Concerns after Homebuyers Report is returned

G_M

Agreed. It's old and built to basic standards. You surely realised that?

You could do nothing and use it as the present owners are doing, or get the wood fixed/replaced, or knock it down and put in a brand new, modern, energy-efficient conservatory with thermostatically controlled skylights to cool it in the sun........

Davesnave

G_M wrote: »

You could do nothing and use it as the present owners are doing, or get the wood fixed/replaced, or knock it down and put in a brand new, modern, energy-efficient conservatory with thermostatically controlled skylights to cool it in the sun........

Exactly what I planned, and I'm doing it right now, 7 years on, but I didn't need a lot of guff from a surveyor to tell me. The only unknown was whether it would fall down before I got around to it!

Some people might try to get a reduction based on such a report, but you have a satisfactory valuation and the fact is that sun rooms do not add much value to houses, so the converse is also true.

cloo

None of those sound like a dealbreaker to me, but you may want to renegotiate, especially around the garden room. An asbestos test by a specialist may be a good idea, especially if you plan building work - we had one as some of the decor was very old and we knew we would be doing structural work. More likely than not you won't have asbestos, but you don't want to find it while altering stuff!

Davesnave

cloo wrote: »

More likely than not you won't have asbestos, but you don't want to find it while altering stuff!

I would say it's more likely that there will be a form of asbestos, but the 'a word' is a complex beast and most of its incarnations are not very scary at all.

Elfbert

bod1467 wrote: »

Artex may contain asbestos? I never knew that. What is the definition (timeline) of "old artex"?

(We used to have artex ceilings in our old house, but I think they were just plaster that was worked. My parents had this done around 1986).

I think post-2000 is when it MAY not contain asbestos anymore? Surprisingly late, anyway.

(And I always thought Artex stood for Asbestos Reinforced TEXtured coating, therefore everyone knew about the asbestos element...but perhaps that's a backronym?)

imran22

Well to be honest looking at the Sun Room I knew it is going to be cold since it did not have any heating but it at least looked good cosmetically. I did not envisaged seeing that the room is state of disrepair.

Davesnave

The interior shot of the sun room doesn't show us much, but the door that's visible dates it to the 1980s.

People often built a basic framework with wood, then infilled with aluminium patio doors, adding a flat roof covered with mineral felt. The whole thing might have cost no more than £1k in materials.

Adequate then, the wooden frame is likely to have rotted by now in key places, so it would probably be throwing good money after bad to re-roof.

I must confess to selling a property with garden room very like that in 2006. The frame was rotting, but I used filler and overpainted it carefully, so it would pass a cursory inspection. I have no idea if my purchaser had a survey, but I suspect not, as she paid the asking price and the garden room was never mentioned.

patman99

The asbestos in artex is considered to be extremely low-risk due to the fibres being sealed by the mixture and therefore highly unlikely to become free-floating.

I had to undertake asbestos training when working for a care home and artex is considered to be the least dangerous form of asbestos, but when drilling or sanding a mask should be used (but then, a mask should be worn when sanding or drilling plaster/drywall/brick/block anyway as the silica dust is just as dangerous).

alumende27

All the ceiling in our current house were artexed and contained asbestos fibres, all being done in the 90's or earlier. We removed the artex from one ceiling safely with X-TEX but it's a messy job. As other rooms have been renovated, we simply opted to get the plasterers to add plasterboard under the artex and fixed it to the joists above. Easy way to solve the issue. This wasn't done because we were concerned about asbestos fibres, I just don't like artexed ceilings.

The dangers are vastly overstated, but don't plan on removing the artex by using a sander to get it off.

I don't know where you read about mortar lasting only 50 years but that's clearly not true. Repointing and repairing brickwork in limited areas (round the windows?) should be a very simple cheap and straightforward job for any competent builder. I will just mention that if it's an older property that has lime mortar instead of cement you should really ensure that lime mortar is used for any repairs too. A builder that refuses to do that isn't one I'd want to use.

imran22

Thank you for the useful advice.

General consensus seems to be that property is valued as is and the surveyor agreed with the price I am paying therefore I should be fine to proceed with the purchase. Am I right?

The general condition of the property inside is good and it does not require any redecoration at present therefore I can ignore the Artex bit until I come round to redecoration in few years. I can then have Asbestos test done before starting the work. Is this approach ok?

Sun Room is worth removing due to its age at some point and maybe replaced with proper conservatory?

Also the report does not highlight any issue that provides basis for re-negotiation?