Do i buy or run?

Toptom1

Seen a house i love but needs a damp prove course which the owner said they will do before i move in costing them £2k, damp on outside side wall (semi detached) above it is a gutter which is a little loose due to broken bracket i think its related and finally a damp patch on the chimney breast bottom left side in front room and the back room. Not sure if it coming from the chimney as i cant see a top on top of the chimney pot from outside or condensation.

Any suggestions? I can get a damp specialist to come out but will cost money and so would a survey.

Lord_Baltimore

The owners seem keen to unload. Don't consider buying without independent professional advice.

saver78

I think for me it would depend on the cause of damp - if it was clearly from a chimney or from a loose gutter, I would be less concerned as that's ingress of water and you can make the repair and then let the damp dry out.

If it wasn't from there but was rising damp I would be more concerned. I once lived in a house (rented) that had spots of damp all over it but it was rising and had no obvious disrepair causing it. The whole house seemed to suffer from condensation too which in turn made it an uncomfortable atmosphere to be living in.

I suspect a surveyor will report that damp is present and recommend a further report from a specialist - they tend to do that. But a surveyor should (depending on how detailed the survey is) have a dampometer or whatever it is called and should be able to get moisture readings from the walls to give you an idea of how bad or not the issue is.

DRP

I wouldn't let the vendor or their contractors touch it. As previous posters have said, you need a proper diagnosis.

Any work done by damp experts may well be shoddy and ill-conceived with the aim of achieving the sale (for the vendor), or getting the commission (the damp proofing company), rather than fixing the problem.

An example is the (at least) 3 sets of damp-proofing chemical injection holes in my current house (all by previous owners, i should add) in order to cure rising damp. The last set of 'damp-proofing' work comes with a guarantee that was passed to me. Clearly all this work had achieved was to damage some lovely stonework. The place still reeked of damp...


The proper solution was to hire an experienced independent damp surveyor, use a bit of common sense and a lot of elbow grease. Problem now sorted

DRP

Toptom1 wrote: »

Seen a house i love but needs a damp prove course which the owner said they will do before i move in costing them £2k, damp on outside side wall (semi detached) above it is a gutter which is a little loose due to broken bracket i think its related and finally a damp patch on the chimney breast bottom left side in front room and the back room. Not sure if it coming from the chimney as i cant see a top on top of the chimney pot from outside or condensation.

Any suggestions? I can get a damp specialist to come out but will cost money and so would a survey.

it sounds like you have diagnosed the problem yourself.

Fix the gutter first of all.

INvestigate whether the chimney is leaking or whether it is damp due to hygroscopic salts (common problem). Hack off the plaster on the fireplace and allow to dry (if required) before replastering.

This will cost a lot less and be much less disruptive than a chemical DPC injection.

Mickygg

You must get an independent survey. They will more than likely spend minimal to fix the problem, which you can bet will reappear in a few months time.
Get it diagnosed, find out cost then if you are still interested, negotiate off the house cost.

I bought a house with damp that needed repairing. I was in two minds but negotiated off house cost. Turned out fine as it's now not a problem as I had it fixed properly.