house sale fallen through Rising damp in survey help!

chillbill

Little Snuggy - to late! had read it at weekend but because of all the conflicting advice thought would be better to come here detail my situation and get something more specific (and some sympathy LOL!) - wine must be working am develping a sense of humour in the face of my misery;)

Hi new home owner -thanks for the sympathy - does help! hope my situation is more like yours but unfortunately think is unlikely as we have a new boiler and house is very well heated. Actually just made me think - our house does not have any airbricks - not sure if this is correct term, we only have two vents where the chimmney has been blocked up. Could this have a factor inthe reading or any supposed damp?

chillbill

Hi again Sebb
When I spoke to my solicitor this morning they said that the sale of my house was all but complete - all queries buyers solicitor had raised had been sorted - no other problems as far as they were concerned they were ready to go - just waiting for return of queries from the house we were purchasing.

I would be happy to negotiate but due to her sticking her head on a hole is unlikely. The biggest frustration is that it does not appear to be her decision but the idiot boyfriend who is not even buying the house.

BTW house is set back slightly form the road - and we have off road parking its not mega noisy - only at peak times - evening and night is quiet. We have a huge back garden which is not overlooked and makes you feel as if you are inthe middle of the country - no road noise whatsoever. This is the main reason why the girl liked the house - really unusual to have such a fab big garden in our price range

David_Aldred

Hi chillbill,
I am afraid you may be unable to pull the purchaser back to the negotiating table and if this happens it leaves you with a house on the market once again of which you are obviously concerned regarding the issue of dampness picked up by the previous contractor.

As others have indicated you cannot prove rising dampness with a conductivity (electrical) damp meter and the only way to do so is by ruling out all other moisture sources first then undertaking laboratory investigation of each and every wall under investigation by destructively removing wall samples - that is not opinion that is simple fact. What you have had to date is a guess at the cause from a contractor selling new damp proof courses and nothing more.

You could just wait and see what happens with the next potential purchaser and any contractor they send round to look at the problem again. You could also consider having the work they recommended undertaken but that would be simply on their guess which may well be incorrect and in any case the rate of drying down if the wall is truly damp would be only at around 25mm wall thickness per calender month so high readings would still be found by anyone surveying within the short term of a few months. That being the case if that happened you may find yourself in the middle of another dispute / buyer pulling out again.

Alternatively you could have your own survey undertaken by a surveyor specialising in these subjects and present this to any other surveyor / contractor visiting your property with an option to undertake any of the recommedations that specialist surveyor made therein or simply adjust your asking price to reflect those recommendations. For your own piece of mind knowing what is really going on with the property may be helpful under the circumstances. Kindest regards David Aldred Independent damp and timber surveyor

<sebb>

The problem is, your buyers might just be pulling out for personal reasons. Perhaps the boyfriend is having second thoughts about buying with the g/f? (It could be anything really, but I'm just guessing) but if they wont negotiate something you'd be willing to fix at your cost then you have no choice but to put this down to experience and find another buyer. I really find it hard to believe that the damp would be enough to make them pull out altogether without asking for a price reduction. Surely at this point they have spent a good few hundred quid on surveys and solicitors fees and no-one likes to lose that kind of money.

chillbill

Hi David
You don't know how happy I am to hear from you! I had been hoping you would reply when I posted:)

The other half has just given me more info that he gleamed from the damp assessor (despite me having been grilling him for days for every bit of info!)

Apparantly the damp is in the two walls either side of our house running the length of the lounge diner and rises approx meter form the floor.

Do you think getting a specialist round and then doing a damp proof course ourselves would be the way to go, so at least with any future potential buyers we could show them that the work has been done and is under guarantee?

Also given that the house is old with solid stone walls are there typical reasons for the damp?
Thankyou again for your time:)

chillbill

Hey Sebb the meddling boyfriend is not even buying - it is just the girl she loves the house on the second viewing the EA said that she continued to gush about how lovely the house is and that she cannot wait to move in - was working out what would go where etc. The boyfriend however just moaned about the road.

I know that we have lost this sale, but would really like to know all the reasons why so that we can rectify them where possible.

We are thinking of switching EA to the one who is selling the house we want to by - they have seemed more on the ball and it is also in their interest to shift our house as it means 2 sales for them.

I looked on the net tonight and despite our buyers pulling out our house still has sold STC on it.
Thats the only silver lining that she has spent a lot of money but the down side of that is that if we don't find another buyer soon we will also lose money.

