Our hall porch is a lovely Victorian ‘conservatory’ construction, but it does have an issue with a hard-to-reach section of the roof in which gathers rainwater, weeds and once even a dead seagull. Although we had the porch professionally redecorated a few years ago, this last winter we had noticed quite a bit of damage building up due to rain ingress: peeling paintwork most noticeably.
We share the costs of maintaining the building with our neighbours and we divide up any tasks that we can do ourselves. Nick and I volunteered to redecorate the hall porch. I took a few ‘before’ photos:
![porch steps before](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/worn-steps-scaled.jpg)
![peeling paint on skirting board](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/peeling-skirting.jpg)
![crumbling paintwork](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/lower-ceiling-before-repairjpg.jpg)
![knots in wood showing through](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/knots.jpg)
![stained mat before repair](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/before-stained-mat.jpg)
![](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/before-rh-wall-scaled.jpg)
Once I start with the scraper, I find it hard to stop, and as I went at the wall I found more and more paint coming off very easily:
The problem here was that it was coming off in several layers, including patches of lining paper. So Nick had to repaper this section before we could replaint.
![wall repainted](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/wall-repainted-scaled.jpg)
Once we went up the ladder we started to discover other issues, such as this section of rotten frame where water had got in…
![window frame rot](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/windoframe-rot-closeup.jpg)
I tackled this with several layers of wood filler. I can’t say I made a beautiful job of it but it should hold for a few years I hope!
![Nick cleans the windows](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/nick-cleaning1-scaled.jpg)
This looks like Nick did all the work but I did a lot of scraping, filling and painting I can assure you! Although I did leave the painting of the steps to him, I admit.
It look a few weeks of off-and-on work but it was worth it…
![](https://eastbournediary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/finished-steps-rh-wall-scaled.jpg)
We replaced the coir mat with a faux-coir version (easier to vacuum and generally keep clean) and treated the top of the steps to a new washable mat from Dunelm.
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