Surveyors report - views please

moozie_2

We are in the process of buying a property which has a loft room. The room is used as storage mainly at the moment but we would prefer to use it as a study.

This is an excerpt from the surveyors report which has made us feel quite concerned. Any views/advice on how serious this issue is and what action you'd take, if this was your prospective purchase, would be greatly appreciated. Also, do you think the estimate is realistic or not.

The walls of the loft area formed by the rafters and the vertical walls below the purlins have been clad with plasterboard and are not provided with any means of thermal insulation.

The floor structure of the loft room has been formed by installing 50 x 100mm timber joists on top of the original 50 x 100mm timber ceiling joists and at right angles thereto. The floor is decked with chipboard sheet.
This method of construction is fundamentally unsound and not suitable for domestic floor loads.

The provision of vertical walls below the purlins further exacerbates an already unsound structure alteration.

The 50 x 100mm ceiling joists provided in a property of this age do not meet modern construction standards. They are prone to deflection in use. The additional floor and wall structures that have been provided are supported only on the existing ceiling joists and not directly on any part of the load bearing structure.

Fortunately, the struts supporting the purlins have not been removed and the purlins themselves have been strengthened.

The room, in its present condition, is fundamentally unsound and not suitable for use as habitable accommodation by ? reason of structural deficiency and inadequate access. It is further unlikely that the structural alterations undertaken to provide the existing 'room' have been undertaken with approval under the Building Regulations.

The structure could be upgraded to support the existing loads at moderate cost but this would only render the room suitable for light storage.

In order to provide a structure in the roof space suitable for residential accommodation, it would be necessary to strip out most of the altered parts of the structure and start again at a cost in the region of £15,000.

I'm very grateful for any help as neither of us are experienced with this kind of thing.

Thank you

Doozergirl

It hasn't been carried out as a proper loft conversion, is what he's saying. It can't be classed as a room for resale purposes.

It's been boarded but the beams etc already up there are just the original ones made to support only the weight of the ceiling below those beams (not even the roof) so are not properly load bearing. They will not withstand the weight of furniture and people that make up a 'room'. The roof hasn't been properly insulated either so left open to downstairs, you're going to be losing a massive proportion of the heat going in to the whole house. It's like not wearing a hat in winter when your head is where you lose most heat.

If you start loading it up with stuff, it's possible that the structure of the house would be weakened by the additional weight.

moozie_2

Doozergirl wrote:

It hasn't been carried out as a proper loft conversion, is what he's saying. It can't be classed as a room for resale purposes.

It's been boarded but the beams etc already up there are just the original ones made to support only the weight of the ceiling below those beams (not even the roof) so are not properly load bearing. They will not withstand the weight of furniture and people that make up a 'room'. The roof hasn't been properly insulated either so left open to downstairs, you're going to be losing a massive proportion of the heat going in to the whole house. It's like not wearing a hat in winter when your head is where you lose most heat.

If you start loading it up with stuff, it's possible that the structure of the house would be weakened by the additional weight.

Thank you, that makes it much clearer.

What would you suggest we do? Pull out (which would prefer not to do as we really like the house) or negotiate a price reduction? Is there anyway of knowing whether the £15,000 is a close estimate to the cost for putting it right?

Thank you very much for your help.

Poppycat

Mozzie interesting report. can I ask how old the property is. I have heard new properties are usually not designed for boarding up unless they are strengthened.

moozie_2

Thanks Poppycat.

The property was built in the 1920s. It's a nice 3 bedroom property and although the report included other issues about windows need replacing etc, nothing as concerning as this.

We just don't know how to proceed

silvercar

How crucial is the loft area to you? If you have no immediate use for it then you can improve it at a later stage. If you were intending to put a bedroom in there immediately then I would pause for thought.

In my limited opinion, surveyors always er on the side of caution in estimating costs. I've just had remedial work done that cost half what the surveyor reckoned.

BobProperty

moozie wrote:

Thank you, that makes it much clearer.

What would you suggest we do? Pull out (which would prefer not to do as we really like the house) or negotiate a price reduction? Is there anyway of knowing whether the £15,000 is a close estimate to the cost for putting it right?

Thank you very much for your help.

Right I've read throught this properly now (since tonight appears to be "care in the community" and "!!!!! at anyone" night on this forum).

My guess is £15,000 is on the low side. If you want to do this properly you will have to comply with current building regulations and you may be into hard-wired fire alarms, fire egress windows, fire doors and lots of other things that aren't there at present. Walk away or cut at least £25k off the price.

moozie_2

silvercar wrote:

How crucial is the loft area to you? If you have no immediate use for it then you can improve it at a later stage. If you were intending to put a bedroom in there immediately then I would pause for thought.

In my limited opinion, surveyors always er on the side of caution in estimating costs. I've just had remedial work done that cost half what the surveyor reckoned.

Thank you silvercar. We don't really want to use it as a bedroom although originally we were thinking along those lines.

What we do want to use it for is for a study/reading room to allow us to use the two bedrooms as bedrooms - if that makes sense.

moozie_2

BobProperty wrote:

Right I've read throught this properly now (since tonight appears to be "care in the community" and "!!!!! at anyone" night on this forum).

My guess is £15,000 is on the low side. If you want to do this properly you will have to comply with current building regulations and you may be into hard-wired fire alarms, fire egress windows, fire doors and lots of other things that aren't there at present. Walk away or cut at least £25k off the price.

Thank you BobProperty.

Do you think all those additions/alterations are necessary even though the loft room won't be used as a bedroom but as a study with some storage?

Doozergirl

It really depends on how they are selling the house moozie. If you think you are paying a premium for this extra 'room', then they are misleading you into thinking it is of some quality, which it isn't. They've just boarded it to make it look pretty, which would have cost a few hundred quid, maybe.

If you renegotiate, you should provide them with a copy of the surveyors report (which is damning) and tell them you are only paying the standard price for a 3 bed, 1920s property. They should seriously consider it as they are not going to get it past any surveyor.

You shouldn't use the loft as a room until you have a full loft conversion, which is expensive. £15,000 might cover it. It isn't 'remedial' work.

tomstickland

It basically says that you've got a cheapo conversion that's not really up to the job of supporting the load of a proper room.
People store things in normal lofts, so if you only want it for storage then I wouldn't be too bothered. If you saw the room as a proper room then it'd be different.