On Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 9:45:47 PM UTC, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
What do the local council building control say about what they did, if its
unsafe I'd have thought they could force them to redo all of these stupid
designs, but you may have to lose your car parking spot at least for a time.
Brian

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On Tuesday, 21 January 2020 15:03:15 UTC, Anna Bonaddio wrote:

I would be very grateful for some advice on this. We bought a house from
a developer two years ago, the house included what we thought was a useful
outhouse that could become a mancave at some point... simple construction,
built with breeze blocks, but when we read up on the planning permission
we realised it was a way of getting round planning permission for them as
our car parking space is on top of it (there were protected trees in the
way of the space that was on the original plans). I know it sounds
eccentric that we park on top of it... that part of our garden is a storey
below street level.

We've had constant damp patches ever since we moved in. The parking space
is on a slope and we seem to get all the rain seeping into side of the
outhouse that is at the lowest point. Everything in there is has mould on
it and there is constant condensation inside the glass door. I have an
electrician here today installing a fan, he has noticed there are two
layers of the breeze blocks in the wall with a gap in between and he can
see the bricks are damp in between the gap.

Next to our car parking space there is a narrow gutter leading to a
drainpipe, that is also very narrow, but I can also see dark patches of
damp and mould all over the ceiling of the outhouse (which is wooden
struts supporting plywood and then whatever the builders put above that.

We did manage to get the developer to put some leading around the edge of
the car parking paving, but it hasn't had any affect on the damp as far as
I can see. Our neighbour shares the other half of this outhouse (he parks
his car next to us) and he says there is no point in pursuing the
developer, we just have to work out our own fixes.

If anyone has some advice I would be really grateful, I'm worried the
outhouse will collapse under the weight of our cars as much as anything!

I can't help thinking there's just not enough info here. As a short term
measure I'd plug a dehumidifier in. A fan I would not expect to keep on top
of it or prevent further damage, and the damage from mould can be extensive
and very expensive.

I'd suggest posting some pics of the outside so we can see what the
relationship is between the outhouse & ground levels, slopes, water drainage
etc. Maybe some pics showing construction details on the outhouse too. I'll
admit to being surprised that, IIUC, you're parking your car on a plywood
roof. Details might help, that might be a problem area in a couple of ways.


NT

Thanks very much for this suggestion - I have emailed my local council's buildings control!