Surveyor Report - Help!

chickmug

keith969 wrote: »

This is quite common actually in Victorian terraced houses. I've owned one that had no party wall in the loft, bit weird seeing your neighbour's junk!

Yes it is common and was not against whatever building regs applied (if any) when built. So if I were selling - acting for a seller - I could say I am not paying for you to have the house brought up to todays building regs standards.

BUT if I were buying - well that is different.

Fire_Fox

Many years ago I bought an Edwardian cottage and had a full structural survey which found evidence of rising damp throughout. We offered lower accordingly. Later we had Rentokil and several local damp companies in to report. Most companies just said damp throughout and quoted for DPC. Rentokil went round with me, and asked permission to take of small areas of skirting etc.

Result: in the ground floor bathroom we simply needed to chop back plaster which was touching the floor breaching the DPC. In the living area we needed to unblock a chimney breast and clear out muck which had fallen to the bottom and was breaching DPC. In the rear extension the new concrete floor had breached old DPC - advised new DPC in that area was cheaper than lowering floor level. Very impressed with the service and the explanations, and the work was both cheaper and much less disruptive than we had expected as a result of the investigations.

Candykisses: Rising damp is often not noticeable, but it can still rot your floor timbers. It's penetrating damp from a blocked gutter or leaky roof that will be obviously 'wet'.