Worth Getting a Damp and Timber Survey?

Leo2020

Hi,

We had a home buyers survey done on a property we are looking to purchase.

It is a 3 bed ex-council house with concrete floors built around 1950. When we looked at the house there were no signs of damp.

However, the report has come back with the following:

“High moisture levels detected to extensive areas of ground floor structural wall. Not all external wall surfaces are accessible. Nevertheless, the consistency of readings is sufficient to cause concern. The implications are that the dpc is not performing as intended.

Rising damp causes deterioration to plaster and decoration and can cause decay to timbers. As there are no suspended floor timbers supported by these walls, the vulnerable timbers are skirting boards, door surrounds and staircase timbers. See comments in Section 5.7; no signifiant deterioration of timbers was noted.”

There is also stain in on the ceiling where the boiler is (underneath the bathroom) and the surveyor has recommend getting a timber check because the wall which the stairs are on is affected by high moisture plus the possibility of the bathroom leak having damaged the timbers.

I would like to get a damp and timber survey done, and I have had a few quotes back already. £90 - £150ish so far, so nothing unreasonable. I also said we should speak to the surveyor for more details (haven't done this yet as they recommend to call after 4 p.m.)

My husband however thinks that it might not be worth getting it checked out. I think this has to do with the fact that there was no obvious signs of damp, we looked at a house that had rising damp – and it was really obvious from the water marks/damp walls that there was a problem, combined with the fact that it was raining heavily on that day.

To add if it is just the wall where the stairs are then this is where the downstairs toilet is and also the utility area (well it's just a cupboard with a washing machine and boiler). Plus there is the bathroom against that wall also.

Links for more details:

Damp

Bathroom

Joinery

spikeachu

Any advice on this? Thanks.

Eviesmummy

I lived in a 1950's concrete construction council house and had real problems with condensation, to the point that it made me ill. Obviously rising damp is a whole different issue, but having lived in a damp property and paid the price in terms of my asthma, damage to furnature, carpets, food in the cupboards going mouldy in just a few days, etc etc (and that was with 2 good sized elecrtic dehumidifers running 24/7) I'd be incredibly careful about buying somewhere that could potentilally have a problem. If it was me the money for the searches would be more than worth the peace of mind.

Ours had no signs of damp when we moved in, so it wasn't until I found our carpets and cupboards runined when I moved them out to hoover, that I discoved the problem and realised why my asthma had been so bad that my medication had had to be increased 3 times.

Unitoons

You paid for the survey for a reason so I would take the advice it offers in this instance.
As you are looking at a very minimal cost in the grand scheme of things it would be worth further investigation!

connaught07

I have had a few of these reports done, and the majority are a waste of time. As they cannot / will not take the flooring up or get into the loft/cellar etc but just prod around with the moisture reader.

For the price it is worth doing, if the dpc has an issue then that will be messy and costly.

Leo2020

Having spoken to the surveyor he picked up damp on all the external walls and the party wall. He sounded fairly confident that it was the engineering bricks that were the problem and it need chemical injection DPC and this would mean removing the plaster as it would need to be injected from both outside and in.

He said that as it has a concrete floor that woodwork wise it would be the skirting boards and door frames that would be effected. He said that he could see nothing wrong with these.

He also said that 50% of houses in the area have this problem. It is a very large council estate so that is a fair number of houses. The house we saw previously with damp was also an ex-council house so I am wondering if it is the engineering bricks that was the problem there too. For this reason I don't think I going to right-off the house Eviesmummy just yet because by the sounds of it if we pulled out we could end up offering on another house with the same problem because we are looking on this estate only.

We are going to get a quote for the work/further survey done. After speaking to the surveyor my husband (spikeachu) was more convinced about getting it looked at.

Once we get a report done we will have an idea of costs and can go from there.

Thanks for everyones advice.

teneighty

That is odd. Engineering bricks usually make a very effective damp proof course although bizarrely are prone to penetrating damp.

Leo2020

teneighty wrote: »

That is odd. Engineering bricks usually make a very effective damp proof course although bizarrely are prone to penetrating damp.

I haven't got a clue when it comes to damp unless it is really obvious it is damp - which with this house it wasn't. I have read about the myths of rising damp and damp readers so it could all be wrong. The house was very well maintained, solid oak kitchen, new fire, windows/boiler/radiators replaced within last 5 years or so. If it had a major damp problem then I'm not sure why the vendors would have spent money maintaining/replacing everything else but left something as serious as that. Not that I'm saying that it doesn't have damp but I think a full damp survey is needed to make sure there is damp and if there is what is causing it.

An independent surveyor wants £175 which I don't have problem paying but I just want to make sure it is someone with a good reputation. A lot of the companies I looked are not independent as they provide damp proofing services I just wish I knew someone who had a damp problem so they could give some advice on a local company I can trust.

Leo2020

We had a damp and timber survey done which has come back with no signs of damp. The worst thing he could find was that two roof tiles needed replacing. The stain in the boiler cupboard from the bathroom above was an old stain and there is no current leak.

The surveyor even checked in the loft which I didn't expect as the initial homebuyers survey did not mention damp in the loft. The moisture levels in the timbers is within the normal range.

Glad we had the survey done as it has put our minds at rest but it does make me wonder the value of a homebuyers survey!