General Chat

Well, the ‘young man’ has been.
He’s not so young. Agreed with me the floor was pants, and is sending out someone to fill in the gaps around the edges, and flatten the humps.
However he denied there was ever a a hole in the floor, so I showed him the picture.
Apparently, this wasn’t on the video sent to him. I then asked him why no-one from the Council bothered to visit void properties anymore, and pointed out, on a video, he wouldn’t have seen many things, wet walls being one of them, rusty carpet grippers, another, and anything the person taking the video didn't want him to see.
.
I then showed him the wet wall under the window in the living room, and the new vent in the wall, that fell off after an hour.
He said the damp may be caused by old insulation. I then asked if this may also be the cause of the damp in my bedroom, pointing out that the previous idiot said it was because of condensation because I didn’t leave the window open, but when the heating wasn’t breaking down every week/fortnight, I didn’t have any condensation.
Transpires, he was the ‘idiot’ (whoops!), but If old insulation is the cause of damp in the front wall, chances are it’s what’s wrong with the back wall too!
I pointed out all the cement on the fairly newly decorated walls, doors, and my sofa cover (all the above are white!) My table, upside down, with a large chair on it, varnish side down, on drying concrete etc. He agreed it was a total mess.

They’re not going to tile the floor, apparently I can buy the flooring.
**I (again) pointed out that I was moved here because I was unemployed. I’m still unemployed, as it’s impossible working from home with constant interruptions. How was I meant to afford to cover a floor and hall? I also ‘mentioned’ that I’d been paying full rent for the privilege of living in a building site.

** I was working from October to December and have enough for flooring - but that's none of the council's business, and it is difficult working from home with tradespeople arriving all the time, and not knowing where I can work from.
I started off in the spare bedroom, now I can't get in there - then it was the living room, now I'm confined to the kitchen.
My laminate sample arrived today - it's lovely, but the wrong one. ;-) :-|

I actually intend putting a waterproof membrane down, and laminate flooring on top, then rugs on top of that - same in my bedroom - but that's none of the council's business!! :-D

If the cement isn't waterproof, and someone put a carpet down, any spillages would stay in the cement and rot the carpet. At least, if tiles were on top, it would give the carpet a chance of drying out.

I also have a wet room that goes straight onto this cement. the threshold (new when I moved in) has been removed, as it was unsafe. It was partially 'floating' and actually had a shard of asbestos tile attached to it, on the hall side!
'Wet room' indicates a lot of water! Not too good for cement. :-D

I'm also waiting for someone to come and fix my boiler. It was serviced last Wednesday. So, that went well, didn't it?

As I'm sat in the kitchen, coat on, with nothing to do, I looked at how many times my boiler has been 'repaired'.
23 September
4 October
11 October
25 October
10 November
16 November - a young lady came this time, and renewed the valves on a couple of radiators, so they worked!
It was still working perfectly - until it was serviced :-|

In that case Maggie you certainly can't be trusted with an uneven floor sober or otherwise :-D :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D

I could Maggie as I can trip over a fag paper ;-) :-D :-D :-D

It appears, I can crack my head open on a level floor! :-D :-D :-D

Should helpless little old ladies have uneven solid concrete floors to trip over in their carpet slippers?? Lawsuit coming....... :-)

Oh, my word. Someone has just phoned me from the Council.
He phoned about the photos I sent showing the state of the floor after the tiles had been removed.
Apparently, the council are talking about putting a latex covering over the floor.

'Normally', he said, 'It would take weeks to start something, but he had been told to ‘fast track’ it'. I think I was meant to be impressed.

'Oh', says I, 'You’re a bit late, it’s been screeded. Nice to know Winchester City Council has a ‘grip’ on what it’s doing. By the way, don’t think this has been fast-tracked', I said, 'I’ve been waiting in limbo for 6 weeks'.

Then, I’m afraid, the poor lad got an earful!
I even 'let slip' that, unlike most of the people in the planning department office, I'd actually worked in construction - and planning. Well, I was PA to the site manager during the extension of Sumburgh Airport. I was involved in the logistics of planning when works were to go ahead, and it was construction!

I did apologise for my rant, but asked why WCC’s left hand doesn’t know what their right hand is doing.

Then I asked when the floor would be tiled - apparently, it won't be. It's not an area of 'wetness'. so the 'feedback' letter I received yesterday was brought up.

According to this letter, on 6 January the job was: ‘To replace floor tiles in Lounge & entrance hall, asbestos tiles have been removed & make good’
6 January was when the rest of the asbestos tiles were removed. Why don't the council know what their job numbers refer to?
So, I asked why it's not being tiled, when the council obviously have it in their sights to tile it?

Poor thing is coming around tomorrow, to see the floor. I've just had a look.
It's not the best bit of screeding I've ever seen. Tiling on it won't be the easiest job in the world. The little 'waves' will need flattening.

