Found damp!Neighbours path goes over my air vents!!

lauren1983

Hi ,

I have just bought a new house. the building survey said there was no damp but i have found some.

Its on my outside wall, i took some floor boards up and the ground underneath is very damp. There is vents but i went round to next door and found that thier concrete path is half way over one and completely covers the other.also it seems that the damp proof injection is just above my floor boards

Is there any way i can solve this without upsetting my neighbour and asking him to rip up his path !!!

Any advice would be great

Thank you


lauren

darich

Are you sure it's damp?

The survey's definition of damp and your interpretation could be very different. There may well be no damp in your property but you've found moisture on the wall.
Moisture on the wall does not necessarily equal damp although if not solved it could lead to damp.

If you're really concerned then you could get a couple of the bricks removed and replaced with vents to improve the ventilation. Not sure how easy it is but many sites list it as a DIY job. If it's your neighbour's wall then getting a pro to do it and ensuring a faster neater job may be advisable.

But if it's your neighbours wall why does it affect your property?(I can't picture the situation) and it may be that it's his wall that has damp and not yours.

TomsMom

Was the survey you mention a specialist damp survey? If not, how about getting one from a specialist firm (or a couple) and see what they say. If there is a problem that comes to light then you could go round to your neighbour and ask if you could discuss the results fo your survey with him, keep it friendly and hopefully you will have no problems unless your neighbour turns out to be very unhelpful.

Most surveys/valuations done for mortgage purposes generally tend to suggest obtaining damp surveys etc. as a matter of course to protect the backs of the surveyor. Was this not mentioned in yours?

mikey72

The ground will be damp, as you have noticed, the damp proof course is above the floorboards, so anything above that is dry. The ventilation helps dry the underside of the floorboards, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask him to cut away an inch or two at the side of his path, so long as the path doesn't then drain into your house. It also depands on the size and number of the other air bricks.
Without seeing your floor, the joists for the floorboards should have protection from damp in the walls as well.
On a modern house, it is usually done by building the dpc below the level of the floor. As yours sounds older, having a dpc injected, are the joists on slates, or something similar?

Mojisola

We had this problem when we bought our house. The previous owner had raised a path so that it was level with the airbricks. Everytime it rained, water went in through the airbricks and the house was very damp.

We had a settlement from the surveyor to rectify the problem because he should have seen it. I don't know how you would stand with it being a neighbour who has caused the problem but I would have thought that the surveyor should have looked at all the outside walls.

lauren1983

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Mojisola, how did you get it fixed??and havs the damp gone altogether now??

Im going to get intouch with the surveyor and hope he understands. We did pay for the full building survey so im sure he should have picked up on it

Thanks again :beer:

Mojisola

We agreed to settle with the insurance company because they wanted to dig out a small area in front of the house and drop the level to below the airbricks. We wanted to do the job properly. I didn't fancy having a pit people could fall in by the front door! We put more money towards the surveyor's money and lowered the level of the drive completely.

It stopped water coming in through the airbricks - at times we had six inches of water under the house after heavy rain - but it couldn't stop it rising up through the earth and that used to make the air in the house quite humid. We used to run a dehumidifier for most of the winter to tackle the condensation.

After many years of that, we've just had the floors taken out and insulated concrete floors put in. We can already feel the difference in the house and will be interested to see how much warmer and drier the house is this winter.