Have even considered writing a pleading letter to Alan Sugar or Simon Cowell to ask them to help and buy my house!

David_Aldred

Hi again chillbill,
The choice of whether you have the work done for that all important guarantee is really yours. We can chat about whether such work is justified but I can appreciate your desire to cover any hiccups to a future sale.

If you are going to go down that route ensure the contractor is made to state in writing they will fully comply with BS6576, that the surveyor is CSRT or CTIS CRDS qualified and preferably a member of the Property Care Association (PCA), that the guarantee is insurance backed, able to be transferred to any future owner, that the guarantee covers the workmanship as well as the products used and that the same contractor undertakes both the new dpc and the associated re-plastering.

If the walls are cavity walls that they check / clear cavities of debris to below the lowest dpc level, if floors are solid that they seal the floor / wall joint and if floors are suspended timber that they protect the joist ends from dampness injecting beneath floor joists where appropriate and that they confirm in writing suspended timber floors are able to be maintained at a moisture content under the threshold of decay.

Of course if these readings have been nothing more than condensation / issues other than rising damp it might not be the best £2000 you have ever spent. Kindest regards David Aldred Independent damp and timber surveyor

chillbill

Hi David
House is an old miners cottage mid terrace around 100 years old. Walls are solid stone, and am pretty sure foor is cement - the only bit of carpet I could pull up is in the porch. No idea about suspended floors but as floors are concrete would imagine that this would not be the case?

I have read that the floor could be the problem and that some people have put down a sheet of plastic down which has resolved the damp issue - is this at all likely given description of house?

Think we will go for the specialist assessment, but would be good to be armed with as much info as poss so we have less chnce of being taken advantage of. I have googled damp specialist for our area and it just seems to have come up with the cowboy types who are immediatly talking about damp courses I had been hoping for a website to pop up similar to yours - someone who assess's only. I will check yellow pages tomorrow and checkall the qualifications that you mentioned - thankyou for that very helpful.

David_Aldred

Hi chillbill,
A few questions to help get some background:
The walls that you say have given high readings are these external walls or party walls between you and next door?

How thick are the solid stone walls? Is the outside of the property rendered / painted / re-pointed in cement mortar ?

Has it had any previous damp proof course installed with associated re-plastering as far as you are aware ?

Is there asphalt over the concrete floor ?

Are there any vent bricks to the base of the external walls such as the front elevation ?

Are path levels well below internal floor levels and do they slope towards the property or away from it ?

Are fireplaces in constant use with coal fires or have they been blocked up / changed to other types of fires ?

Is the property double glazed and if so are there vents to the window heads ? Is there any mould growth to outside walls / windows?

Are the properties on either side of yours higher or lower than yours ?

Please go up into the loft and have a look at the mortar within the loft space walls - is this creamy white or grey / dark grey? - the reason for asking to look here will be clear later on.

What type of heating is there to the property?

If central heating does this just come on for a few hours with a simple clock when you get up and same again in the evening?

If you get time drill into one of the problem areas through to the stone - does this stone debris come out like dry powder or steaming mud ?

Sorry for so many questions - kindest regards David Aldred Independent damp and timber surveyor

chillbill

Hi again David thanks for getting back to me:)
No need to apologise for all questions - highlight of my day! am grateful for any help

The walls are party walls and are approx 2-3 foot thick - hard to tell but very thick - we rarely hear our neighbours - one side apologised for his son playing drum and we had heard nothing!

Outside walls are rendered and painted only at fornt of house

When I moved in I had a damp course put in on one of the walls - he said the other was fine and commented that it was agood solid house

asphalt floor - had to google it! I don't think so as concrete is grey

No vent bricks in external walls - only one ground floor in 2 places where chimmney had been blocked up

Path levels front path is even but then slops away back mostly much lower but for one corner where water pools - we have had paint peel on tiny part of internal wall here

Fireplaces x 2 both (very annoyingly) blocked up prior to me buying no other fires

No vents to double glazing - upstairs we did have mould condensation but rectified by keeping bathroom door shut and open window after shower

Attic mortar dark grey and light grey - its very roughly done and is prob very dusty/dirty

Combi boiler 2years old comes on briefly in the morning and then few hours in night

Drilling - when we have tried previously very difficult as solid stone (not breeze blocks) and comes out as fine powder

Hope these answers are enough - both a bit clueless attic one trickiest due to the age of the mortar - very messy and mix up of grey and darker grey/black
Sorry late replying other half hogging computer:)