Advice

Fuzzythinking

Hi

I have received a letter regarding valuation of the property before I can make a purchase on my first property. Thus I need your advice on few things:

According to the letter, it has been discovered that the ground floor walls and timbers have dampness.

So do you have any idea how much will it roughly cost me?


The second issue - the chimney breasts have been removed and remaining sections be inadequately supported. You may need specialist advice to ensure compliance with statutory requirements.

I am not 100 percent about that but I only assume that the floor is not secured enough? Does involve any fee to carry out survey? How much?

I look forward to hear from you guys

Fuzzythinking

susieb

You can ring a damp company up and they will survey for you , normally for free, but IMHO I dont think it should cost you anythign to fix, I would get the vendor to sort the problems or deduct the costs from your offer. As for the chimney problems, thats sounds more serious and you may need a structural engineer to check.

Jorgan_2

Sounds like someone has removed some of the internal chimney breasts & left other parts, possibley in loft or external chimney without correct support. You will need to get someone in to look at this, a lintle maybe required to support the chimney or the chimney may have to be removed. Worse case, it falls thru to the lower unsupported areas at some time in the future.

Fuzzythinking

Wow....

You see, I never knew the missing chimney breast would be a serious problem. It seems that the chimney breast has been removed in the master bedroom while the living room has it. So it sounds like the roof can collaspe anytime.

!!!!, I wish I have spotted the problem in the first place. In fact, I like that house because it is near to my work and the house has potentials as it needs a lot refurshiment. The price tag isn't that bad either.

Let assume the potential problem has discovered, how much will it cost to repair the strucutre problem?

Estimation would be sufficient

Fuzzythinking

silvercar

Chimney breast can be supported by a gallows bracket. Seller should put this right as you are meant to get a building regs certificate if you remove chimney breasts. Shouldn't be that expensive, depending on the size and vicinity of the chimney breast - couple of hundred?

mi-key

How long is a piece of string ? would depend on the size of the chinmey, weight, what would have been resting on it, what it needs to repair etc... it isnt the sort of thing you can get a set price for without a builder or structural engineer looking at it and working out the exact details.

But, its not going to be very cheap to fix - if you are buying this house you want it done properly by someone who knows what they are doing.

mi-key

;0) - see, this is why you need to get someone in who knows what to do in this specific case, as all we can do as posters on here is give our quick opinion without seeing it.

If it helps, a property I was working on a few years ago had had the chimney breast removed from the lower and upper floors, but it had been left in the attic with no support ( was done by a DIY nut ) - this had caused problems with the attic floor and the roof, both of which needed reinforcing and repairing, and the remainder of the chimney had to be removed for safety - cant remember the exact cost but it came into the thousands as it involved a lot of work fixing the damage it had caused.