Damp in lower ground flat (tanking costs)

sophiesofa

Hello I wonder if anyone can help? My boyfriend and I are thinking of putting an offer in on a flat we love. One of the bedroom has had part of the plaster board and floor removed while they're fixing it because of the flat above let their bath overflow so it all seeped through the walls and obviously we were suspicious and investigated further. My boyfirends mate went round with a damp metre today and found some damp in the room which is lower ground floor with one small window. The room is about 7ft by 10 foot. He says it needs 'tanking' which is where a damp specialist has to remove the floor and 'sort everything out'. I don't have any more information than that because he's a plasterer not an expert so doesn't know any more. Does anyone know how much this kind of thing might cost in East Dulwich, London. Obviously we need to factor this into our offer if the vendors not going to get it sorted herself. Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We love thye flat so we're happy to buy at the right price of couse because we don't need that room urgently.

Thanks in advance! :money:

sophiesofa

Also the property is share of freehold but we don't know what that exactly covers for the paticular freehold. It's a vicorian house with 2 flats above the one we want to buy. thanks again

ScouseIrish

If the bath overflowed and caused the damp, you may not need to tank the property. If its an older property, chances are that there were never any problems until the bath overflowed. Also, it appears that the damp is on an external wall (not touching any external ground material). If thats the case, it may just need a DPM that can be applied to the top of the floor slab and the insertion of a physical DPC in the external wall. Tanking can also go on top of the slab if needed so breaking up the slab is a bit too destructive for what you want.

I'm not an expert on this or am I a damp specialist but you are going to need a building surveyor to examine the property - beware of damp specialists because they will just want to inject the wall with a chemical and give you a guarantee for that part of the wall - the damp will naturally want to move elsewhere so if it pops up on a seperate wall, the guarantee won't cover it.

Entertainer

There isn't alot of mystique to tanking. All they do is hack the plaster back to brickwork and paint on a slurry (the tanking) and rerender. If it was a non crucial area like that I would do it myself (the demolishing and painting of the solution) and get someone to replaster. Alternatively, they fit a drain which draws the damp away from the wall. 7 by 10 is a small area, it shouldn't be more than five grand even if you paid someone.

sophiesofa

brilliant advice thankyou both.:money: