Holding back the flood - part I

Life in a Dutch farmhouse definitely seems to consist of spending a lot of time battling water - and the knock on effects of too much water.

Earlier in September, after a lovely dry summer, we had more rain in the space of 4 days than we normally have in the whole month, even here in North Holland. Within a few hours we started to see water running into the living room through the ceiling and racing upstairs saw water pouring across the bedroom floor. We spent the evening dancing in the rain on the conservatory roof, unplugging gutters and drains, bailing water that was pouring down the thatch onto the flat roof. It slowed the flood - but didn't cure the issue completely. We  thought we'd identified the issue as being the old flat roof on the living room conservatory, so we called out a roofer to replace it. The next day W went climbing about in the attic to look for any other traces - and sure enough, there was another large pool of water - so we called out the thatcher to have new thatching above the windows. I was so relieved -  we thought we had resolved the issue.

Until about 4 weeks later, when again, we had water running across the floor - this time from a leaking pipe on the radiator. Ok, not so bad, simply call out the plumber to have a look and get new pipes in to replace the old worn ones, because we didn't have the time to do it ourselves. I don't mind learning on the job as we do DIY and have the time to do it , but learning whilst there is a continuous flow of water across the floor, no hot water, and the boiler is on the blink  - and we have to be in the office, isn't my favourite.

As the rains deepened, we realised that the gutters across the back of the house are not tilting properly, causing water to run down the brick walls, and soak into the plaster  - it's still an ongoing issue. And yesterday, we realised that the plaster in another room is soaking wet ( and now has not-so-pretty newspaper print all over it!). I think we have rising damp in that room - and W & I have jumped another hurdle - how to explain rising damp to each other when you don't share a common language in DIY jargon!

This weekend was the fields being flooded and I covered that in an earlier post. Today we've lost the electrics in the living room and the kitchen - shorting in the rain. I think the next few days will see a lot of running around to and sort this all out! I've entitled this part I, in the hope that I can soon publish part II which is all happiness as we've turned back the water still currently encroaching on our home.