I'll need to ask him how I clean it, as I don't intend putting any other flooring down - there's nothing in my tenancy agreement to say I have to. ;-)

Oh, and when will it be strong enough for me to drag my furniture across it, back to it's 'rightful' place?

Asbestos wasn't 'banned' until 1999.
And yes, removing nailed down carpet grippers would damage any tiles - especially when the nails have gone rusty.
This is probably why the council didn't remove them :-| :-|

I expect they hoped I'd just move in, think the council were 'wonderful' to leave the carpet grippers, and I'd use them to lay a carpet, like any 'good' old biddy should.
But no, I complained about holes, rusty carpet grippers, and broken tiles.
The surveyor actually asked why I didn’t just lay carpet, then it would cover the broken tiles.

I was looking up asbestos floor tiles, out of nosiness, and was staggered that they were referring to the Marley type floor tile of pre 1990. Didn’t most homes have these somewhere?

Also, wouldn’t carpet grippers break through any tiles - causing leakage?

The asbestos was brown (one of the dangerous ones)
They wore full clobber, and vacuumed as they worked.

I have no issue with the asbestos company, it's the useless Council.
According to their own 'Asbestos Management Policy', the house should have been checked when it was empty, and the surveyor suggesting I 'just put carpet down', was definitely out of order, but I have no evidence he said this.
I do have evidence the council decided only 6 - 8 tiles needed removing, when I had the audacity to say I needed more time to clear the room.

I still have the tiles in the bedrooms - they're undamaged, but I bet the concrete has 'blown' under them, and I'll be asking for a sealant to paint them with.

Maggie, was the asbestos blue (the most dangerous)?

Did the workmen seal the room while they removed the tiles in question?

Did the workmen wear protective covering while removing the tiles? (If not, they need to ask their union about this aspect.)

Did they use dust suppression techniques while removing the tiles? (Dust suppression techniques are nothing new. They have been known for years - we had a Dust Suppression Officer where I worked more than fifty years ago.)

My own feeling is that they ought to have put you into other accommodation while they carried out removal of the asbestos. It may be worthwhile asking why they did not do so - and don’t let them fob you off with ‘we had nowhere’ as I’ve known councils lease big mobile homes to house tenants while work was being carried out on their properties.

That's true, Caroline. Due to being unemployed during a pandemic!
Well, sensible nice lad went away, leaving the useless lump.
He hasn't noticed the air vent he put on the wall has fallen off.
He's concreted half the living room, didn't cover my sofa, and he's managed to get concrete on it - he also stacked a load of chemicals on it. :-|
I've sine covered it with a couple of old shower curtains, and removed the chemicals.

Betty & I are squashed into the kitchen, with a victorian desk and my laptop.
She's not going to be happy, I'm shutting her in here for the night.

I asked the useless lump when the tiling will be done - apparently it's not.

Interestingly, I had a letter from the council today, asking me for feedback on the job on 6 December - when they removed the rest of the asbestos tiles.
Apparently, this job was: 'To replace floor tiles in Lounge & entrance hall, asbestos tiles have been removed & make good'

So, that's what the council know about what's happening in their own properties!
Apparently, I now have tiles.

Didn't they basically force you to move to this place? Local news tell them you were forced into here and found this dangerous situation and the stress and worry you've been through just to get a basic human right a safe place to live.

Well before I managed to find a phone number, there was a message in my Tenancy thingy, informing me that contractors would be out 'in a few hours'.
I replied, asking why nobody had bothered considering whether I would be in or not! Half an hour later they were here. The lovely young sensible lad, and the one who is in too much of a hurry to do anything properly.
One of them was for .lobbing everything on top of everything else, and suggested putting the sofa on the table! NO!!!
They're going to clear & seal half the floor today, do the rest tomorrow, then tile.

A bit of subtle quizzing - the council had cancelled 14 & 15 December :-|
They also hadn't contacted the contractors, until this morning, since the young lad came out on 20 December. So much for organising a full and proper job!

On Friday, I allowed my Government rep to contact them, and my sister has a very official sounding email she's going to send them.
I've changed my photo - THAT isn't my floor!
It's not over yet!

I got results with them and our Housing Association by throwing everything at them :-D :-D

I will! :-D

It is easy to skid on crumbly concrete ;-). Throw every excuse at them that you can :-D

The main hole has now disappeared, as they've taken away the asbestos containing tiles - I'm now left with uneven, crumbly concrete, with many ridges, where the sealant survives.
It's more the fact that the Council didn't check the premises, despite having an asbestos register, and left me breathing in asbestos dust for 10 months.

Just explain that is dangerous for us older folk and if you fall over you will sue them. In my experience that usually fires them into action :-D :-D :-D.