Survey shows problems - help!

Sandra2

stupot101 wrote: »

It is c. 1920s.



This is definitely worth checking out - I assumed it just needed a DPC and that was the end of it.

:T

I know several people in houses built around this period and what they needed were air bricks and chimney's unblocking, not chemical injections. The chemical stuff can make it worse so do check out all options. It would be worth showing the EA only the bits of the survey which highlight the problems if they need proof of what has been said but I agree with the others that you should negotiate on price as re-wiring and damp is hugely disruptive and costly which as a FTB you can't be expected to pay all by yourself. The valuation is confidential and you don't have to disclose it. We know we have a damp issue with one of our walls which was next on the list of jobs to do but as we are now selling we will expect to negotiate with our buyers. See if the vendor will agree to 3 quotes being obtained for the work and negotiate!

stupot101

Sandra2 wrote: »

I know several people in houses built around this period and what they needed were air bricks and chimney's unblocking, not chemical injections. The chemical stuff can make it worse so do check out all options. It would be worth showing the EA only the bits of the survey which highlight the problems if they need proof of what has been said but I agree with the others that you should negotiate on price as re-wiring and damp is hugely disruptive and costly which as a FTB you can't be expected to pay all by yourself.

Not sure about air bricks, but the chimney is blocked yes. I guess it would be key to find companies who will give me honest quotes for what actually needs done, and not what they will be able to charge the most for.

00ec25

stupot101 wrote: »

Never been installed at all according to the survey. :eek:

that would be consistent seeing as the Building Regulations requiring DPC were not introduced until the 1920's anyway, before then houses did not have to have a DPC, which is why chemical ones are now common in Victorian era properties. Even then the first DPC were simply tarred hessian etc and so often have failed by now.

Get a quote for a chemical DPC, it is unlikely that airbricks and chimneys will be the whole answer (although they will still be relevant) but it depends on the quality of the original brickwork. That said any future survey will raise the same issue so will be a problem when you come to sell it yourself - fact of life, surveyors prefer DPC.

The survey should say if its cavity wall or solid wall construction, as this job is very disruptive since often all the plasterwork on the bottom of every wall inside the house must be removed to allow them to do it (by comparison outside walls are easy, you just drill a hole and pump the stuff in). You can even rent the kit and DIY it if you want, but perhaps not an ideal FTB project :rolleyes:

as for the electrics what you really want to know is if the wiring is rubber insulation or PVC. If rubber then it has/is perishing and is positively dangerous. Rubber was still used up to the 1950's/60's, but that makes it 40 years old at least.

If PVC, then as a buyer, I would ask when the house was last rewired and quote IEEE advice about renewals every 10 - 15 years. As a vendor, in the latter case, I would say it still works so on yer bike!

stupot101

00ec25 wrote: »

that would be consistent seeing as the Building Regulations requiring DPC were not introduced until the 1920's anyway, before then houses did not have to have a DPC, which is why chemical ones are now common in Victorian era properties. Even then the first DPC were simply tarred hessian etc and so often have failed by now.

Get a quote for a chemical DPC, it is unlikely that airbricks and chimneys will be the whole answer (although they will still be relevant) but it depends on the quality of the original brickwork. That said any future survey will raise the same issue so will be a problem when you come to sell it yourself - fact of life, surveyors prefer DPC.

The survey should say if its cavity wall or solid wall construction, as this job is very disruptive since often all the plasterwork on the bottom of every wall inside the house must be removed to allow them to do it (by comparison outside walls are easy, you just drill a hole and pump the stuff in). You can even rent the kit and DIY it if you want, but perhaps not an ideal FTB project :rolleyes:

as for the electrics what you really want to know is if the wiring is rubber insulation or PVC. If rubber then it has/is perishing and is positively dangerous. Rubber was still used up to the 1950's/60's, but that makes it 40 years old at least.

If PVC, then as a buyer, I would ask when the house was last rewired and quote IEEE advice about renewals every 10 - 15 years. As a vendor, in the latter case, I would say it still works so on yer bike!

The walls are solid brick. _pale_ So no easy fix!

I'm going to go back to the surveyor first to see if he can give me any more detailed information - what were the exact signs of the damp, are there air bricks installed/what's their condition, what is the wiring insulated with etc.

tbs624

stupot101 wrote: »

Not sure about air bricks, but the chimney is blocked yes. I guess it would be key to find companies who will give me honest quotes for what actually needs done, and not what they will be able to charge the most for.

Most firms who offer DP surveys do so because they want to flog their services to you. Before you go down that route have a look at Jeff Howell's website - he has a construction industry background and has written books & broasdhseet newpaper columns on property matters.

