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Conservatory from hell Games Room conversion

Rob zombie

Rob zombie

Site Supporter
5Years
Joined
Nov 30, 2018
Messages
2,457
Location
Conwy
Oh boy. It's been a hell of a year. As some of you may recall I decided to move to the Welsh coast during lockdown last year. I had to sell 3 pinball machines due to downsizing and was just left with BSD, which I really couldn't bring myself to sell. Ever. When we moved in there was a hot tub in the conservatory that we had no intention of ever using so that got sold. From there it seemed like a straightforward splash of paint and maybe do something with the floor...B210899C-56B8-4577-9747-1C3D02EF966A.jpeg
 
So I contacted a tiler and we had a conversation on Whatsapp and I started to strip back the 'wooden' floor. It soon became clear that the wooden floor had been laid on top of tiles and needed stripping out. At this point I was thinking we could just tile on top of the tiles.197F2846-4EAE-490F-A1DF-0B52E3678C32.jpeg301821EA-976D-4B77-8FD5-BC79817910F6.jpeg36E95EAB-A835-4D38-8BA1-78BE42A00E78.jpeg6FB69AB1-AB47-4898-8EDE-B61B192627D1.jpegC80E7AAD-5A42-414F-888A-EF68A97FECC2.jpeg
 
But then it became clear that some of the tiling was literally tiled on thin air. So I figured I would maybe fill in the gaps and just tile it. But then things really started to go south...C6F1BDC5-80FE-4927-A52A-2CFE14183D00.jpeg
 
It turned out that the stairs had been built by complete cowboys on top of a big bag of broken shards of glass as foundations. That was a real low point and I honestly thought things could not get any worse. How wrong I was....55ACFC6C-F83B-4C0E-B30B-1ACA239A8F70.jpegBDA7A3D3-1F59-4147-B035-A2F211495117.jpegCCE3C8F5-AFDB-46A7-8D93-44E47CFDE83F.jpeg5E181387-5E62-482F-B1F4-7069B026D359.jpegD3746D0F-736B-4A9C-9173-34A317BE4CB7.jpegD8122A64-1E6F-4EF1-AD44-986455D411E5.jpeg03ED2370-FE6D-427D-8F60-8945F563C416.jpeg
 
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What I hadn't imagined was that the boxed in pipework might actually go to an open drain inside the conservatory. I don't honestly know if it was blocked like this before or if I disturbed it enough to make it look like this, we'll never know....EF359EED-6593-440C-B401-CC1D9A827EBA.jpeg5350E3DB-9B42-4634-A4D9-2AA8058CC268.jpegEF359EED-6593-440C-B401-CC1D9A827EBA.jpeg5350E3DB-9B42-4634-A4D9-2AA8058CC268.jpeg35062292-4E1E-42F9-B5B5-007C5F14B6E4.jpegC3CF2BE5-0782-4F19-BDCB-B5891C64D381.jpeg7823F386-C307-44DC-A213-C4BBA8C96B66.jpeg71013498-6867-49A4-9FDA-330CC0F35FAB.jpegDD2C61B1-A191-44C3-889C-0A8CB139260D.jpegC5DD618D-0F52-4186-8E13-D39A903D9807.jpeg
 
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I think this just really sums up the level of contempt that this builder had for the home owner 20 years ago...stabbing the drainpipe to the wall with a screwdriver before boxing it in. Wow!DD225A3A-D2B6-4B50-B28D-A783EC486B55.jpegDEBD3FF9-0718-47A3-A1D4-AABC95D22A4F.jpegA27F48A0-FD69-48CD-A6F6-C2B3A93BCBDD.jpeg
 
So at this point I did some YouTubing and learnt how to build moulds for stairs and cast my own concrete steps. Oh and I had already rebuilt the drain by now as well as re-laying foundations and concrete in that area.7352390A-09FF-40CC-AB87-3A11169580BB.jpeg1CFCB4CC-FE20-41CD-9D87-D704740A62EA.jpeg
 
The next stage was levelling the floor. This was my first attempt. Never listen to the instructions on the bag. Way too thick and had to be done again the next day by the tiler.
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Day one of tiling...8CFCD6F4-265F-4418-AE5A-76DB6F468734.jpeg82D711AB-2D2F-4463-A5C7-E540B7B03F34.jpeg
 

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This was the night we had a biblical storm. I was down there at 3:30am mopping up 2" of rainwater.70C86741-7E38-4DE3-A69C-CD1153FEDEEB.jpeg3694EC35-A8C7-4649-A027-CB375A052996.jpeg
 
Ah, not so bad in the end then!

My mate was cut the power to the whole street for hours through no fault of his own. He was replacing some fence posts on his bungalow rebuild and almost electrocuted himself with a main power conduit to the street was discovered under a post.

Glad your place is sorted, well done!
 
Neil McRae said:
What did you do with the money you got?
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House renovations mostly! There's been a lot of jobs needed doing. Some planned, some unexpected. I've had to reinstate 4 new fireplaces which definitely wasn't a task I'd planned on doing immediately but needed to for ventilation to cure a problem with damp due to condensation. I'm glad I didn't buy that chapel that's for sure!
 
The internal drain, i assume rain water to sewers some how, and not a soak away? If a soak away you should consider moving the thing to an external position and digging new soakaway. Why not have it drain of the conservatory roof to what ever drainage you have for that outside?

Good job though, well done.

John
 
Biff said:
The internal drain, i assume rain water to sewers some how, and not a soak away? If a soak away you should consider moving the thing to an external position and digging new soakaway. Why not have it drain of the conservatory roof to what ever drainage you have for that outside?

Good job though, well done.

John
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I'm not entirely sure. I think it goes to a soakaway but not certain. I did consider re-routing it but I didn't really want to disturb the pipework around the roof as it's very difficult to access and it's doing it's job as is. Plus the conservatory is getting on for 20 years old now and eventually it's going to need replacing altogether. I'd like to build a proper extension and take it all the way around the back of the house to join up with the kitchen. But that's long term really.
 
if you see any signs of damp, excessive condensation, black mould, the internal drain will be the cause. The solution, move it outside and fill in the hole in the roof.
 
Rob zombie said:
Best decision we ever made! In fact I think I might go for a walk down to the beach right now :)
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We moved here 20 years ago from London, best thing we ever did😎
We bought our place from my wife’s uncle who did the conversion from school to a house so knew it was done properly as he did it for himself.

Once you get everything water tight and work out any damp issues you can relax, we renovated a house that my daughter lives in and next door my son owns (few doors away from me) The upstairs walls kept getting damp no matter what work we had done on the chimneys but my sons wall next door was ok, reason was the previous owner on my sons house was a builder and had rubber lined the wall then plastered over it!!! Once we had the chimneys replaced it was all good but could never understand why my sons was not damp so confused the matter😂
 
Rob zombie said:
House renovations mostly! There's been a lot of jobs needed doing. Some planned, some unexpected. I've had to reinstate 4 new fireplaces which definitely wasn't a task I'd planned on doing immediately but needed to for ventilation to cure a problem with damp due to condensation. I'm glad I didn't buy that chapel that's for sure!
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I meant with your winnings for bet you won painting the walls green :lol:

just kidding mate, looks good.
 
Neil McRae said:
I meant with your winnings for bet you won painting the walls green :lol:

just kidding mate, looks good.
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Lol I thought you were on about my tax refund! But yeah the green is definitely different. Needed something bold against those crazy tiles :)
 
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