Damp problem

avisccs

Hi all

I'm hoping to buy a house, but it has a damp problem. This house is an ex-council house built in 1900. The damp is visible at a corner of ground floor of the house, between 2 internal walls. The wall paper of the corner is discoloured and pilling off from the bottom of the wall to about 1 meter from the floor. At about 1.5 meter from the floor, there are some black mould. I did not put my hand on the wall to see how damp it was, and I didn't take the carpet up, so I don't know how bad it is underneath. This corner is where the 2 houses joined. At the external wall, there is a drain at this side of the house but just next to the other house. Thus, the drain is belonging to this house. There is damp mark near the drain and all the way from bottom of the external wall to about 2 meter height from the floor. Because the drain is between 2 houses, the damp mark is on both houses external wall. It is unknown whether this drain is blocked, or even bursed. I know this problem exists for over 6 months, but I suspect it would be much longer than this.
The owner of this house is a 'builder'. So I am expecting a pretty bad problem, which a usual 'builder' cannot fix. My worry is not just the damp, but other problems such as structure problem, like rotten wood under the floor.
I have read a few posts on here and some have suggested that getting a free quote probably won't give me a realistic idea of how much this will cost to fix. And a free quote would probably not investigate any structure problem.

My question is how much this can cost in the worst scenario? We need to spare some money to fix this problem and I want to know how much we need to spare, before putting a deposit down. If we cannot afford it, we need to walk away before spending on surveyor, etc.

Please advice.
Thank you.

avisccs

Any one can give some advice?

Leif

Can you take round a decent ladder and inspect the down pipes and guttering? You could also pop round during heavy rain, and simply view the outside wall. Is rain overflowing? That can be quite obvious.

I noticed that my guttering was overflowing, very badly, soaking external walls. It turned out that a wad of moss had blocked a down pipe, at the top fortunately. Also there were signs of damp, and tanking at the inside wall, at about the same place. It might have been coincidence.

drummer_666

I would say that if anything a free quote will over estimate the amount of work needing doing, because they could potentially say more needs to be done than really does.

the house I bought had rising damp and no damp proof membrane in the kitchen floor. I was quote about £900 for the rising damp (£450ish hacking off & reinstating the plaster, the rest for the actual injections) and £3000 for digging up the floor, laying damp proof membrance and relaying concrete floor.

I used a builder to do the floor with cost me £800
I hacked off the plaster myself, paid damp specialist company £450 for injecting the chemicals and got the builder to do the new plaster for £120ish

some of the companies that I got into quote after I'd bought the house weren't damp specialists and they said that more of the house had rising damp, but the damp specialists said no, that was caused through the downpipe discharging water right outside the wall and it wasn't flowing away, hence making the walls wet.

drummer_666

i suspect you won't be able to tell about the joists under the floorboards, because the surveyors won't lift floorboards if you don't own the house, unless you have permission from the owner and i expect pay the surveyor

my prices are birmingham by the way, i'd expect cheaper further north and more expensive further south

Leif

drummer_666 wrote: »

I would say that if anything a free quote will over estimate the amount of work needing doing, because they could potentially say more needs to be done than really does.

By all accounts these people ignore cheap easy fixes, and suggest the kind that get them an income. They do say you should employ an independent damp specialist, who gets his income from the survey, and not the treatment, so there is no conflict of interest. When I left my last rented flat, the condition survey was done by the same person that did the subsequent cleaning. So minor damage was written off, but the tiniest marks were highlighted e.g. a finger print on a shower panel, a hard to see footprint on a cleaned floor etc. A slight conflict of interest I would say.

avisccs

drummer_666 wrote: »

the house I bought had rising damp and no damp proof membrane in the kitchen floor. I was quote about £900 for the rising damp (£450ish hacking off & reinstating the plaster, the rest for the actual injections) and £3000 for digging up the floor, laying damp proof membrance and relaying concrete floor.

I used a builder to do the floor with cost me £800
I hacked off the plaster myself, paid damp specialist company £450 for injecting the chemicals and got the builder to do the new plaster for £120ish

Thank you very much for the info. The house is in Birmingham, so your info is perfect. I would say 5000 pounds + 2000 pounds for luck should solve the damp problem of the house. I shall also go there on a rainny day to check the drain too.

drummer_666

as you're also in birmingham, Marston Timbers are a good company to get a quote from, they were by far the best damp specialist company that I could find.

Their prices for digging up & relaying the floor were very expensive, but as I said a builder can do that for less. But they were great with the rising damp cost wise and friendly and cleared up after themselves too

http://www.marstontimber.co.uk