problems following our house purchase!!

sthelensdanielle

maninthestreet wrote: »

So your FIL is a builder, but you didn't ask him to perform any sort of informal inspection of this house himself before you bought it? Although he is probably not a qualified surveyor, being a builder he may well have spotted things weren't quite as the vendor had told you - any builder worth his salt would know how to check that a house has a DPC installed. At the very least, it might have prompted you to pay for a more in-depth survey, that probably would have then uncovered the underlying issues with damp.

my FIL did have an informal look at the house but did not have a damp tester at the time which you need to test for any concealed damp. all the walls had been plastered, plasterboarded, and painted,etc, and the house was immaculate, a total refurb', so there was no indication of damp at face value. there were actually the holes drilled for damp course all around the house which lead us to believe that the seller was indeed telling the truth about the dpc, but at later inspection (once the damp began to show) we found that the actual liquid had not been pumped into the walls. the fact that the holes had been drilled shows us that the seller was aware of the problem and did everything in his power to decieve and convince us there was no cause for concern.
i feel cheated by this man and would love to have some legal stance to make him pay for the problems he has caused us, however it does not seem that this is going to be the case i will definatley be getting a full survey done next time!!!!

QTPie

sthelensdanielle wrote: »

i feel cheated by this man and would love to have some legal stance to make him pay for the problems he has caused us, however it does not seem that this is going to be the case i will definatley be getting a full survey done next time!!!!

I don't think this is that uncommon - for people to try to "cover-up" things like this. It is very sad, but that it the way of the world: you can't really trust anyone

QT

anchortie

You are ALL barking up the wrong Tree!!
A property is surveyed...the surveyor uses a hand held 'meter' on the base of the walls to the ground floor and when it goes in the 'red' he advises a 'damp specialist' to investigate. NOW THIS IS WHERE YOU ALL GO SERIOUSLY WRONG. You check out 'yellow pages' for e.g. and you ask a company for a 'FREE' survey. Mmmm. There is NO SUCH THING AS FREE OF CHARGE!! Those companies are Damp Proofing Contractors so they will not go for free and tell you ' You Have No Problems...ARE THEY!!. You need to find a company that specialises in providing A TRUE ANALYSIS for damp related problems and is TOTALLY UNBIASED and one that ONLY USES CALCIUM CARBIDE testing equipment. This equipment is PROVES that original damp courses are still operative so saves you £1,000's in unnecessary work. Such a survey starts at £245.00 for a 3 bed semi. Sounds expensive .... you are so wrong. How much did your damp course cost? Was it required?? I don,t think so. Had your oriignal damp course broken down .... HIGHLY improbable. Was the property suffering in fact from Condensation....HIGHLY LIKELY. Has the problem now been solved...NO. A de-humidifier + extractors with humidistats and a constant form of heating between 16 - 22 degrees in winter would have solved your problem. For those of you that have had Free companies out and have given you a written report having only used a Damp Meter for their analysis can be taken to Trading Standards because when up aginst the use of Calcium Carbide which is the proof of the pudding such companies are 'fooling' the public. Naughty ey.

gemmalouanna

sthelensdanielle wrote: »

rather than claim on our insurance, as we didnt want our payments to rocket following a claim.

Somehow I do not thing damp is covered on insurance!

I do sympathise with you though - we are in a similar situation with the whole damp thing - had my final plaster skim today after DPC so just praying it dries properly and I can finally paint my walls.

Davesnave

anchortie wrote: »

You are ALL barking up the wrong Tree!!
A property is surveyed...the surveyor uses a hand held 'meter' on the base of the walls to the ground floor and when it goes in the 'red' he advises a 'damp specialist' to investigate. NOW THIS IS WHERE YOU ALL GO SERIOUSLY WRONG. You check out 'yellow pages' for e.g. and you ask a company for a 'FREE' survey. Mmmm. There is NO SUCH THING AS FREE OF CHARGE!! Those companies are Damp Proofing Contractors so they will not go for free and tell you ' You Have No Problems...ARE THEY!!. You need to find a company that specialises in providing A TRUE ANALYSIS for damp related problems and is TOTALLY UNBIASED and one that ONLY USES CALCIUM CARBIDE testing equipment. This equipment is PROVES that original damp courses are still operative so saves you £1,000's in unnecessary work. Such a survey starts at £245.00 for a 3 bed semi. Sounds expensive .... you are so wrong. How much did your damp course cost? Was it required?? I don,t think so. Had your oriignal damp course broken down .... HIGHLY improbable. Was the property suffering in fact from Condensation....HIGHLY LIKELY. Has the problem now been solved...NO. A de-humidifier + extractors with humidistats and a constant form of heating between 16 - 22 degrees in winter would have solved your problem. For those of you that have had Free companies out and have given you a written report having only used a Damp Meter for their analysis can be taken to Trading Standards because when up aginst the use of Calcium Carbide which is the proof of the pudding such companies are 'fooling' the public. Naughty ey.

While you are right about the 'rising damp' mug's game, your solution isn't the only one, nor can you diagnose the OP's problem at a distance. The type of house plays a major role, and the solutions depend on one's philosophy. It ain't always strsaightforward. Some good discussion/disagreement to be found on this site:

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum114/search.php?PostBackAction=Search&Keywords=damp&Type=Topics