Homebuyer survey report

AdrianW2

I'm a novice, never owned a house before.

Just got my homebuyer report back from the surveyor. Friends and family warned it would probably be scary, and it is. I'm wondering how much of it really needs worrying about and how much is the surveyor covering himself.

The main issue appears to be the kitchen extension flat roof leaking into the wall, causing damp. How serious is this likely to be (ignore it for a bit, new roof cover or new wall?)

He's also concerned about the roof (not sure if this is the flat roof or the main pitched roof) needing extra bracing "trusses" - I'm not sure why, this is a 1970's house and the timber is apparently in good condition so unless there was a design flaw I don't see why it should have become structurally unsound.

There's also some other stuff about slipped tiles, guttering, drainage, old electrics and the back boiler ventilation that I was expecting and doesn't bother me too much.

Am I worrying over nothing?

dougk_2

You would be better posting in the House buying section but....
This is the sort of thing surveyors asy - they need to cover their own backs!
The flat roof probably needs replacing and you can probably negotiate on this issue with the price (flat roofs have a limited lifespan). This would then probably resolve the damp issue.
The cross bracing is again something that they like to cover their backs on. It is basically a change in how things are viewed now, to how they were built years ago. You can probably do this work yourself or a builder/chippy can do it for not much (maybe a days work?), if you want to do this.
The electrics they always say you should get checked!

The rest sounds like routine maintenance (eg slipped tiles etc) so nothing i would panic about

MX5huggy

Have you spoken to the surveyor? ask him.

You would want to get the roof fixed quite quickly but the wall should be fine once you dry it out.

I may need extra bracing because it does have a design flaw or maybe the tiles have been changed to heavier type.

27col

People at work used to bring me their surveyors reports to look at. They were nearly always scary, but as someone has all ready said, mostly they are covering their backs. For instance, they would mention that possibly the wall ties might fail at some stage. But nothing was visible and there was no physical symptom which might lead you to suspect that the wall ties had failed or were going to fail.
The comment about the roof is a bit mysterious. Trussed roofs were quite common in the 1970's. The only point that I could see someone mentioning, is that trussed roofs should have diagonal bracing across the trusses to prevent any tendency for the trusses to tilt over. If this roof does not have any or not enough of them. Then they are very easy to install yourself, inside the roof. When I built my house the Building Inspector was hot on this, and told me how and where to install them.

AdrianW2

Thanks all. I talked to the surveyor, and he's reassured me that the report isn't that bad and the wall should dry out after the roof flashing is fixed.

The roof bracing is apparently a change in design philosophy - diagonal bracing wasn't considered necessary until a few gable walls collapsed.

Annoyingly it looks like the cost of the building control approval is going to be more than the cost of the work.

27col

Why do you need bc approval. Just get on and put the braces in yourself.