Rising damp. A FTBs big problem or exaggerated issue?

lewishardwick

Don't go into the cellar!!:eek:

Hoploz

I hope the surveyor went in to the cellar

DRFC1879

This reminds me of a thread I was reading on here yesterday about murder houses!

fairy_lights

Jasperella wrote: »

Thanks, I'll get questioning the owners! According to my OH he says they told him it was boarded up to help improve insulation in the house, keeping the heat in the downstairs etc. I'll see what I can find out tho!

Surely just closing the door would have done as good a job of insulating the house as permanently boarding it up?
Forget about the damp, I'd be more concerned about what they've hidden down below :eek:

Jasperella

If I remember rightly the entrance to it was in a cupboard under the stairs that they had then boarded up and were using the rest of the entrance space as a storage cupboard!
Oh heck I'm going to have to try and go in it now aren't I..I used to work in an old Victorian house that was converted into a nursery and HATED going down the cellar!
On a more serious note, I bet the surveyor wasn't even aware there was a cellar, it's not obvious it just looks like a general under the stairs messy storage cupboard!!

Haha yes I've seen the how do you know if there was a dead body in your house thread :rotfl:

Hoploz

I'd go back to have a look .... with the surveyor. He hasn't actually surveyed the whole house after all!

pascal22p

Looks like the same from my partner house. under the stairs is now a cupboard but used to be stairs going to the cellar. Cellar has been filled in and concrete floor made on the ground floor years ago.

The house suffers very bad rising damp. The floor under the stairs was not done up to the end and a small wall was made that I knocked down. I discovered that the cellar is filled with rubble and full of water. All that was not visible because the wall have been re-done just before selling. I am very suspicious of re-plastered walls now...

There are plenty of ways to deal with rising damps but there are usually not cheap. I have done chemical injection last year and it's working so far. Although I don't expect it to hold for many years given our situation.

If there is a ventilation somewhere going into the cellar, put a humidity meter next to it. if it reads 90% or more you probably have water in there.

westernpromise

Why is there a general assumption going on that the damp is interior damp? The survey may be referring to exterior damp.

You can check for such damp yourself by making a visual inspection of the brickwork. If damp has penetrated the bricks, then when the weather freezes in the winter, the water locked into the brick will also freeze. Water expands when it freezes, so a brick with damp will show flaking and spalling away of the exterior surface and throughout the brick underneath. This is caused by the expansion of ice inside the brick. The brick has nowhere to go upwards or sideways so it breaks up outwards.

It will then look uneven and pitted compared to adjoining bricks.

It looks like this:
http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/w/images/d/de/BrickFrostDamage.jpg

The white stains are silicate salts which IIRC are caused by the mortar deteriorating. Mortar can also admit damp. Another clue is whether there are flakes of brick visible on the pathway around the house, although if the path is regulalry swept by the owner you won't see these.

Actual rising damp is rare and seen usually where the damp course has failed or a path, terrace etc has been built above its level. You can see the damp course as a band of mortar about an inch wide at the same level all round the house, usually about a foot up.

If the damp is somewhere else then it is likely that the cause is blocked gutters, drains etc and once fixed you don't get a recurrence although individual bricks might need to be chipped out and replaced.

I'd echo the advice not to get a damp proof company's opinion. Asking a damp proof course company if you need damp proofing is a bit like asking a double glazing salesman if you need double glazing, or an insurance salesman if you need insurance.

G_M

westernpromise wrote: »

why is there a general assumption going on that the damp is interior damp? The survey may be referring to exterior damp.
:eek: You mean the outside might be damp? :eek: We'd better start building covers over the tops of our houses to protect the outsides of them from this damp......

........

Actual rising damp is rare and seen usually where the damp course has failed
very rare, and arguably even then, damp won't rise more than a brick or two at most
or a path, terrace etc has been built above its level.
which of course is not "rising damp". It's "penetrating damp". much more common

you can see the damp course as a band of mortar or some other material - mine is slate about an inch wide at the same level all round the house, usually about a foot up.

:t :t

Jasperella

I've now seen the report from the surveyor and I feel so deflated. I feel like it's full of things like we couldn't asses this..but you should get it looked at..or your house will fall down.

Ok it doesn't say that but that's what I feel like after trying to take it all in this morning.

Re: the damp. It says
High damp meter readings were recorded throughout the ground floor as reported previously. The wall plaster in these areas is stained and some condensation was noted in the bathroom...
It is evident that that a damp treatment has been undertaken...[and failed]and goes on to say that these works are urgent.

btw, as for the exterior, the front of the house you can't see the brick work, im sorry I don't know what that's called the stuff that's covering it up?

I'll post some other things the surveyor wrote later in case any one can help me decipher if it's serious stuff or he's just covering himself.

And when I'm back in the UK next week I'll arrange to go see the property and the sellers again perhaps. Do they see s copy of this report too?