00ec25

OK, I would have been surprised if they were cavity walls as 1920's was about the time they switched to that construction method, solid brick would have been the norm until then, so no big deal, afterall plenty of pre 1920’s houses still standing, but I bet the house does not score very high on the energy rating!

I've no idea if a chemical DPC needs to be injected from both sides on a solid wall, may be poss to do from outside only so will be much cheaper

One assumes the surveyor will have done damp meter readings to ID it, the fact he describes it as "rising and widespread" suggests to me no DPC. Airbricks mainly relate to either ventilation of the airspace under a wooden (ie. suspended, not solid concrete) floor or for controlling general room condensation which would cause damp inside but not rising damp. So as he says its rising damp, then the real cure is to stop it rising(!) rather than hope that ventilation will keep drying the place out.

If the damp is bad enough to have visible signs, (ie plaster discoloured, cracking, bubbling, peeling or with black mould) then you def need to negotiate a price reduction.

stupot101

tbs624 wrote: »

Most firms who offer DP surveys do so because they want to flog their services to you. Before you go down that route have a look at Jeff Howell's website- he has a construction industry background and has written books & broasdhseet newpaper columns on property matters.

After reading that, and a few other articles on the rising damp myth, I'm doubting if there's a problem at all. I'll be quizzing the surveyor tomorrow I think.

stupot101

00ec25 wrote: »

OK, I would have been surprised if they were cavity walls as 1920's was about the time they switched to that construction method, solid brick would have been the norm until then, so no big deal, afterall plenty of pre 1920’s houses still standing, but I bet the house does not score very high on the energy rating!

I've no idea if a chemical DPC needs to be injected from both sides on a solid wall, may be poss to do from outside only so will be much cheaper

One assumes the surveyor will have done damp meter readings to ID it, the fact he describes it as "rising and widespread" suggests to me no DPC. Airbricks mainly relate to either ventilation of the airspace under a wooden (ie. suspended, not solid concrete) floor or for controlling general room condensation which would cause damp inside but not rising damp. So as he says its rising damp, then the real cure is to stop it rising(!) rather than hope that ventilation will keep drying the place out.

If the damp is bad enough to have visible signs, (ie plaster discoloured, cracking, bubbling, peeling or with black mould) then you def need to negotiate a price reduction.

It has a 64 energy rating. Think that's fairly poor?

As far as I can tell a chemical DPC on a non-cavity wall house needs to be done on the inside, so bye bye plaster.

There is no phyical sign of damp anywhere in the house - not that we saw, and we looked pretty hard. I assume the surveyor is just basing his "widespread" remark on the electric conductor damp meter test. Which seems to be an entirely useless test after reading after reading Jeff Howell's website. I'll know for sure when I ask him tomorrow. So hopefully that might be one of the problems dismissed. :undecided

00ec25

stupot101 wrote: »

There is no phyical sign of damp anywhere in the house - not that we saw, and we looked pretty hard.

fair enough then.
I'm in no position to argue with that website but i do speak from personal experience of helping my father deal with "damp" (however you want to define it!) in my aunt's house where the wallpaper could not be stuck to the walls and the plaster was peeling it was so damp. This was back in the 1970's before electric meter gizmos, we did it the old fashioned way - your eyes told you it was damp and your hands could feel it (A 1930's bungalow) and yes there was black mould in the plaster - auntie had left it rather long!

re EPC rating - who cares! No one wants them, I'll bet you like the house becuase of the room size/location etc rather than its green credentials! I mentioned it becuase the website i looked at explaining house construction methods emphasised the difference in U ratings between solid and cavity but its just a pointless waste of money foisted on us by Tony/Gordon to fool the green vote.

Fire_Fox

stupot101 wrote: »

Not sure about air bricks, but the chimney is blocked yes. I guess it would be key to find companies who will give me honest quotes for what actually needs done, and not what they will be able to charge the most for.

If you don't have a damp proof course at all you will probably need to have this done. However this won't resolve the problem entirely if you don't address any other issues that will cause damp. Just because there are no visible signs of damp doesn't mean the house isn't damp, it just means there isn't a severe problem with water ingress.

Get Rentokil in - we had several damp companies recommending a full DPC on an Edwardian cottage I owned. Rentokil told us to unblock the chimney and airbricks, cut away some plaster that was touching the concrete floor and DPC one area where the old DPC had been bridged by a new concrete floor.

You can't really expect to only pay for a homebuyer's report and then go back to the surveyor asking for more information - on a house of this age you should have paid for a full structural survey.