive.

If the masonry is unrendered, check the pointing (the outer layer of harder cement in the joints). Is it loose or missing? Are the bricks or stones themselves crumbly from frost or wind damage? Soft, cool-fired bricks are particularly prone to this, as are Yorkshire gritstone and schist. This can allow moisture penetration. Rendering is generally cheaper and more reliable than re-pointing. A bonding chemical called SBR is used to prime the masonry. If walls are very loose, sheets of perforated metal (expanded metal lath or EML) should be bolted to the walls to provide an adhesive base. With scaffolding this can be quite expensive.

I’ll write about inspecting external walls from the inside next week.

Rich

Image by boxman via Flickr

The BBC submitted a Freedom of Information request which shows Transport for London (TfL) has refunded £40,000 this year to customers who have been over-charged for topping up their Oyster Card by faulty machines. The information also shows there have been 2,421 complaints in 2010 about being double charged when adding credit to the electronic travel smartcard, and that the machines at London Bridge, Victoria, Liverpool Street and King Cross stations led to the highest number of complaints.

So don’t take your Oyster charges on trust, check your bank account after topping up, TfL say that they aren’t aware of any over-charging until the issue was reported by a passenger.

As well as checking your bank balance – do you have an old Oyster Card hanging around? A total of 16.5m PAYG cards sat idle during the year from April 2009 to April 2010. The average amount on each card was £1.80, meaning that nearly £30m has been left unused on Oyster pay-as-you-go (PAYG) for at least a year. Additionally last year alone, 31,000 PAYG cards were issued and topped up but never subsequently used, even though they held £246,000 worth of travel on them. That’s a big saving if you can find and use that missing Oyster Card!

Image via Wikipedia

When you are renting for a short visit you are most likely going to be renting blind, going off an internet description. Scammers take advantage of this and sadly every week a new visitor to London turns up to find that the property that they have paid for doesn’t exist.

Only the other week I received this question:

I am looking to book a holiday apartment for 9 days during August
I have found a selection of lovely apartments within our budget and just wanted some feedback seeing as the landlord/agent who we are dealing with has stated no viewings are available and they ask for 75% of total rent/deposit to be paid up front.Here is the website

http://unitrusthomeservices.com/

They advertise most of them on Gumtree also but this is the place to handle the booking.

My answer was as follows:

Scam Property is always a steal of a bargain, genuine property just cannot compete on price. This Studio is an absolute bargain. To give you an indication the market leader for serviced Studios in Central London is Dolphin Square who charge £185/night. We compete with them by offering a similar product at half the price – which is in itself an absolute bargain. This studio is in one of the most exclusive addresses there is and is offered at 1/3rd of our price, or 1/6th of the going rate. That screams scam, before you even look hard.

The website looks very genuine, & most impressive. However the phone number is not a landline number but an 070 number forwarding service, and the website domain was registered less than a month ago (5th July).

Personally my interest would end at this point. But you might like to dig further, especially if they are prepared to take payment by some protected service such as Credit Card.

The website was registered by:

Abraham Isaac
31 Queen Anne Street Marylebone
London, London W1G 9DL

There is actually a Doctor’s surgery at that address:

Leonard M Selby
31 Queen Anne Street
Marylebone
London
W1G 9HT

Tel: 020-7636-5250
Business Type: Doctors (General Practitioners)

Sorry to spoil your holiday.

Sadly the message was followed soon after by another reply as follows:

Sorry I have to say that this “unitrusthomeservices” has tricked us.

The past Tuesday we arrived london from Madrid (Spain). We had seen this fantastic flat on Gumtree and it liked us. We booked it for three weeks and they asked us to make the reservation with a money transfer to an account from Halifax, it was 560 pounds. Well, we arrived london and tried to contact the person that e-mail us from unitrust. No answer. We tried with the number in the website and nothing. We have gone to the police station for two days and they have said we should go to the Citizens Advice Bureau, anyway they have taken the address and the name of the person from unitrusthomeservices.
After three days walking about Police Station, hotels and agencies of lettings we have actually rent a room on a shared flat and can be relaxed.

So if you are thinking of renting a London Flat from abroad bear in mind the following points:

Scam Properties are a Bargain. If it seems too good to be true – it is.

Only deal with established businesses. Check out the address. Only deal with a working Landline Number, if there is only a mobile or number forwarding phone number move on.

If it’s a business it won’t be advertising using free ads on Gumtree, Craigslist, et al

Only pay by a reversible method (Credit Card, Paypal).