Damp in home - want to sell

MARTYM8`

martin1959 wrote: »

Just pray that the buyers only have a mortgage valuation as opposed to a survey. They do not normally inspect the roof void on a valuation!

Only an idiot would spend hundreds of thousands(?) on a Victorian property and not do a proper survey. But then many people do more research when buying a washing machine than a house - so who can say.

Its up to the OP' partner if they want to be honest - but given they have had people round who have suggested there is damp the truth will eventually come out. And until you complete/move out you may want to stay on good terms with the buyer.

If there is rising damp there should be evidence of it - particularly in winter. A dehumidifier provides a temporary solution - and some come with anti allergy benefits/clothes drying/heater functions so can be multi purpose.

RealGem

Those electronic damp meters bleep even if you touch your scalp with the metal prongs!

The whole damp proof industry was exposed as largely being a scam on several documentaries in the 90s and noughties.

I agree with ariba10:
dry out the loft with a dehumidifier.

Fredula

I would recommend getting several dehumidifiers and putting them in the rooms (the more, the better), and pump up the heating to dry the walls out as much as you can.

We've actually just had rentokil do our damp proofing - 2 rooms downstairs cost us £3.5k, although more like £4k with VAT added on. They did a really good job though, and we also had them back a couple of weeks later to do a woodworm treatment.

You could always negotiate this in the price, if it comes back on the buyers survey. We negotiated and got 5k taken off of the asking price.

Laz123

It's a long way for rising damp to travel up to the loft. Damp/condensation can occur in lofts if the airflow at the eaves is hampered because it's the airflow that keeps the atmosphere dry.

dampdaveski

It's all very well, putting lots of dehumidifiers in the house and turning up the heating.
If there is 'rising damp' in the walls all you'll do is encourage the salts to migrate to the surface and then they'll crystallize out making the problem 'look' 10 times worse.
Then of course what do you think will happen within a couple of hours of turning them off? yes that's right the internal atmosphere will immediately begin to come back to normal.
As for putting a dehumidifier in the loft?????

Does anyone on here sell dehumidifiers for a living? or have shares in Ebac